Fakoyejo Olalekan
Awele Elumelu, the wife of the chairman of Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) Plc, Tony Elumelu, has acquired more shares in the company.
She acquired 7.30 million shares in the Nigerian stock market in six transactions completed on June 5, 2023, according to a corporate document released on Tuesday.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelPrime Business Africa gathered from the document obtained from the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) that the transactions cost her N22.02 million.
Prior to these transactions, Awele had acquired 2.06 billion shares on May 2 and May 5, 2023, which were valued at N6.43 billion.
The recent acquisitions increased her total stake in Transcorp Plc to 5.09 per cent, inching higher from 5.07 per cent, as the volume of the shares rose to 2.07 billion, worth N6.66 billion, from 2.06 billion shares.
Meanwhile, the chairman of Transcorp had also purchased 11.69 billion shares this year, all of which were acquired in April to fight off Femi Otedola’s quest to become the majority shareholder of the company.
Ever since Otedola made a play to take control of Transcorp in April, both Awele and Elumelu have been acquiring shares to keep their control of the firm.
Recall that Otedola bought a 6% majority stake in Transcorp to unseat Elumelu as the majority investor in the company in April, but Elumelu immediately increased his stake from 2.05% to over 25% controlling stake to reclaim the position.
After a back and forth between both businessmen, Otedola sold his shares in the company to Elumelu. He later disclosed that he offered to buy Transcorp for N250 billion, but the offer was rejected.
“I offered to buy Transcorp Plc for N250 billion, but unfortunately, my offer was rejected. My goal was to maximize the company’s potential as a Nigerian conglomerate with a market cap of at least N2 trillion instead of the current N40 billion, but it seems some shareholders have a different vision.
“As a businessman, I believe in healthy competition and market dynamics. Two captains cannot man a ship, and I respect the majority shareholder’s decision to buy me out. This is the nature of the game,” Otedola wrote a month ago.
