Mariya Dangote explains why Dangote Cement chose London for secondary listing

Dangote Cement chose London over Dubai for its planned secondary listing because selling shares in the United Arab Emirates would have taken years to arrange, according to Mariya Dangote, the eldest daughter of Aliko Dangote and a director of the company.

"It's compatible with our business," she said of the London Stock Exchange in an interview in Lagos on Thursday. "We thought of the secondary listing in Dubai," she said, but it would have taken the company years to complete.

The comments are the first public confirmation that the Gulf was seriously considered and rejected. Dangote Industries runs its family office out of Dubai, which had made the emirate a plausible venue, and the group has expanded its presence there under Halima Dangote, the middle sister.

A listing sixteen years in the making

Dangote Cement is the largest company on the Nigerian Exchange, where it has traded since 2010, with a market value of about $13 billion. The stock had gained more than 70 percent this year by May.

Aliko Dangote first explored a London listing roughly fifteen years ago and revived the plan this year, telling the Financial Times in May that the group had been considering it for seven to ten years and that reduced minimum listing requirements from Britain's Financial Conduct Authority had finally made it workable.

The company intends to sell about 10 percent of its shares to outside investors while retaining its primary listing in Lagos, with September seen as the target, subject to market conditions and regulatory approval. Shareholders approved the plan at the company's 17th annual general meeting in Lagos on July 2, authorising the board to pursue a listing on the London exchange or any other recognised international market.

Completion would place Dangote Cement alongside Guaranty Trust Holding Company, Seplat Energy and Airtel Africa among Nigerian-linked companies quoted in London.

Numbers behind the timing

The listing follows a strong run of results. Dangote Cement reported net profit of about $732 million for 2025, more than double the previous year, on revenue of roughly $3.12 billion. Pre-tax profit rose 35 percent in the first quarter of 2026, helped by a 71.6 percent surge in clinker exports from Nigeria.

Shareholders also ratified a final dividend of ₦45.00 a share for 2025, a 50 percent increase on the ₦30.00 paid the previous year, disbursed on July 2.

The company operates across ten African countries beyond Nigeria, including Ivory Coast, Ethiopia and South Africa, with installed capacity above 55 million tonnes a year. Aliko Dangote has said he intends to lift that to 100 million tonnes by 2030, with new plant construction under way in Nigeria aimed at export markets.

A daughter on the board her father left

Mariya Dangote joined the cement board in July last year, immediately after her father stepped down as chairman after two decades. Shareholders formally approved her appointment at the same July annual meeting that cleared the London listing.

She holds a law degree from Bayero University in Kano and an MBA from Coventry University, and joined Dangote Industries in 2016 as a business strategy and risk specialist. She became executive director of operations at Dangote Sugar Refinery, where she led a digitisation programme, before being named group executive director for commercial operations across the cement and food businesses in February.

Her sisters were given expanded roles in the same restructuring. Halima Dangote runs the family office and the group's Dubai and London operations. Fatima Dangote leads commercial operations for the energy division, which includes the Lagos refinery, fertiliser and upstream exploration.

The listing sits inside a wider capital markets programme. The group raised about $2.5 billion in a private placement for its refinery this week and is preparing an initial public offering for that business, having also weighed a listing for its fertiliser unit. Together the transactions would amount to the largest public market expansion ever attempted by an African industrial group.