Otudeko demands dismissal of Ecobank’s petition against shares acquisition in FBN Holdings

Business A.M 

Oba Otudeko, chairman of Honeywell Group, has called on First Bank Nigeria (FBN) Holdings to dismiss Ecobank’s request to reject his acquisition of 4.77 billion shares worth N87 billion over an allegation of a Supreme Court judgment backing its stance that the entrepreneur was owing them the sum of N13.5 billion.

Wole Olanipekun & Co, the legal representatives of the former FBN Holdings chairman, denied Ecobank’s claims in a letter dated July 10, 2023, and addressed to the managing director FBN Holdings.

The law firm argued, “Whereas, the letter falsely alleges that there was a decision of the Supreme Court in SC/CV/210/2021 made on 27th January, 2023 “affirming the indebtedness” of our clients and that the decision also”commanded” our above stated clients to perform certain acts, neither Dr. Oba Otudeko, CFR nor Honeywell Group PIc was a party to the Supreme Court decision/proceedings and no order was made against them.

“Thus, the further statement in the letter that “…the actions being taken by Dr. Oba Otudeko is (sic) … in order to frustrate the enforcement of the judgment of the Supreme Court against him” is without any factual or inferential basis arising from the express terms/contents of the judgment.

According to the letter,Ecobank had no counterclaim right from the Federal High Court through to the Supreme Court and, naturally, the Supreme Court could not have, and, indeed did not grant or award any claim in favour of the bank.

Wole Olanipekun & Co,therefore, urged FBN Holdings to ignore and decine all the requests contained in Ecobank’s letter.

“As you are aware, the duties of the Chief Executive Officer of a financial institution are statutory and they do not extend to the various actions Ecobank’s letter requested you to perform, including but not limited to intervention in transactions between third parties on the Nigerian Exchange,” the letter added.

Recently, Oba Otudeku, through his affiliate, Barbican Capital Limited, purchased a total of 4,770,269,843 units of FBN Holdings’ shares. The acquisition  brought the stake held by the investor to 13.3 per cent of the  35.9 billion shares issued by the company,making Otudeku the majority shareholder.

The deal, however, took a dramatic turn few days later when Ecobank wrote a letter to FBN Holdings, asking the bank to reject the Otudeko’s bid to become the company’s largest shareholder.

Ecobank claimed that Honeywell, owned by Otudeko, owes it a debt of N13.5 billion, adding that the debt was affirmed by the supreme court on January 27, 2023.

Ecobank further alleged that the Supreme Court had in its judgment on January 27 2023, in Appeal No SC/CV/210/2021, affirmed the indebtedness of several companies related to Otudeko and ordered the companies to pay their indebtedness to the bank.