Businessman Tony Elumelu has increased his stakes in Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) by about N23 billion to nullify a takeover bid by fellow investor Femi Otedola.

Mr Elumelu acquired 9.69 billion shares through his investment company, HH Capital Limited, which previously held 293.98 million shares in Transcorp.

With his share purchase, Mr Otedola surpassed Mr Elumelu, who held a 2.06 per cent holding at the time and also served as chairman of Transcorp.

This comes a few days Peoples Gazette reported that Mr Otedola became Transcorp Plc’s largest individual shareholder after purchasing 5.5 per cent of the company’s shares at just over N2.2 billion.

About 10 billion units of the company shares was traded following Mr Otedola announced the acquisition.

As of April 25, HH Capital Limited had purchased 9,697,189,984 units of shares, raising their total stake in Transcorp to 9,991,173,177 units, amounting to 25.58 per cent  of the company’s total shares.

It is however unclear whether UBA Nominees, the former Transcorp Plc majority shareholder, will keep all of its shares or cede some to HH Capital Ltd. Mr Elumelu maintains strong hold in UBA, a bank he led as the MD/CEO in the past.