Dangote Refinery Holds Preliminary IPO Signing, Outlines New Africa Investments

Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals moved into the next stage of its proposed share offering on Monday as the company held a preliminary signing ceremony for the refinery’s initial public offering.

The ceremony added a concrete step to the listing process after the Securities and Exchange Commission approved the offer last week. Punch reported that the IPO comprises 4.1 billion ordinary shares at N525 each, a sale expected to raise just over N2tn, with a minimum subscription of 10 shares. Channels Television put the offer’s value at about N2.15tn and quoted Aliko Dangote calling it “the biggest IPO ever in the history of Africa.”

Dangote told the ceremony the milestone showed what focused companies on the continent could achieve, saying the group’s Vision 2030 agenda is to accelerate Africa’s industrialisation, and that industrialisation cannot happen without energy security. Daily Post reported that he also disclosed new group investments in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Namibia.

He recalled that the refinery project began with financial backing from banks before the company had settled on a site or secured a licence, describing the trust between the group and its lenders as central to getting the project off the ground.

The refinery’s Chief Executive, David Bird, said the facility is a major supplier of jet fuel to Europe and had performed strongly in the past six months. The world’s-largest-by-2028 target is the latest expansion of the refinery’s ambition after the share sale, which Dangote said would be open to ordinary Nigerians, including the company’s junior employees, with no restriction on who can own shares.

Sources: Punch, Daily Post, Channels TV