First Holdco surges toward 52-week high on strong investor demand

On the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), what seemed earlier this week like a storm on shares of Nigeria’s oldest lender, First Holdco, is leaving behind a surprising and golden clarity.

On Thursday, the trading floor was again crowded with brokers whose orders for First Holdco shares were going unfilled. Reason being that there simply weren’t enough willing sellers.

Why? The “house” had been cleaned, the foundation was solid, and the closing bell hasn’t rang yet, but First Holdco wasn’t already nearing a 52-week high.

The bank stock had flipped the script in earlier trading sessions as its share price returned to pre-dip level.

The big buy-back which ignited rally on the Nigeria Bourse ahead of market close came as stock investors bet on the company’s ‘clean slate’ post-impairment.

The 52-week high of N55.30 is now visible on the horizon as the stock traded at N49.1 as at N1 pm on Thursday, up by 35 kobo or 0.72 percent.

This shows that what began as a quiet rally days earlier – from February 2 low of N41.05 – has turned into a steady climb, fueled by a growing wave of investor confidence.

It had reached a day’s high of N50 per share. Investors traded 5,251,692 shares valued at N260.056 million as at 1 pm on Thursday.

Read also: First Holdco wipes out losses as rally restores pre-dip valuation

Portfolio managers leaned in, noting the volume. Long-term holders weren’t selling. New buyers kept stepping up. The story behind the numbers—solid earnings, disciplined strategy, and a clear growth path—was finally getting its moment in the spotlight.

The board, led by billionaire chairman Femi Otedola, had authorized a massive N748 billion impairment charge—a polite banking term for admitting that nearly three-quarters of a trillion naira in old, messy loans were never coming back.

While the casual observer saw a 92 percent profit crash and a record-breaking share price nosedive, the “smart money” heard a starting gun.

Following First Holdco’s bold decision to take a massive N748.13 billion one-time impairment charge to clean up its balance sheet, the stock’s initial 9 percent plunge has quickly transformed into a high-stakes entry point.

Market mavericks are now betting big that this “surgical strike” by its billionaire chairman Femi Otedola has effectively de-risked the institution for 2026.

By choosing transparency over temporary optics, First Holdco has cleared the decks of legacy bad loans, turning what looked like an earnings disaster into a rare, discounted window for investors looking to ride the next era of growth.

“Following the significant front-loading of impartment charges in Q4:2025 and the Group’s exit from regulatory forbearance, we expect credit costs to normalise gradually, translating into improved earnings quality and real value creation from a cleaner balance sheet,” according to Meristsm Research analysts in their recent note.

Their target price for First Holdco share price is N73.22, representing an upside potential of 62.70 percent from N45 the stock closed last week.

“Given the weak Q4 2025 results investors will watch the Q1 2026 results keenly for signs that the institution is now on a sustainable path of recovery after the significant balance sheet correcting decisions that were taken in 2025,” Coronation Research analysts said in their February 2 note on First HoldCo’s results.