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Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote lost about $640 million on Monday after shares of Dangote Cement, his most valuable listed company, fell 5.5% on the Nigerian Exchange.
The cement maker’s stock dropped ₦58.70 to close at ₦1,008, leading a broad sell-off that wiped ₦1.47 trillion off the market value of Nigerian stocks, Nairametrics reported. The benchmark All-Share Index fell 0.91% to 245,278.34, and total market capitalization slipped to ₦159.26 trillion from ₦160.73 trillion on Friday.
Dangote holds about 14.65 billion Dangote Cement shares directly and indirectly, based on Nairametrics’ valuation of his holdings at the end of September. At Monday’s decline, that stake lost about ₦860 billion in value in a single session.
Even after the drop, the stake is worth about ₦14.8 trillion. Dangote Cement has a market value of more than ₦17 trillion, making it one of the largest companies on the Lagos bourse.
The fall erased Dangote Cement’s gains since the end of the third quarter. The stock rose 10.8% between June 30 and Sept. 30, from ₦963 to ₦1,066.70, lifting the value of Dangote’s holdings in the cement maker by ₦1.52 trillion over the period. It closed at the same ₦1,066.70 level on Friday before Monday’s slide.
Nairametrics did not give a reason for the decline. The NGX Industrial Index, where Dangote Cement carries the most weight, fell to 10,140.51 from 10,442.95.
Dangote also holds stakes in Dangote Sugar Refinery and NASCON Allied Industries. At the end of September, his combined holdings in the three listed companies were worth ₦16.54 trillion, according to Nairametrics, up ₦1.47 trillion from the end of June.
Banking stocks also fell. Shares of United Bank for Africa, where Nigerian tycoon Tony Elumelu stepped down as chairman in August, dropped 2.33%. Zenith Bank, founded by billionaire Jim Ovia, slipped 1.59%, while Access Holdings lost 1.93% and Guaranty Trust Holding fell 1.44%. Ecobank Transnational led the banking decliners with a 4.76% drop.
Dangote’s attention is on his oil refinery, which is in the final week of a ₦2.15 trillion ($1.6 billion) share sale, the largest IPO in Nigeria’s history. The offer closes on Oct. 27. At an analyst’s target price, his stake in the refinery would be worth about $55 billion.
He said recently that his $100 billion revenue target for 2030 is too modest. Dangote is Africa’s richest person.
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