Mariya Dangote Explains Why London Won Dangote Cement Listing

Executive says fewer regulatory hurdles and stronger investor access made London preferable to Dubai for international listing plans.

The Dangote Group has explained why it chose the London Stock Exchange ahead of Dubai for the planned international listing of Dangote Cement, saying the UK market offers faster execution, deeper liquidity and a more attractive regulatory environment for global investors.

Besides, the conglomerate has reaffirmed its ambition to become a $100 billion industrial empire by 2030.

The disclosures were made in separate interviews with Bloomberg by Mariya Dangote, a board member of Dangote Cement Plc, and Fatima Dangote, Executive Director, Oil and Gas, Dangote Group, providing fresh insight into the conglomerate’s capital market strategy and long-term expansion plans.

Mariya Dangote said the company decided to pursue a secondary listing in London because investors can buy and sell shares more quickly on the UK exchange than on alternative international exchanges, including Dubai.

According to her, recent reforms in the UK’s capital market regulations have significantly improved London’s attractiveness as a destination for emerging market companies seeking international capital, making it the preferred venue for Dangote Cement’s planned overseas listing.

The secondary listing, expected before the end of 2026, will complement the company’s primary listing on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), enabling global institutional investors across Europe and North America to trade Dangote Cement shares directly in major international currencies without the settlement and foreign exchange constraints associated with local markets.

The move is also expected to broaden the company’s investor base while improving access to long-term international capital as it pursues an ambitious expansion programme across Africa, with the company offering about 10 per cent of its equity to foreign institutional investors as part of the exercise.

“It will happen maybe by the end of this year, you know, the secondary listing, and we are planning to list in London because I think we compared many like stock exchanges. London is the one that is compatible with our business. Before, we thought of the secondary listing in Dubai, but the rules, you know, will make it hard for us to do the primary listing in Dubai.

“There are many regulatory compliance that we have to do, and it will take us more years, and we have been talking about this listing for almost like I think six or five years, more than that.  I’m confident because we did all our background checks and everything. 

“As I’m talking now, you know, we have our lawyers, our financiers, and every other person, and even the team are working day and night to see if there is anything that will stop the listing, and as I’m talking now, nothing, no constraint for now,” she stated.

Dangote Cement, Africa’s largest cement producer, currently has an installed production capacity of about 55 million metric tonnes annually across 11 African countries and plans to increase that figure to more than 80 million tonnes by 2030.

The planned London listing forms part of a larger capital market strategy by Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), which also includes plans to list the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and its fertiliser business in the coming years.

The overseas listing follows recent comments by President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, who indicated that several of the group’s businesses remained privately held, resulting in what he described as an understatement of the value of his assets.

Speaking previously, Dangote had said: “Most of our businesses are not listed yet… It will come out soon.”

In a related interview with Bloomberg, Fatima Dangote reaffirmed the conglomerate’s Vision 2030, saying the group remains firmly committed to transforming itself from a business generating about $20 billion in annual revenue into a $100 billion industrial powerhouse by the end of the decade.

She disclosed that the company expects annual revenue to increase to about $80 billion within the next three years before reaching the $100 billion milestone by 2030.

The executive explained that achieving the target would require about $40 billion in fresh investment, to be raised through a combination of the planned initial public offering (IPO) of the Dangote Refinery, the sale of a stake in the group’s fertiliser business and the secondary London listing of Dangote Cement.

Describing the long-term strategy, Fatima Dangote said: “What drives all of us is to see that we actually attain Vision 2030. Vision 2030 is not the end. It’s just the beginning.”

The latest disclosure provides the clearest indication yet of how the Dangote Group intends to finance one of Africa’s most ambitious private-sector expansion programmes.

At the centre of the strategy is the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Petroleum Refinery near Lagos, which the group plans to expand to about 1.4 million barrels per day by 2028, positioning it among the world’s largest refining complexes.

The conglomerate is also pursuing expansion beyond Nigeria, including plans to replicate its refinery model in Kenya’s coastal town of Lamu, where a proposed refinery is expected to cost about $17 billion.

Beyond refining, the group plans to double fertiliser production from six million tonnes to 12 million tonnes annually through expansion projects in Nigeria and Ethiopia, while Dangote Cement is targeting production capacity of more than 80 million tonnes by 2030.

The Dangote Group’s interests also span sugar refining, salt processing, ports, shipping, mining, power generation, automotive assembly and real estate.

“It is good that there’s one of the biggest IPOs about to happen within the continent, but for me it is the participation of both Africans and people outside of Africa into this story that Dangote Group is trying to sell. So we’re selling a story that Africa is able to industrialise at scale, not just a scale, but a global scale. It’s telling a story that Africa is able to conceive an idea, finance it, and manage a mega project at a global level.

“So it’s not just an IPO selling shares, it’s showing the world that Africa has entered into the new phase of industrialisation,” Fatima pointed out.

Speaking on the group’s global appeal, Fatima Dangote added: “We are already an African giant and we attract a lot of investors both locally and internationally.”