Dangote’s Wealth Set To Jump Past $56 Billion, Into World’s Top 40 On IPO

Nigerian billionaire, Aliko Dangote is currently worth $35.5 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index (BBI), ranking him as the 64th richest person globally, with $18.6 billion of that fortune attributed to his 92.3% stake in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery — a figure Bloomberg still calculates using the plant’s roughly $20 billion construction cost rather than a market price.

That is about to change however as MoneyCentral estimates that Dangote’s net worth would jump to $56.9 billion once his Refinery IPOs and starts trading on the Nigeria Exchange (NGX) in a weeks time.

Dangote plans to open the order book for the refinery’s initial public offering on September 14, selling 4.1 billion shares at N525 apiece, out of 120.13 billion ordinary shares that the Securities and Exchange Commission has now formally registered.

MoneyCentral estimates that this implies a total refinery valuation of roughly N63.07 trillion, or about $48 billion.

Breaking Down the Numbers

MoneyCentral’s analysis shows that if the IPO sells 4.1 billion shares at N525, with the SEC’s approval letter of 120.13 billion existing ordinary shares, it implies the true float being sold is about 3.41%.

The July private placement figures of $2.5 billion raised at $0.35 a share works out to almost exactly 7.14 billion shares, or 5.9% of the 120.13 billion share base. Meanwhile NNPC also owns a 7.25% stake.

Subtracting NNPC’s 7.25%, the private placement’s 5.9%, and the IPO’s 3.41% from 100% would yield 83.4% as the remaining stake held by the Dangote Group after the IPO.

Applied to a $48 billion valuation, that puts Dangote Group’s remaining stake at approximately $40.0 billion, and places Dangote’s implied new BBI net worth at approximately $56.9 billion.

Dangote Jumps to Top-40 on the Rich List

Bloomberg’s live Billionaire Index rankings as of Saturday September 5th placed Hong Kong’s Zeng Yuqun 33rd at $57.6 billion, Ken Griffin (United States) 34th at $57.5 billion, Eric Schmidt (United States) 35th at $57.4 billion, and Tencent’s Ma Huateng (China) 36th at $52.9 billion.

A net worth for Dangote in the $56.7-$57.1 billion range, according to MoneyCentral’s calculation would fall just below Schmidt and above Ma Huateng, which would place Dangote as the 36th richest person on earth.

The roughly $21 billion uplift to Dangote’s wealth described here would only crystallize once the refinery begins trading on the NGX and establishes a public market price, which is expected to happen in about a week from now on September 14th.