UBA was captured, and Tony Elumelu became the golden boy while Okumagba was the engine room; the enforcer and the brain behind that massive market event
By Duke of Shomolu
It was late evening at the old BGL office in Victoria Island, Lagos. Abagbon Close was a beautiful bungalow. It was where BGL and Albert Okumagba held sway.
We were asked to hang around. A big meeting was about to take place. We knew it was about the impending takeover of the giant, United Bank for Africa (UBA) by the relatively smaller Standard Trust Bank (STB).
Tony Elumelu walked in. He was in black T-shirt and came with police escorts all armed. He wasn’t yet the Tony Elumelu of today with all the James Bond moves, but even at that time, you could tell he loved style and looking good.
The meeting was upstairs, and we, the junior ones, were asked to remain in our positions and be on standby. Our job was to provide secretarial backup amongst others.
Albert Okumagba loved this. He was born for this. He was bold, intelligent, brash, and fearless. He once told me,’ Edgar, the market will punish incompetence’ how prophetic those words after the events of the last 24 hours.
UBA was captured, and Tony Elumelu became the golden boy while Okumagba was the engine room; the enforcer and the brain behind that massive market event.
BGL went on to work on other phenomenal transactions, like Access Bank, Intercontinental Bank, the Dangote IPO, which was the biggest ever as at the time, and this same Transcorp, amongst others. While Tony Elumelu reigned at UBA, Albert Okumagba became a god in investment banking. He was instrumental in most major transactions and built the firm from a small investment banking outfit to the biggest ever in the market.
Despite all of his commitments and movements, Tony Elumelu’s UBA was his baby. He protected the stock, strategized to maintain control, and was a market maker.
I remember one day, we were in a prop trading meeting, and we were all very worried about our holdings in UBA, the stock was on a free fall. I think it had hit its plateau plummeting from its N60 mark and trading at the N10 levels. We had to make a hard decision. Our exposure to the stock was huge, and something had to be done. We had to cut losses and run. It was the reasonable thing to do.
Albert Okumagba walks in at that moment, and as we try to feebly explain, he screamed – oga buy more. Buy!!!! And we all looked at ourselves and the traders bought.
Tony Elumelu’s UBA was safe as long as Albert Okumagba was his adviser. His strength was being able to put together the most brilliant team across the investment banking spectrum and open them up almost exclusively to Elumelu’s UBA.
Chibundu, the hardworking GDMD, led the brilliant relationship management team. Chibundu held down the relationships with regulators, strategic teams within the UBA and Heirs Holdings enclave, and very importantly, market makers who could make or break the price. The trading team had the suoer brilliant Tony Nwozor. Oh, my God, Tony Nwozor understood the market more than any broker alive. He could predict pricing and was a wonder on the floor. Watching Nwozor trade was a marvel. He will scream oh my God, once he makes a killing and jumps up once the market moves against him.
Sunday Adebola was a genius. He supported Tony Nwozor. Sunday was a winch in trading. Kai. Then Ashley in props was the one who warehouses the shares and kept a close watch on its health. On the advisory side, geniuses like Ewouoso, Henry Lariyetan, Dr. Chris, Kayode Fadahunsi, Victor Enahoro and a host of others including Andre all at one time or the other gave advisory backing to the UBA matter at BGL. Albert Okumagba was Commander-in-Chief. He closely marked the relationship and made sure nothing happened to that stock as long as he was alive.
Today, Albert Okumagba will be shifting in his grave as he would be told by his man Cornelius Oboh of the beating that his beloved UBA just got from Femi Otedola. When Femi Otedola and Aliko Dangote had a massive problem, it was Albert and Nduka Obaigbena who resolved that war.
Albert was tough. He was tall and charismatic and feared nobody. I can say it very clearly that if Albert was alive and still was Albert, Femi Otedola would not have launched this coup, and even if he had done it, Albert would have smacked him down.
He would have called a meeting of his men and said, ” Tony, (Nwozor) how much do we need?” Tony would have looked at the shares on offer and would have said – Albert, this money is too much o.
Albert would have shouted – Oga how much do we need – and Tony would have said N30b, and Albert would have said – Tony, Buy. Tony and Sunday would have jumped into the market and killed the coup. Albert woukd have opened his diary and started making calls – he would have called Presidents, State Governors, Billionaires, Kings College Old Boys, and raised enough capital to save Tony Elumelu from this mess. He did it with Dokpesi’s AIT, Otudeko’s Honeywell, and so many others.
Today, it’s very clear that Tony Elumelu has surrounded himself with fine boys who will be wearing fine suits and be speaking English like Brad Pitt and be working with softwares and posting themselves on Instagram while oblivious of their shares were hanging at AMCON looking for buyers.
Those ones lack the sophistication needed to play in such a sparsely regulated market as ours. While they scrabble to their Harvard text books, the deals are being sealed at the golf course in Ikoyi Club or over bottles of beer at the bar in Bonny camp.
Tony Elumelu would need to overhaul his team. They slept off, and they lacked commitment. United Capital, where his investment banking resides, needs to be cleared. Totally overhauled. Information reaching me shows that the shares were with AMCON, and they gave them first option and they called their bluff. Na wa.
Another thing I have heard is that control of Transcorp was held in various vehicles, and this push led to a quick consolidation and a crossing. So, according to my source, he didn’t really outflow cash to hit the 25% mark but just did cross deals and consolidated. But at N12.5 pricing that he paid off Femi, he would have been out of pocket by about N5b. His advisers should be ashamed of themselves. This was a blatant attack on a lion by a smarter lion. Simple.
Our lion did not even know what was going on, and went on Arise TV to say – ohh, he is my friend. Which friend, the man was teaching you a lesson in how not to play the markets. He is not your friend o. Albert Okumagba would have entered that negotiation with Femi Otedola in his usual charismatic and arrogant manner. Shouted him down and called his bluff and said I’ll take you out in 24 hours.
Look, Albert Okumagba took Tony Elumelu out of BGL in that same period, taking his 70% worth billions in record time with a phone call.
That would have been Femi’s lot if Albert was still standing guard. Pity we have lost one of the most charismatic investment bankers of all time this would have been a piece of cake I swear.
I hope lessons have been learned. For me, more time should be spent on growing value for shareholders instead of all these play at movie star things. How can the share price of a company with that asset value be playing near par – N1.49k, six years after take over?
How can?