Maro

[Rufybaba @Rufyb]

What is happening here is a clean-up of an old ownership mess. All these posts I am seeing about capital raises are misleading. There is a backstory to it.

The backstory is the Otudeko-Otedola tussle. Oba Otudeko’s Barbican Capital and Tunde Hassan-Odukale’s Leadway camp held a combined 10.4bn shares (about 23% of First HoldCo). In July 2025, they exited in a single off-market block trade. ₦31.0 per share, which was roughly ₦323bn.

The problem then was that no one could sensibly absorb a quarter of a systemically important bank in one go. There are regulatory limits on single ownership, plus dropping that much stock on the open market would have hammered the price.

So Renaissance Capital did what investment banks do. They created an SPV called RC Investment Management. The SPV served as a bridge or warehouse. That warehouse held the shares on a temporary basis while approvals were sorted, with the understanding that the block would eventually be distributed to the wider market.

With CBN and SEC approvals obtained, RC Investment is selling the 10.4bn shares down on the NGX at ₦110 per share, which is about ₦1.15 trillion (though headlines are rounding it to ₦1.4trn.. Iono why).

The stock has been trading around ₦130, so the block is going out at roughly a 15% discount; therefore, a lot of investors would naturally be interested.

The thing to note here is that this is a secondary sale. The proceeds go to the selling entity, not into First HoldCo’s balance sheet. The bank is not issuing any shares and gets no new capital. Some coverages are muddling this and mixing it up with the separate recapitalisation story.

What matters strategically for First HoldCo is that it removes a massive ownership overhang that has been hanging over the stock for over a year. It also broadens the free float, improves liquidity, and settles the control question.

Who is the selling entity?

The seller of record is RC Investment Management Limited - the SPV itself. It is the registered holder of the 10.4bn shares, so it is the entity crossing the block on the NGX and receiving the proceeds. Not First HoldCo, and not Otudeko or Hassan-Odukale, who already cashed out at ₦31.0 back in July 2025.

Who sits behind RC Investment is the part “no one” really knows. It was incorporated in Nigeria in 2023 and the person with significant control is listed as Samuel Babatunde Sule, CEO of Renaissance Capital Africa. But most likely, that is an investment bank fronting for its clients.

If RC bought at ₦31 and is now selling at ₦110, the gain is ₦820bn, which naturally should flow to the “promoters or financiers” of the SPV. However, no one knows the economic terms behind the entire arrangement. But whoever held on to the risk through that period expects to benefit from the return.

Small deviation: why did Leadway sell?

Leadway’s slice was 2.3bn shares of about ₦71bn. Their piece was smaller, and three things possibly motivated their decision to sell.

✑ They needed to raise capital for their insurance business (re: NIIRA 2025). They were also buying PAL Pensions (to merge with their existing pension business) to become a top-three PFA. Hence, they needed the balance sheet room. Since Otedola had taken control, a passive minority stake in a bank they did not control was a poor use of capital when you have a regulatory capital requirement to meet and a sector-consolidating acquisition on the table.

✑ The second is that the strategic case for holding First HoldCo. had collapsed. Hassan-Odukale had been a long-standing insider at First Bank until Otedola came. Once you are no longer the controlling shareholder or influential on the board, you are just holding a large illiquid position with governance risk attached and no seat at the table.

✑ The third is that there was a very good opportunity to exit. The warehouse structure gave both sellers a single, clean, off-market exit. The opportunity does not come around often for a position of that size, so they took it together.

Why did Otudeko sell?

Otudeko’s exit was a different and very complicated one entirely. Leadway’s decision was a “portfolio-driven” and “capital allocation” one, while Otudeko was pushed.

The core of it is that he had already lost the institution. He chaired First Bank from 2009 and First HoldCo from 2012 until the CBN dissolved both boards in April 2021 over corporate governance breaches. Then you had EFCC, Ecobank, and all coming for him.

It was a tough battle for Otudeko, while under criminal charge (EFCC), under CBN sanction, and with creditors (Ecobank) circling his collateral. He sold because he possibly ran out of options.

[Maro @Maahro]

Would it be an impossible mission to just fuck off my TV??

[Maro @Maahro]

Lookman will be tired right now 😂

[The Touchline | 𝐓 @TouchlineX]

🚨🚨 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚: An Italian woman has revealed horrifying DMs from Atletico Madrid player Matteo Ruggeri.

• The video shows Ruggeri paying women to send him blasphemous and racist voice messages insulting Black people and other minorities in a sensual voice.

• He then masturbat*d to them, recorded himself, and sent the audio back.

[Pride🌟 @Biggest_Pride]

If you no wan take risk close shop nau

Which one be 50m profit on one car

If no be Nigeria wey no get strict rules😂

[HOV_DID🐻 @_HOV_DID]

this will be forever a masterpiece🔥🐐

[Fatima @Fatymaa_A]

They’ve finished using many of the green areas in Abuja to build houses. Now the whole city is like an oven

[ἐκον βρω @EconBreau]

Socialism is the theory that if you abolish profit, bread will somehow bake itself out of moral superiority.

[Maro @Maahro]

We own Manchester!
We own London!!

[Non-Fungible Frank @frank_ikemefune]

Classism in Nigeria is just poverty with a microphone..

[Maro @Maahro]

What is this commentary?? 😂

[Maro @Maahro]

Ugarte and Dorgu have no business playing football.

[kris ᥫ᭡ saw bts! ⊙⊝⊜ @krismadarame]

If you don’t get this, we can’t be cool anymore. I’m sorry. I don’t make the rules.

[Maro @Maahro]

Their only offense was coming to work to make a decent living. These were not just ex-colleagues but actual friends. I’m so angry right now because this could’ve been prevented if you genuinely cared about the people who work their asses off to put you on that damn Forbes list.

[Dr. Temidayo Oniosun @TemidayoOniosun]

It’s only if you travel within Europe you will think like this. Go to the Middle East and the US and your passion for money will be renewed.

[Stephen @ScFidelis]

GTCO welcomes you all to the new world of price discovery.

Ladies & Gentlement, GTCO @ ₦103. History made and affirmed!

[Olumide Adesina @olumidecapital]

People not dogs are used for exit liquidity in financial markets, may you not be used as breakfast

[Pardon My Take @PardonMyTake]

Big boy grilling on the roof 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[apple biscuit🀄🌸💋 @applebiscuit4]

Being able to notice that a celebrity unfollowed another celebrity is some seriously jobless behaviour

[Maro @Maahro]

Buying a house to live in, with your first bulk money is wild mehn. 😂

[Maro @Maahro]

Financial literacy is a problem in Nigeria. ‘Opening a small business’ is the only way people think they can grow their income.