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Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote's oil refinery is set to start trading on the Nigerian Exchange in early December, a debut that would value the company at about ₦65.2 trillion ($47.8 billion) at its offer price and push the value of the Lagos stock market toward ₦230 trillion.
Trading could begin around Dec. 8, later than the November debut planned when the share sale opened in September. Under the revised offer timetable, registrars were due to finish collating applications by Nov. 3, and the basis of allotment is due to go to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 10. Approval from the regulator is targeted for Nov. 17, after which shares will be credited to successful investors' accounts at the Central Securities Clearing System. The listing date has not been formally confirmed and depends on the SEC's sign-off and the exchange's own requirements.
Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE offered 4.1 billion new shares at ₦525 each, seeking about ₦2.15 trillion ($1.58 billion). Orders from Nigerian retail and institutional investors reached about ₦6.4 trillion ($4.7 billion), roughly three times the amount sought, when the offer closed on Oct. 27 after a two-week extension. Investors in 120 countries applied.
The company can sell up to 30% more shares if demand exceeds the base offer, subject to regulatory approval. Using that option in full would lift the sale to about 5.33 billion shares and ₦2.8 trillion ($2.05 billion). The company has not said whether it will do so.
A $48 billion debut
The ₦65.2 trillion valuation is based on 124.23 billion shares, the 120.13 billion already in issue plus the 4.1 billion new ones, priced at ₦525. If the extra shares are sold, the value at the offer price would rise to about ₦65.9 trillion ($48.3 billion).
The Nigerian Exchange's equity market was valued at a record ₦164.9 trillion ($121 billion) on Oct. 27. Adding the refinery would take it to about ₦230 trillion, the figure Temi Popoola, chief executive officer of NGX Group, gave President Bola Tinubu in August as his forecast for the end of 2026. The refinery would also become by far the largest company on the exchange, ahead of Dangote Cement Plc and Airtel Africa Plc.
At the offer price, the refinery alone would be worth about 40% of everything now listed on the exchange.
The size of the order book has also raised expectations for other large share sales in Nigeria. Bayo Ojulari, group chief executive officer of state oil company NNPC Ltd., said on Tuesday that NNPC plans to sell 5% to 10% of its shares in an initial public offering aimed mainly at Nigerian investors, and may later seek a second listing in London or New York. He said preparations would likely take at least all of next year, so NNPC shares would not trade before 2027.
Dangote's stake
Dangote owns 104.83 billion shares of the refinery through Dangote Oil Refining Co., Dangote Industries Ltd. and other companies he controls, or 87.27% of the company before the offer. The new shares will reduce his holding to about 84.4% if only the base offer is sold. At the offer price, his stake is worth about ₦55 trillion ($40.3 billion).
The plant at the Lekki Free Zone near Lagos cost about $20 billion to build and has a nameplate capacity of 650,000 barrels of crude a day, making it the world's largest single-train refinery. Crude deliveries to the plant reached a record 735,000 barrels a day in October, and Dangote plans to use money from the IPO to help expand capacity to 1.4 million barrels a day by 2029. The refinery posted revenue of $22.5 billion and a net profit of $4.73 billion in the first nine months of 2026.
Dangote, 69, is Africa's richest person. He built Dangote Group from a commodity trading business he started in Lagos in the late 1970s into the continent's largest industrial conglomerate, with interests in cement, sugar, salt, fertilizer and oil refining. Dangote Cement, his biggest listed company, operates in 10 African countries.
Figures were converted at ₦1,365 to the dollar.
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