Aliko Dangote, chairman of Dangote Group and a syndicate of investment banks have signed the registration papers for the initial public offering of his refining and petrochemicals business, formally teeing up what is set to be the largest share sale in African history.
The paperwork commits Dangote and his advisers to an offer of 4.1 billion shares priced at N525, or roughly 40 cents apiece, in a deal that values the company at about $49 billion.
The float is expected to raise around $1.6 billion and is scheduled to open on Sept. 14, closing Oct. 13.
Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission has already cleared the offer, and the regulator has separately registered 120.13 billion existing ordinary shares in the refinery, underpinning the valuation.
Read also: Dangote tests capital market appetite with $1.6bn refining expansion float
Dangote, Africa’s richest man, cast the listing not as a capital-markets event for institutional money managers but as a wealth-sharing exercise for ordinary Nigerians, “drivers, cooks, servants, managers”, who he says should hold a stake in a facility built on their continent’s oil.
“This is why we have actually called it the IPO for the people,” Dangote told investors and government officials at the listing’s launch. “There is no segregation on who can own the shares.”
The offering is also a stress test. Africa has no shortage of projects that look transformative on paper, refineries, railways, power plants, and a long history of watching them stall for lack of financing…
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Read Full Article by Dipo Oladehinde at businessday.ng
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