10 months ago
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First Bank of Nigeria Holdings’ profit at the end of 2023 rose to N309.89bn, which is 127 per cent higher than N136.17bn at the end of the corresponding period in 2022.
This was indicated in its unaudited consolidated financial statements for the period ended December 31, 2023, filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited on Thursday.
During the period under review, the interest income of the lender rose by 66.27 per cent to N917.71bn from N551.94bn in 2022. Fee and commission income also appreciated to N204.90bn from N143.98bn in the previous year.
FBNH suffered N350.32bn loss in foreign exchange at the end of 2023 compared to a gain of N22.39bn in 2022.
Over 12 months, the total assets of FBN Holdings grew by 59.73 per cent to close at N16.89tn from N10.58tn as of December 2022. It’s liabilities also rose to N15.19tn from N9.58tn.
In 2023, Group entities paid penalties. FBN Holdings Plc. paid penalties of N9.60m and N4.55m to NGX Regulation Limited and Securities and Exchange Commission respectively for late submission of 2022FY audited financial statements and Q1 2023 unaudited financial statements.
Another entity in the group, FBNQuest Merchant Bank, also paid a penalty of N3m to SEC for breach of transaction rules and N0.11m to FMDQ for late filing of deferral requests on behalf of its client.
Meanwhile, FBN Holdings has listed Barbican Capital linked to its former chairman, Oba Otudeko, as its largest shareholder with 13.61 per cent stake.
This comes a day after the board of directors of the financial group appointed billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, who held 5.65 per cent stake, as its chairman.
On July 7, 2023, FBN Holdings in a statement said that the company received a notification from Honeywell Group Limited that its affiliate, Barbican Capital Limited, “has acquired an aggregate of 4,770,269,843 units of shares from the company’s issued share capital of 35,895,292,791, (35.89 billion) as at the above-referenced date.
“Based on the foregoing, the equity stake of Barbican Capital Limited in the company is 13.3 per cent.”
Both Honeywell Group and Barbican Capital are linked to Otudeko.
Otudeko’s share acquisition elicited reactions from the stakeholders in the capital market with minority shareholders calling for a probe by the regulators. The Securities and Exchange Commission has said that it was investigating the deal but never revealed its findings.
The Central Bank of Nigeria removed Otudeko in April 2021 as FBNH’s non-executive director/chairman and sacked the board under him over noncompliance with regulatory control.
