First Holdco Plc’s stock staged an unexpected turnaround in early trading on Tuesday, reversing a sharp earnings-related slump as opportunistic investors drove the share price nearly 10 percent higher. After an initial tumble in the wake of dismal audited results, the shares climbed to around N45.15, buoyed by heavy buying that lit up the Nigerian Exchange before midday.
The mood shift stemmed from a growing conviction among seasoned market players that First Holdco’s recent financial cleansing has created a compelling entry point. The company’s headline figures for the year ending December 31, 2025, triggered alarm when profits plunged by over 90 percent, largely because management took a one-off N748.13 billion impairment charge to clean up bad assets on its books. Critics initially interpreted this as a disaster; but to many investors it signaled something more strategic a chance to reset and start anew.
Rather than shy away, deep-pocketed traders appeared to embrace the volatility. Their optimism reflects confidence that the impairment, although painful in the short term, has meaningfully reduced risk on First Holdco’s balance sheet and set the stage for improved performance in 2026. At the center of this narrative is the company’s billionaire chairman, Femi Otedola, whose broader vision for stabilising the institution has drawn attention and support from the market.
Analysts tracking the situation suggest that by tackling legacy weak loans head-on and exiting regulatory forbearance, First Holdco has laid the groundwork for earnings quality to recover and for credit costs to normalise over time. Research notes from Meristsm Research point to a cleaner, less encumbered institution as a key factor in their longer-term valuation forecasts.
Meristsm’s valuation puts the stock’s target price well above current levels, implying potential upside of more than 60 percent from recent prices. Meanwhile, Coronation Research has highlighted the importance of the upcoming first-quarter 2026 earnings release as a test of whether the strategic decisions made in 2025 will translate into a sustainable rebound.
For now, what looked like a stark earnings debacle has, for many investors, morphed into a rare opportunity: a beaten-down counter with a newly reinforced balance sheet and clear catalysts on the horizon.
