Dangote Cement Plc is prioritising a secondary listing in London over Dubai, saying the UK market offers a faster and more practical route to raising capital than the Gulf financial hub.
Mariya Dangote, a board member of Dangote Cement, said the company considered Dubai but concluded that the listing process would take considerably longer.
“It’s compatible with our business,” Mariya Dangote said in an interview with Bloomberg. “We thought of the secondary listing in Dubai, but it would have taken us years to list.”
The company, which is already listed on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), has long pursued plans to broaden its investor base through an international listing. It first announced plans for a London listing in 2011, but the move has yet to materialise.
The renewed push comes as the Dangote Group accelerates expansion across its core businesses, including cement, oil refining, fertiliser and sugar.
The group is also preparing to list shares in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in August, a move expected to deepen investor participation in one of Africa’s largest industrial assets.
The planned London listing reflects the group’s strategy of accessing deeper pools of international capital while increasing the visibility of its flagship businesses among global investors.
Dangote Cement is the third most valuable stock on the Nigerian Exchange after Airtel Africa and MTNN with valuation of N17.4 trillion as of the time of filing this report.
Its shares have gained nearly 70 percent since the beginning of this year, reflecting sustained investor confidence in the stock.
Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has in recent years expanded the conglomerate’s footprint beyond cement into energy and petrochemicals, with the 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery now at the centre of the group’s growth ambitions.
