Nigerian businessman, Mr Aliko Dangote, is planning a London listing of his cement subsidiary this year, sixteen years after listing on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited.
The secondary listing move for Dangote Cement Plc would provide the company with the much-needed boost for the United Kingdom market, Mr Dangote told the Financial Times.
As part of the move, about 10 per cent of the shares in the company would be sold to outside investors, he added.
“We want to do a dual listing. We’ve been thinking about it for seven to 10 years,” said Mr Dangote, adding that his business had entered “the busiest period” of his life.
Dangote Cement Plc was listed on the then-Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in 2010. The stock has appreciated by more than 70 per cent this year alone.
The Dangote Group already has several subsidiaries listed on the Nigerian Exchange, including Dangote Cement, Dangote Sugar Refinery and Nascon Allied Industries.
The billionaire also announced this week a decision to foray into electricity generation, with a 20,000-megawatt project in the pipeline. Other plans include expanding his 650,000 barrels per day refinery to around 1.4 million barrels per day, as well as plans to construct another refinery to serve the East African nations of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. It also plans to list the Lagos-based refinery across multiple African countries.
“We ended up saying London is good as they have brought down the minimum listing requirements,” Mr Dangote told the newspaper.
To carry out the London listing push, Dangote Cement has selected banks to advise on the move, including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Standard Bank, FT said, according to people familiar with the matter.
This indicates that the move is gaining ground after previous moves to list the cement company in England failed in the past. It is also boosted by recent changes by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority to overhaul listing rules to boost the attractiveness of the market.
The cited sources said the final decision will depend on the market environment and investor demand.
Dangote Cement, separately, operates across 14 African countries. It is the continent’s dominant cement producer and has operations ranging from Nigeria and Ethiopia to South Africa and Senegal.
