Despite a significant sell pressure witnessed in Nigeria’s stock market last week, shares of Transcorp Plc rose 45 per cent after one of the country’s prominent billionaire, Femi Otedola acquired a 5.52 per cent stake in the company.

Transcorp had on April 18, denied receiving any formal notification of any relevant interest in its shares. In a notification sent to the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), the company said, “Transcorp notes the recent media reference to the acquisition of shares in the company. Whilst the company has not yet received a formal notification of any relevant interest in its shares, Transcorp, Nigeria’s largest conglomerate welcomes every new shareholder acquiring shares in the company.

We welcome the expression of confidence in the leadership and management of Transcorp Plc as we continue our unwavering commitment to superior stakeholder returns anchored in our ideology of Africapitalism”.

However, the company in another notification dated April 20, 2023 sent to the NGX, announced that in compliance with Chapter 17, Rule 17.13 of the NGX Issuers Rules, Transnational Corporation Plc, it has acquired the shares in the company. Otedola has holdings of 2,245,639,251 or 5 per cent in the company.

As a result of the news, Transcorp (+9.87%) maintained the position of the most sought after stock throughout the week and led the volume chart with 240.55 million units traded.

Meanwhile, the local bourse witnessed other subdued performances despite closing marginally higher on three out of the four trading sessions last week. Sell pressure in MTNN resulted to the negative sentiment in the market as the All-Share Index shed 1.08 per cent w/w, with the Month-to-Date (MTD) and Year-to-Date (YTD) returns settling at -5.3 per cent and +0.2 per cent re, respectively.