Africa’s Richest Man Confirms September London Secondary Listing Plans For Cement Behemoth

Dangote Cement, listed in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos, has a market capitalization of over $12 billion after its shares more than doubled over the past year.

Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote plans a secondary listing of his cement business in London in September, reviving long-standing plans to bring the continent’s largest cement producer to international investors.

“We want to do a dual listing. We’ve been thinking about it for seven to 10 years,” Dangote told Financial Times (FT).

FT reported that about 10% of Dangote Cement could be sold to outside investors as part of the move.

Bloomberg later reported that Devakumar Edwin, Vice President at Dangote Industries, confirmed the plan in a text message.

The company operates in 11 African countries and aims to increase cement production capacity to 100 million metric tons annually by 2030 from 60 million currently.

Separately, Dangote told FT he also planned to sell up to a 15% stake in his oil refining business in an initial public offering in Lagos this year.

Dangote, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $31.9 billion in real-time data, recently explained to the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Managing Director Makhtar Diop how he started from “selling four trucks of cement everyday”.

“We will open Africa by demonstrating that we believe in Africa, by investing our money in Africa… Right now I have a mouth to say, hey, come and invest in Africa because I have demonstrated that, look, these things are possible,” Dangote said during the visit to the headquarters of the IFC, where he had a sit-down with Diop to explore the scale and urgency of building the continent’s economic future.