Lagos, Nigeria — ( XOL Africa) Dangote Refinery has set a minimum subscription of 10 shares, worth N5,250, for its planned $1.6bn initial public offering as Africa’s largest-ever equity sale moves towards launch next week.
Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man and owner of the 700,000 barrels-a-day refinery, led the signing of the offer documents at a ceremony in Lagos on Monday attended by advisers and other participants in the pan-African transaction.
“The minimum subscription of the offer is 10 ordinary shares, translating to N5,250,” Dangote told participants at the ceremony.
The offer, which is being coordinated by Lagos-based Vetiva Advisory Services, comprises 4.1bn shares priced at N525 each, following approval by Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission last week. The transaction is targeting about N2.2tn from investors.
The IPO values the refinery at close to $50bn and comes less than two years after the facility began production. Dangote plans to use the proceeds to double its capacity to 1.4mn barrels a day, potentially making it one of the world’s largest refining complexes.
A listing of that scale would also significantly reshape Nigeria’s stock market. The refinery’s admission to the Nigerian Exchange could increase the bourse’s market capitalisation by more than a third, according to estimates surrounding the transaction.
Dangote Refinery is also considering a cross-border listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Africa’s largest exchange by market capitalisation, as well as potential listings in Egypt, Kenya, Ghana and Rwanda.
Investor demand for the company has already been strong. A private placement in July raised $2.5bn from institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals and was reportedly 270 per cent oversubscribed.
Some investors unable to secure allocations in the private placement could turn to the public offer, adding to demand that has built steadily among Nigerian retail investors.
The scale of that interest prompted the SEC in June to halt marketing activities related to the proposed IPO after reports that retail investors, including people with limited experience of equity markets, were opening trading accounts in anticipation of the offer.
Interest is now extending to major international energy investors. Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, the UAE-based energy group, has opened discussions with Dangote Refinery about potentially acquiring a stake, according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter.
An ADNOC insider told Bloomberg that the refinery had also received approaches from other large investors.
The IPO is scheduled to launch on September 14, at a potentially important moment for Nigeria’s capital markets. FTSE Russell recently restored Nigeria to frontier-market status after almost three years under unclassified market status, a move expected to improve access to international portfolio capital.
The Dangote transaction could provide a test of whether Nigeria can attract substantial foreign and domestic institutional investment into a single corporate offering.
It could also establish a template for other large Nigerian companies considering public listings. NNPC Limited, the state-owned energy company, has discussed an IPO since becoming a limited liability company, with the prospect of a listing revived in recent years.
For Nigeria’s capital market, the Dangote offer therefore carries significance beyond the refinery itself: a successful listing could demonstrate that the country’s exchange is capable of absorbing large-scale equity offerings while giving major domestic companies an alternative source of long-term financing.
The refinery, located on a 6,180-acre site on the outskirts of Lagos, began production in January 2024. By June, it had become the largest external supplier of jet fuel to Europe, overtaking the US, and maintained that position in July.
Editor: Gabriel Ani
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