Nigerian tycoon Aliko Dangote’s refinery unit is seeking to raise as much as $1 billion through a private sale of debt, people with knowledge of the plan said.
Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals FZE, Africa’s largest crude processing plant, plans to target foreign investors for the sale, the people said, asking not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak to the media.
Dangote is raising debt and preparing an initial public offering of the refinery to help finance its expansion. The facility, which reached full capacity shortly before the US-Israel conflict with Iran, has seen demand surge as buyers across Africa and beyond seek alternative fuel supplies amid concerns about disruptions to Middle Eastern energy exports.
Investor meetings are ongoing, and there are no guarantees that the company will go ahead with the planned debt sale, one of the people said. Representatives at Dangote Refinery declined to comment.
The tycoon is also selling shares in a private placement, which Dangote said attracted as much as $2 billion of investor demand.
Dangote Refinery, which can currently process as much as 700,000 barrels of crude per day, plans to double refining output. The initial capacity was 650,000 barrels-per-day.
The debt private placement for the refinery follows a similar sale of $750 million for Dangote Fertiliser Ltd. in April. That was Dangote’s first foray into the international debt capital markets.
Lagos-based Dangote, who is worth $36.5 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, has set a target of investing at least $40 billion to fund growth over the next five years.
He also plans to build the biggest deep seaport in Nigeria, boost output of urea to 12 million tons by 2030, diversify into liquefied gas and construct a 20,000 megawatt power plant.
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