Valentine Okafor
Nigerian billionaires are jostling to take over the Transnational Corporation Plc (Transcorp), assets, a leading Nigerian conglomerate.
Key investors, Tony Elmelu and Femi Otedola are showing capital might to take over Transcorp investments as Nigerians watch the unfolding drama.
The Transcorp has just announced that Heirs Holdings, a special purpose vehicle owned by billionaire investor Tony Elumelu, has acquired 9,697,189,984 units of shares in the company, bringing its total holdings to 9,991,173,177 units or 25.58% of the company’s total shares.
The acquisition was made between April 19 and April 25, 2023, with the purchase of 1,843,008,604 units at N1.85 per share, 6,552 units at N2.45 per share, 16,738,209 units at N2.69 per share, 1,039,399,057 units at N2.95 per share, and 245,876,592 units at various prices.
The move follows the recent acquisition of Transcorp shares by Femi Otedola, who now owns a 5.05 per cent stake in the company. Trade volumes of over 10 billion units have been recorded since Otedola’s announcement, indicating a jostle for shares in the company.
Transcorp Plc also announced that UBA Nominees, the erstwhile majority shareholder of the company, may have had its shareholding crossed over to HH Capital Ltd. It is unclear whether UBA Nominees still retains any stake in the company.
The acquisition by Heirs Holdings further cements Tony Elumelu’s status as one of Nigeria’s most prominent investors, with interests spanning various sectors of the economy.
Transcorp, on the other hand, continues to position itself as a key player in Nigeria’s economy, with interests in power, hospitality, and oil and gas.
Oriental News Nigeria, has curiously followed public analysts interpretation of the
battle for the soul of Transcorp Group after Heir Holdings, owned by Nigerian celebrity billionaire Tony Elumelu, announced at the floor of the stock exchange that his firm has acquired a quarter stake in Transcorp.
The HH Capital Limited acquired 9.7 billion units of Transcorp, bringing their total holdings to 25.6 per cent of the company’s total shares.
According to information in our custody, before now, Femi Otedola had acquired the first 5 per cent of the stake in the company belonging to his friend and brother two weeks ago.
He went ahead last week to increase his stake by acquiring another 1.5 per cent stake in Transcorp, taking his total stake to 6.5 per cent.
We understood from investors comments that Femi will not stop until he takes over Transcorp Group by acquiring 25 per cent of the company and then launch a hostile takeover od the company.
Smartly, Tony Elumelu made his chess move by acquiring 25 per cent of the company that he first bought in 2012.
With this move, Tony now has 36 per cent ownership of Transcorp through direct and indirect means, placing the company firmly in his hands, however, industry watchers believe that Femi Otedola will definitely react to this move.
They said the battle is raging because
Transcorp is a conglomerate that owns the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja and Lagos (the Lagos project is underway)
They own a power plant known as Genco in Ughelli and Afam.
The power plant is the group’s biggest cash-producing asset, as it brought over 410 billion naira to their bottom line last year.
Transcorp Hotel Abuja just brought in N31 billion.
Then the group owns an oil well, OML 19, which they bought from Shell two years ago for $1 billion.
The oil well has yet to start contributing anything to Transcorp’s group top line. The business Transcorp is not doing badly either, as they made a revenue of N442.7 billion in 2022, with a profit of 30 billion naira.
Femi Otedola’s target is the power plant because he owns the Geregu power plant, and he has seen the possibilities and the value creation in that eco-system, and he believes that Tony is not running those power plants as efficiently as he should have.
The Gerugu alone is worth 800 billion naira, while Transcorp, which has two bigger power plants, is worth only N100 billion.
Thus with Otedola’s eyes set on the power plants owned by Transcorp, wants to unlock the true potential of the business.