Aliko Dangote, president of the Dangote Group, says the planned initial public offering (IPO) of Dangote refinery might be conducted in September amid investor demand running into “billions of dollars”.
Dangote spoke on Wednesday when Femi Otedola, chairman of
First HoldCo, visited the refinery.
Otedola led top executives of First HoldCo on a tour of the
refinery and the fertiliser plants in the Lekki free trade zone area.
“There is quite a lot of demand in terms of people pushing
us, saying we want to buy, we want to buy,” the group president said.
“That is the reason why we are trying to make sure that by
September, we will be out there in the market to sell the IPO. But we have a
lot of demand in billions of dollars.”
Asked about the target listing price, he said advisers are
still working on the valuation.
“I actually don’t know. The advisers are still doing that.
They are still evaluating to see how much we are going to go into the market
with,” Dangote said.
Speaking on an earlier proposed $2 billion private
placement, the businessman said requests from prospective investors have
already exceeded that figure.
“We are not selling up to that, but we’ll see what we can
allocate to them. We can see what we can allocate to an IPO,” he added.
The group president said the company intends to broaden
ownership through the public offer and allow more Nigerians participate in the
refinery project.
He also highlighted the scale of the refinery, describing it
as one of the most ambitious industrial projects globally.
“Our target really is to get the larger part of the society
to buy. Because it is a very good… I think it’s better you buy… you are looking
at this now, people don’t know we are going to have 10 percent of the entire
America’s production in terms of refining,” the billionaire said.
“It’s going to be the largest refinery ever on the earth of
this world.”
He added that based on current projections, the refinery
business alone could generate more revenue than any other company on the
continent.
‘DANGOTE REFINERY HAS SAVED AFRICA FROM ECONOMIC SLAVERY’
Speaking during the visit, Otedola said the management and
board of First HoldCo have set an ambitious target of transforming the
institution into one of the biggest banks in sub-Saharan Africa and West Africa
within the next five years.
Otedola said the visit was part of efforts to draw lessons
from Dangote’s business vision.
“I spoke to Aliko that please can we visit, come for a
retreat and tap into your vision, and it’s been very insightful, very
thought-provoking,” he said.
Otedola wished Dangote, whom he described as “a colossus”
and “a genius,” and “probably one of the greatest men that has come out of
Africa,” continued success “for delivering us out of economic slavery in
Nigeria and by extension Africa”.
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