Dangote Petroleum Refinery has secured a valuation of $39.1 billion as it moves to attract fresh investment through a private placement that is already generating strong interest from local and international investors.
The News Chronicle reports that the refinery is issuing 3 billion ordinary shares at $0.35 each in a capital-raising effort intended to raise around $1 billion. People conversant with the deal said that investor interest already exceeds $2 billion, which helps to drive up expectations of a possible oversubscription of the offer.
The valuation shows rising confidence in the refinery’s increasing significance in the energy sector of Nigeria and ranks it among Africa’s most valuable privately held industrial assets.
The 650,000 barrels-per-day plant has changed the fuel supply landscape in the nation since it began operations, reducing reliance on imported oil products and boosting local refining capacity.
The proceeds of the offer should help improve regional markets’ growth initiatives, logistics infrastructure, storage capacity, and distribution networks.
Industry insiders think the capital raise might open the door for a stock market listing, as Aliko Dangote has previously suggested.
The deal is also seen as a major test of investor interest in large-scale Nigerian industrial developments that would deliver long-term value and foreign-currency gains.
