Nigerian rich man Tony Elumelu made $123 million since the beginning of November – at least on paper, but it counts, according to a report in Forbes.com.

Elumelu’s stocks in Nigerian Stock Exchange-listed Transnational Corp. of Nigeria (Transcorp) tripled in value from the equivalent of $0.01 on Nov. 1 to $0.03 as of today, the report said.

He owns more than 5.7 billion shares of the company (5,745,890,693 to be exact, according to Transcorp’s latest corporate filings, Forbes said), held in his own name and in his investment company Heirs Holdings, for a total of 22.26 percent of the company.

Transcorp is described by Forbes as an emerging conglomerate of investments in hotels, power and agriculture.

An unnamed analyst told Forbes there had been “unprecedented interest” in Transcorp stocks since Elumelu bought Ughelli Power plant from the Nigerian government for $300 million. It is a strategic power-generation company the government sold in a privatization exercise.

“One could say he got lucky, but look closer and it appears this was a carefully planned, strategic move,” NigeriaBulletin reported. “Talks about privatizing Nigeria’s power sector have been in the air since the Obasanjo regime (Olusegun Obasanjo was president of Nigeria from May 1999 to May 2007). Elumelu, sensing that privatization of the power sector was inevitable—and maybe sooner rather than later—decided to put his money on a company which is well poised to acquire some part of the power sector. His search came to an end when he found TransCorp.”

Investors are scrambling for the Transcorp stock in anticipation of the long-term impact the new acquisition is likely to have on Transcorp’s financial results, the report said.

Elumelu made his fortune by buying and turning around a small, struggling Nigerian commercial bank that became United Bank of Africa Group, a leading financial services institution operating in several African countries, New York and London, Forbes reports.

He stepped down as the bank’s CEO in 2010 to focus on investing in African businesses through his private investment vehicle, Heirs Holdings and to groom Africa’s next generation of business leaders through his Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Elumelu’s name did not show up on Forbes’ November 2013 list of richest Africans.