By Secrets Reporters
For the first ten weeks of its life, the London property company now controlled entirely by the First Lady of Benin, Nathalie Villette-Wadagni, was part-owned by her husband, Romuald Wadagni, who is now the President of Benin. An investigation by SecretsReporters of the United Kingdom companies register establishes the full record, and it has sat in the open since 2023.
Tangerine Properties Limited, company number 14949780, was incorporated on 21 June 2023 under the name 14 Charleville Limited, taken from the street of its registered office, Flat 15 Charleville Mansions, Charleville Road, London W14 9JB. It was renamed Tangerine Properties Limited on 13 July 2023. Its filed business is SIC 98000, residents property management.
On the day of incorporation, the register recorded two persons with significant control. The first was Ms Nathalie Villette, born August 1975, recorded as British and resident in the United Kingdom, who was appointed the company’s sole director that same day and whose correspondence address is the Charleville Mansions flat. The second was Mr Romuald Wadagni, born May 1975, recorded as French and resident in the United Kingdom, holding more than 25 per cent but no more than 50 per cent of the shares and of the voting rights, with the right to appoint or remove directors.
On 1 September 2023, his stake ceased. The filings for that single day record a share allotment that raised the company’s capital from £2 to £100, a change in the registered details of Ms Villette as a person with significant control, and the cessation of Mr Wadagni as a person with significant control. She has remained the sole director throughout, and she now holds 75 per cent or more of the shares and the voting rights, with the right to appoint or remove directors. Her identity on the register was verified by RDP Newmans LLP, an authorised corporate service provider, with the verification checks completed on 4 September 2026.
In the summer of 2023, when the company was formed, Romuald Wadagni was the Minister of Economy and Finance of Benin, the office he had held since 2016. He was elected President of Benin on 12 April 2026 and sworn in on 24 May 2026. His wife is now the First Lady of Benin.
The register proves the vehicle and its ownership history. It does not by itself prove that the company holds legal title to the Charleville Mansions flat or to any property at all. SecretsReporters did not examine the company’s filed accounts for fixed asset holdings, and no Land Registry title check was run on the flat.
Tangerine was not her first London company. Sepia Partners Limited, company number 13725732, was incorporated on 5 November 2021 and dissolved on 25 October 2022. Its filed business was that of a holding company. The register listed Ms Villette as a director from the day of incorporation and as the sole person with significant control, holding 75 per cent or more, with a French co-director, Aymeric Teulon, joining the board on 8 December 2021. Her correspondence address on that record was the same Charleville Mansions flat.
Public profiles of the First Lady describe a corporate and investment banking career of some twenty years in London, rising to Group Head, Global Corporate (UK) at Ecobank Transnational, and describe her as Franco-Burkinabé. The companies register records her nationality as British. Nationality on the United Kingdom register is self-declared at filing. SecretsReporters records the difference because the two public records do not agree.
Article 52 of the Constitution of Benin requires the President of the Republic and the members of the Government, on entering office and on leaving it, to make a written declaration of all their assets and patrimony, addressed to the President of the Court of Accounts. The duty attaches personally to the office holder. The spouse of a president carries no declaration duty of her own under Beninese law, and SecretsReporters makes no allegation of non-declaration, concealment or illegality against the First Lady. Whether the President’s own declaration accounts for the London company is a matter for the Court of Accounts, on evidence that sits outside the companies register.
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