Financial analysts have raised concerns after Geregu Power Generation Company, owned by Senator Abdul’aziz Yari, missed a N40 billion bond payment several months after billionaire businessman and FirstBank Chairman Femi Otedola disposed of his controlling interest in the electricity producer.
Geregu acknowledged that it had failed to settle its N40.09 billion Series 1 Senior Unsecured Bond in an updated filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The seven-year instrument was issued on July 28, 2022, at a fixed coupon of 14.50 percent under Geregu’s N100 billion debt issuance programme. Its terms provided for coupon payments twice a year and scheduled reductions in principal until the bond’s maturity on July 28, 2029. The missed payment therefore represents a breach roughly midway through the security’s lifespan.
Olumide Adesina, a financial expert, said the company could have suffered an overnight loss of about one-fifth of its market value had its shares been traded in the United States when news of the debt default emerged.
“If Geregu were listed on the US stock market, news of the debt default could have wiped out around 20 percent of its value overnight,” Adesina wrote on X.
Toby, a finance educator and X user, said the missed payments were particularly troubling for a power producer supplying electricity in Nigeria. In his view, the development was a major warning sign that the company was facing intense pressure on its cash flow.
Geregu’s unaudited accounts submitted to the Nigerian Exchange showed that profit after tax plunged 88 percent to N2.51 billion in the six months ended June 30, compared with N20.27 billion in the same period of 2025.
In December 2025, Otedola sold his majority holding in Geregu to MA’AM Energy Limited, a company linked to Senator Yari, in a transaction valued at a record N1.88 trillion.
