By Abubakar Yunusa
Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has said the initial public offering of his refinery business failed to attract the targeted 10 million investors, blaming the shortfall on time constraints and difficulties prospective shareholders faced accessing the offer.
Dangote, however, said the IPO attracted millions of investors, describing the level of participation as significant despite falling short of the target.
He disclosed this at the 25th annual conference of the Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ) in Lagos.
The billionaire businessman said the exact number of investors was yet to be officially established.
“We cannot tell the figure right away because we have not reported to this, but we’ve gotten an amazing demand from various people,” he said.
Dangote said the participation recorded by the refinery IPO was substantial compared with major public offerings in Africa and other parts of the world.
He cited Kenya’s Safaricom IPO, which attracted fewer than 900,000 investors, and Saudi Aramco’s global offering, which recorded about five million investors.
“Even in Kenya, Safaricom was the largest, less than 900,000. Saudi Aramco worldwide was about five million. So, and I’m sure we are not that far away,” he said.
Explaining why the refinery failed to meet its 10 million-investor target, Dangote said the offer period was insufficient, while many prospective investors struggled to understand how to participate.
“We didn’t hit the 10 million because of time constraint, and a lot of people, they didn’t know how to access,” he said.
He, however, described the response as evidence of growing confidence in public investment opportunities in Africa.
“But it’s the shared trust of public enterprise that we have today in Africa, and that’s why people are now beginning to remove that money under their mattresses to go and invest,” he added.
The Dangote refinery IPO, tagged ‘The People’s IPO’, offered 4.1 billion shares at N525 each.
The minimum subscription was 10 shares, costing N5,250.
The offer opened on September 14 and was later extended to October 27.
Before the commencement of the IPO, Dangote had announced a target of 10 million retail investors as part of efforts to expand ownership of the refinery beyond institutional investors and wealthy individuals.
Reuters had reported that more than two million investors subscribed through digital channels before the offer closed.
The offering also attracted about N6.4tn in orders from retail and institutional investors, approximately three times the targeted offer size.
Dangote had earlier disclosed that applications came from 120 countries, including all 54 African countries.
Asked whether the IPO had changed his perception of Africa’s capacity to mobilise capital locally, the industrialist said the experience had significantly altered his outlook.
“I think yes, it has actually changed. It has changed things dramatically. Things are really changing very fast,” he said.
Never miss a moment! Get the stories shaping Nigeria, delivered straight to your phone. Follow Peoplesdaily Newspaper on WhatsApp for breaking news, exclusive reports, and the headlines everyone will be talking about, before anyone else.
