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Recession in high places! Nigerian billionaire businessman Femi Otedola is no longer a billionaire in dollars. According to Forbes, he’s now worth $550million following a massive drop in the stock price of his company, Forte Oil. Read the report from Forbes below…
As at the close of trading on Friday October 14th, Forte Oil’s share price plunged to a one-year low of N145 ($0.44) per share, down from an all-time high of N342 ($1.1) in March this year when Forbes published its annual ranking of the world’s richest people.
Apart from the tumble in Forte Oil’s stock price, Otedola’s fortune has also been adversely affected by a central bank devaluation of the Naira in June. In dollar terms, the devaluation in addition to Forte’s floundering share price has knocked about $1.3 billion off the value of Otedola’s fortune which was pegged at $1.8 billion in March.
Otedola, who is Forte Oil Plc’s Chairman, is now worth only $550 million as at the close of business of Friday, according to the FORBES’ billionaires’ database.
Femi Otedola was unavailable for comments. However, an analyst at a Lagos-based Investment bank hinted that the share price drop may not be unconnected to the current recession in Nigeria that has witnessed 2 consecutive quarters of negative growth with inflation soaring to levels as high as 17%.