Chairman of First HoldCo Plc, Femi Otedola, has attributed First HoldCo’s revenue decline in 2025 to a deliberate N748 billion one-off impairment, taken to scrub up legacy dangerous loans and strengthen the bank’s stability sheet
This clarification was made by Otedola in a press release shared on his X web page.
The reason comes after the corporate’s 2025 monetary outcomes revealed a pointy drop in pre-tax revenue, regardless of robust underlying curiosity earnings, prompting questions from traders concerning the well being of the enterprise.
What Otedola mentioned
In line with Otedola, the steep earnings decline displays a strategic balance-sheet clean-up reasonably than weak enterprise efficiency.
“At First HoldCo we determined to scrub home correctly. We took an enormous one time hit of N748bn to confess outdated dangerous loans as a substitute of pretending they don’t exist. That’s the reason revenue appears prefer it crashed by 92%. Painful headline, however it’s a critical long-term transfer,” he mentioned.
Explaining the timing, Otedola mentioned the transfer was pushed by regulatory course and a shift in trade expectations.
“Why do that now? As a result of the CBN is pushing banks to cease kicking issues down the street. So First HoldCo mainly closed the chapter on messy loans from previous years which sends a transparent message that borrowing has penalties and it helps rebuild belief.
“The important thing level is that this: our enterprise itself is STILL robust. It made N2.96tn in curiosity earnings and N1.91tn in web curiosity earnings, which gave it the power to take the clear up and nonetheless keep standing,” he mentioned
Wanting forward, Otedola mentioned First HoldCo is getting into 2026 lighter, cleaner, and higher ready for the recapitalisation period and sustainable progress.
“Dangerous loans cleared + robust earnings engine + long run considering = actual worth creation,” he added
Backstory
In line with BusinessTimes report, the firm additionally lately launched its unaudited 2025 monetary statements, reporting a pre-tax revenue of N229.097 billion, down 71.18% from N796.461 billion in 2024, and a revenue after tax decline of 93.36%, explaining the sharp drop regardless of robust underlying operations.
The inventory closed at N45 on January 30, 2026, down 2.5% on the day and bringing the year-to-date loss to six.05%.
- Mr. Femi Otedola elevated his stake in First HoldCo Plc to 18.12% in 2025, making him one of many group’s largest shareholders after accumulating 3.82 billion further models.
- In line with the submitting, Otedola now holds a complete of 8.05 billion First HoldCo shares, marking a year-on-year enhance of over 90% from 4.23 billion models, or an 11.8% stake in 2024.
The transfer locations him amongst solely two shareholders with holdings above 5%, alongside RC Funding Administration Restricted, which controls a 23.47% stake. The monetary assertion reveals Otedola held 3.25 billion direct shares (7.31% stake) as of December 2025, up from 1.68 billion shares (4.71%) in 2024. His oblique shareholding additionally rose sharply to 4.80 billion models (10.81%), in contrast with 2.54 billion models (7.09%) in 2024.
Stand up to hurry
The Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) recapitalisation train is likely one of the most vital banking reforms in recent times, designed to strengthen banks’ stability sheets and place Nigerian lenders to compete globally.
Underneath the train, industrial banks with worldwide authorisation have been required to lift their capital base to N500 billion, whereas banks with nationwide licences wanted to achieve N200 billion.
In November 2025, the CBN reported that 16 banks had already met its recapitalisation necessities, positioning them forward of the March 2026 deadline. Some listed banks which have met the edge embrace Access Bank, Zenith Bank, GTBank, Wema Bank, Jaiz Bank, and Stanbic IBTC.
First HoldCo Plc introduced earlier in 2025 that its subsidiary, First Bank of Nigeria Restricted (FirstBank), had efficiently met the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) minimal regulatory capital requirement of N500 billion.
What you must know
BusinessTimes has reported that Nigeria’s banking sector skilled a renewed rise in non-performing loans (NPLs) in 2025 after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ended the regulatory forbearance that had allowed banks to restructure pandemic-affected loans with out classifying them as impaired.
- The transfer has pushed the trade’s NPL ratio to an estimated 7%, surpassing the prudential restrict of 5%, signalling rising stress on lenders.
- The CBN defined that the rise displays the crystallisation of beforehand restructured amenities that not qualify for particular consideration.
- The apex bank has cautioned that persistently excessive NPLs may undermine profitability and cut back credit score availability except banks strengthen their risk-management frameworks.
