SEC Clears Dangote Refinery IPO
Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission has approved an initial public offering for Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals, clearing the sale of 4.1 billion ordinary shares at ₦525 each.
If fully taken up, the offer would raise about ₦2.15 trillion, or roughly $1.6 billion, and rank among the largest share sales in African history. The commission’s letter to lead issuing house Vetiva Advisory Services, signed by Abdulkadir Abbas of the securities and investment services department, also registered the company’s existing 120.13 billion ordinary shares. At the IPO price that implies a valuation near $47 billion, according to Reuters calculations. The company may now hold its completion board meeting and signing ceremony with the Nigerian Exchange.
Aliko Dangote said on Thursday that the offer would open within 10 to 12 days but the company has not formally confirmed that schedule. A 15 percent greenshoe would allow extra shares if demand runs ahead of the base allocation. Dangote has called the listing an “African” offering rather than a purely Nigerian one and said dividends would be paid in dollars.
The public tranche follows a $2.5 billion private placement in July that was 3.7 times oversubscribed and valued the business at about $40 billion, and a $1 billion underwriting package in August that included $600 million already funded. Earlier talk of a $5 billion public target has given way to this smaller slice inside a wider financing mix.
Proceeds are meant to help lift Lekki from about 650,000 – 700,000 barrels a day toward 1.4 million by the end of 2028, which would put the plant ahead of India’s Jamnagar by throughput. The 2,635-hectare site includes a 900,000-tonne polypropylene unit and a 435-megawatt power station. Built for about $20 billion, it began making fuels in 2024.
The refinery has turned Nigeria from a persistent fuel importer into a net exporter of petrol, diesel and jet fuel, including shipments to Europe and other markets. In June the SEC halted unauthorised marketing of a purported IPO before any filing existed.
