Otedola: Experts react as Yari-owned Geregu defaults on N40bn bond payment

Financial analysts have expressed concerns as Senator Yari-owned Geregu Power Generation Company defaulted on its N40 billion bond payment months after billionaire businessman and Chairman of FirstBank, Femi Otedola, sold his majority stake in the power firm.

DAILY POST reports that Geregu had defaulted on its N40.09 billion Series 1 Senior Unsecured Bond.

Geregu confirmed the default in an updated listing by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Further details showed that the seven-year bond, issued on July 28, 2022, at a fixed rate of 14.50 percent under the company’s N100 billion debt issuance programme, was structured with semi-annual coupon distributions and amortising principal repayments running through to its July 28, 2029, maturity.

However, the default in payment means a midway breach in Geregu’s bond life.

Reacting, a financial expert, Olumide Adesina said Geregu would have lost a fifth of its value overnight if it were traded on the US stock market following the default news on its debt.

“Geregu would likely have lost a fifth of its value overnight if it were traded on the US stock market over news that it defaulted on its debt,” he wrote on X.

Also, an X user and finance educator known as Toby wrote: “For a power generation company that supplies electricity in Nigeria, missing these payments is a serious red flag. It means their cash flow is under real pressure right now.”

According to Geregu’s unaudited financial statements filed with the NGX, the power firm recorded an 88 percent drop in profit after tax to N2.51 billion for the six months ended June 30, from N20.27 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2025.

Recall that in December 2025, Otedola sold his majority stake in Geregu to Senator Yari-linked MA’AM Energy Limited for a record N1.88 trillion