Herbert Wigwe Acquires More Access Bank Shares To Avoid Elumelu-Otedola Scenerio

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In an apparent move to avert a scenario that played out between Tony Elumelu and Femi Otedola over Transnational Corporation’s ownership, Access Bank Holdings Plc Chairman, Herbert Wigwe, has rushed for more shares in the corporation.

Access said on Friday that Wigwe has secured additional 567,594,142 shares at N10 per share indirectly through Tengen Holdings Mauritius Limited.

The transaction amount is about N5.67bn spend by Wigwe to solidify his shareholding control in the corporation.

As of December 2022, Wigwe owns 201,231,713 direct shares and another 1,554,369,047.

Wigwe controls the indirect shares vehicles: United Alliance Company of Nig Ltd- 537,734,219 shares; Trust and Capital Limited- 584,056,979 shares and Coronation Trustees Tengen Mauritius where he controls 432,577,819 shares.

With the new 567,594,142 shares acquired, Wigwe has increased his stake in Access Holdings to 2,323,194,902 shares.

Wigwe now controls 6.53 per cent of the 35,545,225,622 issued shares of Access Holdings.

According to the register of members at 31 December 2022, Stanbic Nominees Nigeria Ltd was the only shareholder that held more than 5 per cent of the issued share capital of the Corporation.

Stanbic Nominee held 3,9112,841,010 shares which is equivalent of 11.01 per cent of Access Holdings shares.

“Stanbic Nominees held the shares as custodian for various investors. Stanbic Nominees does not exercise any right over the underlying shares. All the rights reside with the various investors on behalf of whom Stanbic Nominees carries out the custodian services,” the bank had said in its 2022 accounts.

Otedola and the Chairman of Transnational Corporation, Elumelu had started a battle for control of the corporation after Otedola bought 6.2 per cent of the company’s shares.

Otedola first bought 2,245,639,251 which amounts to 5.52 making him the highest individual shareholder in Transcorp and displacing Elumelu.

In a swift move, Elumelu acquired additional 9,697,189,984 shares elevation his total shares to 9,991,173,177 units, representing 25.58 per cent of the Company’s shares.

The company further disclosed on Friday that Elumelu has mopped up additional 1,999,784,173 shares in Transcorp through HH Capital Limited.

It is believed that the latest shares acquired by the Transcorp boss were shares belonging to Otedola who has exited the corporation after a deal was reached between the contending parties.