Dangote Refinery Extends IPO by Two Weeks on Strong Demand

Aliko Dangote plans to extend the deadline for applications for the initial public offering in his Nigerian refinery by two weeks as Africa’s richest man seeks to provide investors in more countries access to the continent’s biggest listing to date.

The offering that opened in mid-September and was set to close Tuesday will now be extended to Oct. 27, Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals FZE said in a statement on Monday. Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the extension, it said. Bloomberg reported the development earlier.

The IPO has seen significant demand, with exchanges across Africa in talks with the company over structures to provide them access to the listing that will value the business at close to $50 billion, according to people familiar with the matter who declined to be identified because the information is still private.

“The issuer has received very strong interest from a broad range of eligible investors across Africa and other jurisdictions,” Dangote said.

“Talking about the amount we want to sell, we have done much more than three, four times that amount already,” he later told reporters during a tour of his refinery near Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub.

The additional time “will help us extend that opportunity to more investors across Africa,” Chief Executive Officer David Bird said.

Global depositary receipts have already been made available to investors in Kenya and Botswana.

The proposed extension would allow more time to finalize cross-border arrangements and ensure investors in a wider range of African markets can participate in the share sale.

Read More About the Dangote Refinery Listing:
Dangote Refinery Offers East Africa Almost 20% of IPO Shares Why Dangote’s Refinery IPO Is a Big Deal for Africa: Explainer

Dangote will now submit a draft allotment announcement to Nigeria’s SEC on Nov. 10, with the regulator expected to sign off on how the refiner will distribute the shares on Nov. 17. The original date for this was Nov. 11.

Trading will start 15 business days after the allotment date, which will likely be on Dec. 8.

The offering is being positioned as a pan-African transaction, reflecting Dangote’s ambition to create a shareholder base that extends beyond Nigeria and includes institutional and retail investors across the continent.

The deal could act as a catalyst to deepen African capital markets and offers investors exposure to the 700,000-barrel-a-day refinery that is already one of the world’s largest energy projects.

Some 4.1 billion shares in the Dangote refinery are on offer at 525 naira ($0.40) each. That equates to about 3% of the company. It has regulatory approval to sell as much as 30% more equity should there be sufficient demand, meaning the firm could raise as much as $2.1 billion.

The listing is a test of the ability of African exchanges and regulators to support large-scale equity offerings. The effort to create access routes for investors from multiple countries and through several structures could also set a precedent for broader capital-market integration across the continent.

Sign up here for the daily Next Africa newsletter and subscribe to the Next Africa podcast on Apple , Spotify or anywhere you listen .