Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote courts Egyptian investors as Cairo bourse weighs listing

Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote pitched Egypt as a core market for his industrial empire on Thursday, as the Egyptian Exchange said it was studying a mechanism that would let local investors buy into his companies, including the oil refinery now in the middle of a record share sale.

Dangote, Africa's richest person with a fortune Forbes puts at $51.7 billion, spoke at a press conference at the exchange in Cairo. "Egypt represents a central and active part of this major investment ecosystem," he said, laying out the group's strategy through 2030. Ahram Online, the English-language site of Egypt's state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper, reported that the group plans to invest $10 billion to $15 billion in Egypt.

That figure was not broken down by project or timetable. Amwal Al Ghad, a Cairo business publication that covered the same event, reported that Dangote said he was sure Egypt would be part of a $50 billion program to industrialize Africa, but that he did not name specific Egyptian projects or say how much of the money would go to the country.

Depositary receipts on the table

Omar Radwan, chairman of the Egyptian Exchange, said the bourse was studying Egyptian depositary receipts linked to shares of Dangote Group companies. The receipts would give Egyptian institutional investors and family offices a locally traded way to hold stakes in West African industrial assets without buying shares in Lagos, Amwal Al Ghad reported.

"We are ready to work alongside your leadership team to examine the operational modalities," Radwan said, according to the publication. He described the meeting as the start of a partnership between the Cairo and Lagos exchanges and said the proposal remained under study.

Rehab Sallam, head of international relations at the Egyptian Exchange, disclosed the talks with executives of Dangote Industries Ltd., the group's holding company, according to Nairametrics. Officials of the Nigerian Exchange Group attended the event.

George Elombi, president of the African Export-Import Bank, the Cairo-based lender known as Afreximbank, urged Egyptian investors to take part in the offering, even with small amounts, Ahram Online reported.

The refinery offer

An Egyptian program would add to cross-border access the refinery has already lined up. Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE is selling 4.1 billion shares at ₦525 each to raise about $1.6 billion, or up to $2.1 billion if an over-allotment option is used. The offer, which opened on Sept. 14, now closes on Oct. 27. Kenyan investors can take part through depositary receipts in Nairobi, Botswana will host a $500 million receipt program for Southern Africa, and Ethiopia has opened the offer to up to 100 qualified investors.

The Egyptian proposal is still at the study stage and neither side gave a launch date, so it is unclear whether it could be ready before the Nigerian books close.

Plans for the wider group

In Cairo, Dangote said Africa must stop exporting raw materials without processing them at home. "If we don't, as Africans, industrialise our continent, nobody else is going to," he said, according to Amwal Al Ghad.

He said the group is targeting annual revenue of at least $100 billion by 2030 and would fund its expansion through internal cash flow, equity and borrowing. Ahram Online reported that he outlined annual investments of $10 billion to $26 billion across energy, petrochemicals, construction materials and agriculture.

Projects he listed include a 530-kilometer subsea gas pipeline, up to 10,000 megawatts of power generation, a linear alkylbenzene plant with capacity of 400,000 metric tons a year that he called the world's largest, and expanded urea and polyethylene output. Dangote Cement, Africa's biggest cement maker, aims to lift capacity to 100 million tons a year by 2030. The Lagos refinery recently hit a record 700,000 barrels a day.

The Cairo appearance follows Dangote's meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Oct. 3 at the Alamein Africa Business Forum, where the group discussed investments in Egyptian energy, fertilizer and cement. El-Sisi's spokesman said at the time that the government was ready to provide "the necessary facilities." Dangote studied business at Al-Azhar University in Cairo.

A major investment in Egypt would be the group's first large move into North Africa, where Egypt already has established cement and fertilizer industries and a growing natural gas sector.