Dangote Reschedules Refinery IPO, Says Private Bids Top $2 Billion

Aliko Dangote, President and Chief Executive of the Dangote Group, announced on Wednesday that the highly anticipated initial public offering (IPO) for his mega-refinery will be done in September, about two months later than an earlier timeline shared in February.

Speaking on the upcoming market debut, Dangote noted that financial advisors are currently evaluating the sheer volume of interest to determine the exact size of the market offering. 

“The IPO that we have right now, there’s quite a lot of demand, and that’s the reason why we’re trying to make sure that by September we’ll be out there in the market,” Dangote said. 

He added that even a private placement has already attracted requests totalling $2 billion, though the company does not plan to sell that amount and will decide what to allocate between private investors and an eventual IPO.

Despite the massive scale and innovative nature of the refinery, Dangote emphasised the company’s commitment to its traditional financial partners. 

He assured that the banks which historically supported the conglomerate’s growth will continue to play a pivotal role in this new chapter. 

“We are not fairweather friends,” he said. “So the growth that you’ve seen, definitely we will share with the banks.”

In February, during a facility tour led by Bayo Ojulari and the management team of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Dangote had said the refinery would be listed on the Nigerian Exchange within four to five months. At the time, he assured the public that “individually, Nigerians too will have an opportunity… to buy their shares.”