Access Holdings: Herbert Wigwe increase ownership stake to 8.8%

Dr Herbert Wigwe, the Group Managing Director and co-founder of Access Holdings, has been buying more shares of the bank since April 2023. He has spent an estimated N14.5 billion on these shares.

Wigwe’s stake in Access Holdings is spread across several entities that hold direct shares in the company. Just last week, his Tengen Holdings (Mauritius) Limited acquired an additional 50 million shares worth N762.5 million in the company.

This acquisition took place on June 26th, 2023, when Tengen Holdings purchased 50,000,000 units of Access Holdings Plc at N15.25 per share. This is the latest in a series of share purchases by Wigwe and his entities.

The purpose of these share purchases is not yet clear, but it is possible that Wigwe is trying to increase his control over Access Holdings. It is also possible that he is simply trying to make a profit by buying shares at a low price and selling them at a higher price in the future.

This information can be found in an insider’s notification of share dealing to the Nigerian Exchange Limited that Nairametrics has access.

The 50 million shares purchased represent 0.14% of the company’s total outstanding shares. This brings Wigwe’s direct and indirect ownership of Tengen Holdings’ total shareholdings to 3.1 billion shares and his Tengen Holdings’ total shareholdings to 1.8 billion.

Increase in shareholdings

Tengen has been increasing its shareholdings since December doubling from about 432,577,819 units of shares as of December 31, 2022, to 1,819,750,593 units by our estimates between April and June 2023.

• The total amount of shares bought since April 2023 is valued at about N14.2 5 billion
• Wigwe also has an indirect interest in United Alliance Company of Nig Ltd and Trust and Capital Limited with shares of 537,734,219 and 584,056,979 respectively.
• Consequently, Wigwe’s indirect holdings now stand at 2,941,541,791 units of shares from 1,554,369,017 as of December 31, 2022.
• His direct holdings remained at 201,231,713 units of shares. 

According to Nairametrics, Wigwe and his entities are now the bank’s single largest shareholder with about 8.8% of its total shareholding structure

• Stanbic Nominees held stakes of 11% as of December 2022, the only entity with over 5% stake according to information in its audited accounts.
• Combined Wigew and his entities own about 3.1 billion shares. Wigwe shares joint ownership with former MD/CEO and co-founder of Access Bank, Aig Imokuede.

More News On RNN

Czech Republic seeks easy access to Nigeria’s oil, gas

Airtel launches 5G network access

Amid Divorce: OAP Do2dtun Calls Out Ex-Wife For Denying Him Access To His Kids

Sanlam and aYo partner to make insurance more accessible for Nigerians