NEW DELHI: Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved an initial public offering of Dangote Group’s refinery business, the company said on September 4, officially kicking off Africa’s biggest-ever share sale, according to Reuters.
The IPO could raise approximately ₦2.15 trillion ($1.63 billion) if fully subscribed, with the company planning to sell 4.1 billion ordinary shares at 525 naira per share, according to the statement.
The 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery, built at a cost of about $20 billion on the outskirts of Lagos, has transformed Nigeria’s fuel market and emerged as a major beneficiary of supply disruptions linked to the Iran war, exporting jet fuel across Africa and into Europe.
The IPO could raise approximately ₦2.15 trillion ($1.63 billion) if fully subscribed, with the company planning to sell 4.1 billion ordinary shares at 525 naira per share, according to the statement.
“With SEC approval now secured, the refinery is poised to embark on a historic public offering that could significantly broaden investor participation in one of Nigeria’s most transformative industrial ventures,” the company said in the statement. The refinery’s rapid growth has helped fuel investor interest in the share sale, market participants say.
The IPO will include a so-called greenshoe option to sell around 15 per cent more shares if demand exceeds supply, a source said.
Turkey’s Tupras, which has a similar refining capacity spread across four sites, has a market value of about $12 billion, while New York-listed HF Sinclair, with capacity of roughly 678,000 bpd, is valued at about $16 billion.
Aiming big
Aliko Dangote, the group’s majority stakeholder, told a business meeting in Botswana on September 3 that he aimed to build the refinery, which does not publicly disclose detailed financial results, into one of Africa’s largest companies, generating more than $12 billion in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). Dangote, Africa’s richest man with a net worth estimated at between $31 billion and $35 billion, said he wanted investors from across the continent to participate in the offering, including Nigerian retail investors.
