Dangote Rings Bell on Landmark IPO
Aliko Dangote rang the opening bell at the Nigerian Exchange on Monday to start the public sale of shares in Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals, the largest initial offering yet attempted on an African bourse.
The floor ceremony confirmed that 4.1 billion new ordinary shares are on sale at ₦525 each. Full subscription would raise ₦2.15 trillion, about $1.6 billion. A greenshoe could take proceeds toward $2.1 billion. Books close on 13 October, with listing on the NGX Main Board expected in November or early December once allotment is done.
The floor is set at 10 shares, or ₦5,250. Applications run through NGX Invest, designated banks and approved fintech apps. Dangote has called the sale inclusive. “There is no segregation on who can own these shares. We want everyone to own a share,” he said last week, adding that he wanted “our drivers, cooks, servants, and everybody” in the register.
The plant in the Lekki Free Trade Zone cost about $20 billion to build, sits on 2,635 hectares and began commercial runs in 2024. It reached its 700,000-barrel-a-day nameplate this year, now supplies most of Nigeria’s home-refined gasoline and exports diesel and jet fuel. First-half 2026 profit after tax was $1.82 billion on revenue above $13 billion, after a $476 million loss for 2025. Analysts have tied part of that swing to firmer product prices and extra export demand after Middle East supply shocks.
Proceeds are meant to help pay for a $14.3 billion expansion that would double capacity to 1.4 million barrels a day by 2029, with a second crude distillation unit. Dangote has said the extra output is for Nigeria and for regional and European buyers. The company has also said it may look at a U.S. listing once that work is finished.
At ₦525 the complex is valued at about $47 billion, or some ₦65 trillion. After the issue the public float would be 3.3 percent of the enlarged company. Dangote would keep beneficial ownership of about 84.3 percent. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited holds around 6.6 percent. A listing at that price could add more than 40 percent to the exchange’s pre-deal capitalisation of about ₦158 trillion and make the refinery its largest stock. CardinalStone and Chapel Hill Denham have put fair value at $59 billion to $63 billion.
