By Ayo Kehinde
Oil refinery magnate, Aliko Dangote, has revealed that the planned private placement for the Dangote Petroleum Refinery has already attracted close to $2 billion in investor requests ahead of the company’s proposed initial public offering (IPO).
Dangote disclosed this on Wednesday, during a visit by Femi Otedola and senior executives of First HoldCo to the refinery and fertiliser complex located in the Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lagos.
According to him, investor appetite for the refinery remains exceptionally strong, with demand already exceeding the amount the company intends to raise through the private placement. He noted that the company is targeting a market debut by September as preparations for the IPO intensify.
“The IPO that we have right now, there is quite a lot of demand in terms of people disturbing us, pushing us that ‘look, we want to buy’. By September, we will be out there in the market”, Dangote stated.
He added that advisers are still working on the valuation and pricing structure for the offering. “We have people who have actually requested to buy, and we have an amount of almost $2 billion. We are not selling up to that, but we will see what we can allocate to them.”
Dangote said the eventual IPO would be structured to encourage participation from ordinary Nigerians and retail investors, not just institutional buyers.
The billionaire industrialist described the 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery as one of Africa’s most transformative industrial projects, capable of reshaping regional energy markets and boosting manufacturing capacity. He added that the facility is projected to account for about 10% of the United States’ refining capacity while generating one of the largest corporate revenues on the continent.
In April, Dangote announced plans to list about 10% of the refinery business on multiple African stock exchanges to support the next phase of expansion across the Dangote Group.
