The Dangote refinery's share sale has pulled in ordinary Nigerians at scale. About 1.55 million unique subscribers applied online for shares in Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals, committing more than ₦860 billion, Nairametrics reports, citing sources with knowledge of the transaction. Those sources say the total number of retail investors could reach about five million once applications made offline are counted. Nairametrics describes that figure as provisional.
The offer of 4.1 billion new shares at ₦525 each, worth about ₦2.15 trillion, closed on 27 October after the Securities and Exchange Commission extended it from 13 October. The refinery has said the offer was fully subscribed, but it has not published how much it raised or how many people applied.
Three times the target
Demand ran far ahead of the offer. Orders from Nigerian retail and institutional investors reached about ₦6.4 trillion, or $4.78 billion, roughly three times the target, Reuters reported on 28 October, citing two people with knowledge of the deal. Reuters said the company was expected to use its greenshoe option, which could lift the size of the offering to as much as $2.1 billion, and that the order book could grow once subscriptions from other African countries are added. A Dangote spokesperson declined to comment on demand or the greenshoe.
Reuters also reported more than two million investors applying through digital channels. Nairametrics' figures may explain the gap: its sources count about 2.2 million online transactions, made by about 1.55 million unique people.
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The offer ran through banks, stockbrokers and fintech apps, and an investment app led the online count. According to Nairametrics' sources:
- Bamboo handled more than 600,000 applications, worth about ₦99 billion, the most transactions of any channel.
- Zenith Bank took in about ₦98 billion, FirstBank about ₦60 billion and Chapel Hill about ₦57 billion.
- The Nigerian Exchange's own channel recorded about 60,000 applications worth ₦36.4 billion.
Much of the remaining retail demand came through groups rather than apps. Sources told Nairametrics that many people bought through community purchases, associations and organisations, with outreach to student and market associations, and to members of the police and the army through their associations.
The sale opened on 14 September, when Aliko Dangote sounded the gong on the Nigerian Exchange trading floor in Lagos. The exchange said it was the first petroleum refinery offered to investors in its 66-year history. The minimum application was 10 shares, or ₦5,250. The sale was billed as "The People's IPO", and Dangote urged teachers, artisans, civil servants and students to buy in. The company's stated aim was about 10 million unique subscribers, and it has named purchasing power as a constraint during the sale, Nairametrics reports. The company says applications came from 120 countries, including all 54 African nations.
What happens next
Allotment comes next. Reuters reported that allocation would begin in the week after the close, with a listing on the Nigerian Exchange planned for November. Once the regulator clears the basis of allotment, applicants will learn how many shares they got. Until the company publishes its own figures, the subscriber and order counts remain those of people close to the deal. TheStak covered the final days of the offer last week.
