Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote's cement giant lines up $1 billion London listing

Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote's Dangote Cement Plc has added Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and UBS Group AG as bookrunners for a London listing that could raise about $1 billion as early as November, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The offering would be a secondary sale in which existing shareholders sell about 10% of the company, the largest cement producer in Africa, according to the report, as syndicated by Briefs Finance and Business Post Nigeria. Investor meetings are set to begin on Oct. 27 in London, South Africa and Dubai, and the timing of the deal depends on market conditions.

Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Standard Bank Group are already global coordinators, while First Abu Dhabi Bank and Emirates NBD have also joined as bookrunners. Dangote Cement and the banks declined to comment, according to the report.

Dangote, Africa's richest person with a fortune Forbes puts at $51.7 billion, owns about 86% of Dangote Cement, according to Nairametrics. The report did not identify which shareholders would sell. His stake was worth ₦15.63 trillion ($11.7 billion) at the end of September, when the stock closed at ₦1,066.70, Nairametrics calculated, making the cement maker the largest single source of his listed wealth.

A decade-old plan

The sale would revive a project Dangote has weighed for years. Dangote Cement first explored a London listing in 2011, and it revisited the idea in 2018, when it added British lawyer Cherie Blair and mining executive Mick Davis to its board. That attempt was shelved as the company ran into UK listing requirements and Dangote focused on building his oil refinery near Lagos.

He revived the plan in May, telling the Financial Times that recent UK rule changes had made London attractive. "We ended up saying London is good as they have brought down the minimum listing requirements," he said. "We want to do a dual listing. We've been thinking about it for seven to 10 years."

The company had initially targeted September. It held a capital markets day in London on Sept. 21 to meet investors, and shareholders approved the secondary listing at the company's annual general meeting in Lagos in July. The shares would continue to trade on the Nigerian Exchange, where Dangote Cement has been listed since 2010.

Dangote Cement is valued at more than $12 billion in Lagos, BusinessDay reported. The company operates in 11 African countries with installed capacity of more than 55 million tons a year and plans to raise that to 100 million tons by 2030.

Earnings growth

The cement maker's profits have climbed with higher prices and volumes. Revenue rose 21.4% to ₦2.51 trillion ($1.88 billion) in the six months through June, and profit after tax increased 22.7% to ₦638.5 billion ($479.5 million), according to BusinessDay. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization grew 25.8% to ₦1.19 trillion ($893.6 million).

In 2025, the company's profit after tax more than doubled to ₦1.015 trillion, on revenue of ₦4.31 trillion and sales of 27.5 million tons, Business Post reported. Shareholders ratified a final dividend of ₦45 a share for the year.

The London plan is part of a wider push by Dangote to raise money from public markets for his businesses. His Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE is selling 4.1 billion shares at ₦525 each in Lagos to raise about $1.6 billion, in an offer that closes on Oct. 27, the same day the cement roadshow is due to start. The refinery also sold $750 million of eurobonds in July, and Dangote Fertiliser issued $750 million of debt in April, according to the report.

The people familiar with the deal said the sale is meant to widen the company's international investor base and test how the market values the business beyond Lagos. Management has said a London listing would provide a global valuation benchmark alongside the company's primary listing in Nigeria, BusinessDay reported.