It has been all over the news that one of Nigeria’s richest men, Femi Otedola has bought into the Nigerian conglomerate, Transcorp Plc.
Transcorp Plc announced on Thursday that Otedola has 2,245,639,251 shares and now owns a 5.52% stake in the group.
Transcorp Company Secretary, Funmi Olofintuyi, filed the notice with Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) and announced that it welcomed the move.
The rumuors and eventual disclosure has seen massive trading of Transcorp shares on the NGX) since last week wit attendant jumps in the share price of Transcorp Plc.
The share price has seen maximum daily jumps (10%) for the last five trading days. The shares are now trading at N2.45 as of Thursday, April 20.
However, Transcorp Plc had long been in the control of Nigerian Billionaire, Tony Elumelu with a near monopoly control of the group through direct share and proxy holdings. Elumelu, is also the Chairman of United Bank For Africa PLC (UBA), which is one of the country’s biggest lenders.
The share price of the group had seen very little movement for years until the announcement of the move by Otedola. Could the share price movement upwards be a sign of confidence in the ability of Otedola to shake things up at Transcorp Plc?
The question is why is Otedola moving into Transcorp? Otedola is already the Chairman of Geregu Power Plc, which is a power generating company.
Transcorp group has its hands in hospitality, power generation and oil and gas exploration and production.
The potential synergies are clear on the path of Otedola, but how is he going to make it work?
Whatever he is planning to do will not go unchallenged by the Tony Elumelu bloc, which will now have to share control and decision making with Otedola.
