Tony Elumelu Swings Into Action To Avoid UBA Takeover, Acquires N560m In Shares

Once Bitten, twice shy, Tony Elumelu swings into action to avert UBA’s takeover, as he acquires N560m worth of shares to sustain his chairmanship of the bank.

BrandNewsDay reports that Elumelu, the Chairman of Heirs Holding, has invested a whopping sum of N560 million to increase his shares in United Bank for Africa (UBA).

This was revealed in a notice sent to the Nigerian Exchange Ltd. on Thursday, as later obtained by Brand News Day Nigeria.

Checks showed that in the register of shareholders as of December 31, 2022, Elumelu controls the shares of UBA held by HH Capital Limited, 140,843,816; Heirs Holdings Limited, 1,814,003,900; and Heirs Alliance Limited, 231,086,468 summing 2,185,934,184 shares.

Notably, no shareholder holds more than 5 per cent of the share capital of the bank except Heirs Holdings Limited, 1,814,003,900, or 5.30 per cent.

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But the Elumelu, through HH Capital Ltd., got an extra 70,000,000 shares at N8 per share. The investor spent N560 million on the deal.

With the deal, Elumelu’s shares through HH Capital had risen to 210,843,816. His total shareholding in UBA is now 2,255,934,184.

Elumelu controls Heirs Holdings, a conglomerate that controls big names like UBA, Transnational Corporation, Transcorp Hotel, Transcorp Power, Heirs Oil and Gas, and United Capital Plc, among others.

The decision to acquire more of the shares might simply be linked to the recent ownership tussle that transpired between Elumelu and the Chairman of Geregu Power, Femi Otedola.

Otedola had taken over Transnational Corporation when he acquired a whopping 2.6 billion units of shares, or 6.3 per cent, of Transcorp, becoming the highest individual shareholder.

Elumelu forced Otedola out of Transcorp when both parties entered negotiations for Otedola to exit after a landmark deal.

But in reaction, Elumelu, through HH Capital Limited, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) owned by him, acquired 9,697,189,984 units of shares, bringing its total holdings in Transcorp Incorporated to 9,991,173,177 units raising it above the 6.3 per cent obtained by Otedola.