The Pension Commission of Nigeria has issued a statement clarifying who are the actual direct or indirect beneficiaries of shares of FBNH currently owned by Leadway Pensure.
Recall, FBNH issued a press release in October claiming one of its directors, Mr. Tunde Odukale had informed the bank that his direct and indirect ownership in FBNH had increased to 5.36% having assigned Leadway Pensure shares in FBNH to himself as indirect holdings.
However, Pencom reportedly issued a statement debunking this claim, clarifying that ownership of pension funds is that of pension fund contributors and no one else. Thus, it cannot be added to cumulative shares of any shareholder or related party who may be claiming it as part of their indirect ownership of the bank.
The Commission categorically states that the allegations are not correct and must have been made based on the lack of understanding of the investment regulation issued by the Commission.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Commission wishes to clarify as follows: The equity investments in FBN Holdings made by Leadway Pensure Ltd on behalf of the pension funds under its management are in the name of the pension fund and belong to the RSA.
Therefore, the equity investments in FBN Holdings Plc as stated in (1) above, cannot be appropriated or classified as shareholdings of any related party to the PFA.
Records which can be confirmed from the Securities and Exchange Commission show that the equity investments in FBN Holdings Plc are in the name of the Pension Fund on behalf of the RSA holders.
The Commission restates its commitment to fulfilling its regulatory and supervisory functions as well as ensuring the safety of pension assets and the soundness of the Pension Industry.
The statement from PenCom now means the shares owned by pension fund contributors in Leadway Pensure cannot be assigned to Odukale as part of his indirect holdings.
According to the information contained in the statement published by FBNH, the Leadway Pensure shareholdings added about 861.8 million shares or 2.41% of the 1.92 billion shares (45% of the 5.36% claims) wrongly assigned as total shareholding (direct and indirect) to Mr. Tunde Odukale.
Thus, Mr. Odukale’s shareholding in FBNH is 1,061,712,022 units, which is technically 2.95% of the total shares in FBNH (35.8 billion shares) meaning his total direct and indirect shareholding is not up to 5% which had been the case for all shareholders of the bank as of the financial statement for the period ended June 30th, 2021.
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