While the $1.6 billion target is heavily oversubscribed, the two-week extension aims to allow more individual African investors to buy a stake.
Aliko Dangote is delaying the close of his $1.6 billion refinery initial public offering by two weeks to give ordinary African investors more time to secure a stake. The offering was originally scheduled to close on Tuesday, but the deadline will now run until October 27.
The 700,000 barrel-a-day Lagos facility aims to double its production capacity through this fundraising effort. Although the offering has generated enough interest to raise three to four times the target amount, Dangote stated the extension prioritizes retail participation.
“We are going to extend the date because we want a lot of our African brothers and sisters to participate,” Dangote told journalists during a facility tour on Monday. “It is not about the amount, it is about the number of people that we want to participate.”
If the proposed expansion goes forward, the Lagos site will become the world’s largest oil refinery. This milestone would officially surpass the current capacity of India’s Jamnagar facility.
Meanwhile, Dangote recently broke ground on a new refinery project on Lamu island in Kenya. He promised the new development will create tens of thousands of jobs for the region. However, the project faces a lawsuit from the local community over land rights, and Greenpeace has raised objections regarding its environmental impact.
