Africa’s biggest oil refinery opens to public ownership
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LAGOS, Nigeria -- Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote opened his refinery to public ownership Monday with plans to raise $1.6 billion from retail investors across the continent in Africa's biggest initial public offering, or IPO.
Dangote, Africa's richest man, dubbed the IPO one "for the people" and said he wants everyone to be able to own a share. Retail investors can buy a 10-share bundle in the sprawling Lagos-based refinery for $4, the minimum investment. Dangote retains 87% ownership of the refinery, Africa's largest.
The refinery's scale and potential returns, especially at a time when global oil prices have risen following the U.S.-Iran war, have generated excitement among retail investors.
"We are all going to fully share all our prosperity with the people and that is why we call it the people's IPO," Dangote said at Monday's launch at the Nigerian Exchange Group in Lagos, flanked by the refinery's officials and associates.
Although the refinery stock won't be publicly listed in Nigeria until November, its IPO launch resulted in heavy traffic on some of the country's digital investment platforms, with at least two knocked offline briefly.
"I will be a fool not to partake in it and see how it goes. I am placing a lot of emphasis on his name and on the refinery being the biggest in Africa," Titi Adetoye, an Abuja-based operations manager who hopes to buy up to 1,000 shares, told The Associated Press.
Nigeria has relied for many decades on foreign refining of its oil due to decrepit state-run refineries, many of which operate below capacity or have remained stagnant for years due to poor maintenance.
But when the $19 billion refinery began production in 2024, it transformed the energy-rich country of more than 210 million people from an importer of refined oil into an exporter.
"It is going to be a game-changing IPO for Nigeria's markets," said Mohammed Saidu, head of research and investment analysis at Lagos-based TrustBanc.