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00:00Thank you everyone. Aliko Dangote, it's so good to speak to you. What a week you've had.
00:05So Africa's biggest IPO opened on Monday. Frankly, it's just your biggest, boldest bet yet.
00:1119 billion Nigerian refinery that you've been building for a decade.
00:16You're also courting ordinary Africans. You've called the IPO the people's IPO.
00:20And you also have a wide-ranging platforms including fintechs, mobile phone operators, banks that are being tested because of
00:27your listing.
00:27So how's your week been?
00:31It's been going very, very well, really. We launched the IPO on Monday.
00:37So immediately after we started, I think the whole system crashed, including the banks.
00:46Only the stock exchange was actually running alive. But then we did it again.
00:55I think three days later it crashed again because of the number of traffic going in there to participate.
01:02But I'm sure right now they have stabilized. So going forward you have now a lot of other Africans
01:10because we have actually now gotten a way for them to now invest, you know, from Kenya, from Botswana, from
01:20South Africa.
01:22We are doing that with a few banks to see that they can go in there and have, you know,
01:28this thing.
01:28Because we are looking for 10 million subscribers.
01:30I mean, 10 billion is very...
01:3210 million, sorry, 10 million shareholders.
01:3510 million shareholders. So what's the take up been so far?
01:38Because in your prospectus you say that actually if it's really oversubscribed, you know, you'll issue 30% more.
01:45Do you think you'll have to issue more if there's an oversubscription?
01:49That one, we already have Greenshoe, which is now we are allowed to sell 30% more than what, you
01:57know, we requested for, which was 1.6 billion.
02:00But you know, the IPO that we are doing is actually to bring in democracy into capital markets in Africa,
02:09is to have Africans to be able to participate in this prosperity.
02:17We had a plan as of June, you know, to sell 2.5 billion dollars worth of, you know, shares.
02:25You know, we are not doing offer for sale, we are doing offer for subscription.
02:30So the money is going into the company for, you know, increasing our capacity,
02:35which will end up using partially our free cash flow.
02:40And our free cash flow is very, very huge now.
02:43And then we did what you call private placement, which was supposed to be a billion dollars.
02:49And the demand was 3.7 billion dollars, which we were paid in, but we had to refund.
02:55Instead of refunding them 2.7, we now took in 2.5 billion,
03:01which is the entire amount of money we wanted to raise, both in the private placement and IPO.
03:07So after returning 1.2 billion, we raised 2.5.
03:11Now we went back to still try and invite the smaller shareholders, you know,
03:17so they can have sense of belonging in what we are doing.
03:21And it's not really the refinery, you know, because other businesses that are coming into the exchange.
03:26But 10 million actually in shareholders is a massive number.
03:31Is there any doubts that you'll reach that?
03:34We'll reach that.
03:35Yes.
03:36You can be rest assured.
03:37I'm very confident we'll reach that.
03:38I mean, today as we speak, you know, we really look at, okay, fine, which is the biggest IPO in
03:47the world?
03:48The biggest, I think, was Saudi Aramco by just about 5 million subscribers.
03:55And what we said, okay, fine, this is Africa.
03:57We want to show that Africa is rising now.
04:00And that's why we went for 10 million.
04:02So how much, how much of the, you know, refineries exceptional profits from 2026 was because of what's happening in
04:12the Middle East and disruption to supplies?
04:14And what does a normalized market look like?
04:17Well, you see, at the moment, our own refinery has actually, in terms of health, it has even helped Europe
04:27more than Africa.
04:29You know, because today we're number one suppliers of jet fuel into Europe.
04:35Well, the biggest actually, you know, after anywhere else.
04:39So they have benefited quite a lot.
04:42By now, the plans that we have is actually addressing most of Africa's problems.
04:48You know, because in Africa, 54 countries, all the countries are importing petroleum products.
04:56And when you look at Africa, okay, why are we going in the next 24 years?
05:01We're going to be one quarter of the world's population.
05:07So we can't really now sit down until we get to that 24 years.
05:11Then we start looking around, how do you solve our issues?
05:14And that's why some of us now was in the, hey, guys, let's get out of this mess, because we
05:22have made so many mistakes in the past.
05:23We are now, we Africans, we are always calling on Europeans, Americans, all the, you know, foreigners to come and
05:33help to develop our continent.
05:35So we say that, no, that won't happen.
05:38Africa is not going to ask for aid anymore.
05:41We will now go in there and develop our continent.
05:45So what we are doing right now is trying to convert most of our raw materials that will be shipping
05:52at a very cheap price.
05:54Which means when you ship raw material, you are actually shipping jobs out, because we are not going to create
05:59any jobs.
06:00Then you import forward into your continent.
06:03So we have cancelled that now.
06:04We are doing massively, and I'm sure a lot of companies are going to join us.
06:09Because we have 46 to 50 billion dollars, which we are now investing back into the, you know, into the
06:18continent.
06:20I mean, talking of Dangote Group, that's what we are investing.
06:24Now, I'm sure a lot of people are going to follow suit.
06:27Talk to me about your fertilizer business, because actually this was really one of the key growth for Dangote Group.
06:34Is the business bringing in more or less than the refinery?
06:37And how do you see?
06:38It's not less than the refinery.
06:40Even though, let me also explain to you where we are going in the refinery.
06:44Where we are going in the refinery, we are expanding by first quarter, 2029.
06:49It's actually 2028 ending, but let me give ourselves, you know, some time, you know, just in case.
06:56So by 2029, we are going to be at 1.4 million barrels of capacity.
07:03Yeah.
07:03So when you talk about 1.4 million barrels of capacity, you might not really figure out how big that
07:09is.
07:09So we will now have 10% of United States total refining capacity.
07:18And we are going to have 2.4 million tons of petrochemical, which is folipropylene.
07:26We are going to have LAB, which is the raw material for making detergent.
07:31And we only have two factories producing that.
07:34Libya, I mean, not Libya, Egypt, 50,000 tons, and Algeria, 100,000 tons.
07:42And we still can find what's the biggest line.
07:44The biggest line today is 200,000.
07:48But we are building, the same thing we did with the refinery.
07:51We are now going to build 400,000 metric tons of LAB.
07:56Because we know in the next few years, Africa's population is going to really grow.
08:00It's young, vibrant.
08:02We have...
08:03Ambitious targets.
08:05It's ambitious, but you will hit them.
08:07Yeah, we will.
08:09Definitely.
08:10We will, you know, get there.
08:11But on...
08:12That's on the petroleum products.
08:14But when you talk about fertilizer, you remember during the...
08:18Four years ago, during the Ukraine...
08:20At the beginning of the Ukraine, Russia's crisis.
08:24I mean, African Union sent the chairman, President Mike Sal, to go and plead that we needed fertilizer.
08:31We are running out of fertilizer, you know, because they are our suppliers.
08:35And I saw that, so we made an announcement.
08:38I said in four years, Africa will not go and beg anybody for fertilizer.
08:43We are now going from 3 million tons to 12 million tons of urea.
08:50We are opening up potash mines.
08:53We are opening up phosphate mines.
08:55And we are also doing 2.2 million tons of DAP.
08:59So I think we alone can satisfy at least more than 40% of Africa's demand.
09:07And also the fertilizer will be there around the air.
09:10So it's not that they are going to start having issues when it is season to plant.
09:16They don't have fertilizers.
09:18And also African Bank have actually given a credit line of $6 billion that they can use,
09:28either for petroleum products or for fertilizer.
09:31Are you talking in partnerships with anyone?
09:33I know there's, you know, ADNOC, maybe someone that...
09:36No, we have actually everything we do by ourselves.
09:39We don't have partners.
09:40But that's why we are now looking for all this massive number of people to now become our partners.
09:46You must have seen that they've been calling me now for a board meeting.
09:50And the fertilizer, when will you IPO the Fertilizer University?
09:55Oh yeah.
09:55I mean, we will IPO it.
09:56It's a very...
09:57It's going to be the biggest fertilizer company on earth.
10:03Soon?
10:03Yes.
10:04How soon?
10:04It will be 2028.
10:07Depending, because you think market conditions are quite ripe?
10:11Yeah, very ripe.
10:12Yes.
10:12I mean, you know, we will continue to eat food.
10:15If you are going to eat food, you need fertilizer to grow food.
10:18Do you know where you're listing it?
10:20I mean, if you look at the refinery, that would be dual listed.
10:23If...
10:24The refinery will be dual listed.
10:26Yes.
10:27Refinery is going to be dual listing.
10:29So today we are listing primary listing in Nigeria.
10:32Yup.
10:33And then we will also list hopefully in New York.
10:37But that is after we deliver the expansion.
10:40Okay.
10:40So by 2029 ending, 2030 during our vision 2010, I'm sure we'll use that to celebrate our vision
10:522030.
10:53Aliku, you're also starting to work on this 2,650 kilometer pipeline, right?
11:00That will run from Namibia through Botswana and South Africa.
11:03How much money do you intend to spend on that?
11:08Right now, the budget is over $3.5 billion, but it's not the only pipeline we are doing.
11:16We are doing a couple of pipelines in Africa.
11:19I think by the time that we finish, I'm sure we'll end up with over almost 4,000 kilometers
11:25of pipeline.
11:27We are launching one this week, no, next week in Djibouti.
11:35Djibouti into Ethiopia, you know, with also tank farms so that they will have strategic
11:43reserves.
11:44And I think it will start in the next two months.
11:49But we are launching the project on the 24th.
11:51And then of course, we'll run also another one from Blamu into the other side of Ethiopia.
11:57Because we are going to launch also another $16 billion refinery.
12:04Same size as we have today in Nigeria, 700,000 barrels with petrochemicals in Kenya.
12:11I mean, what I find very impressive is that you take big bets, right?
12:15But when you take big bets, it's all about timing.
12:18So how do you know when to take a risk and to deploy capital and to build and, you know,
12:24versus being patient?
12:25Well, you know, Francine, right now, we are totally at a different level as a company,
12:31you know, because before we were trying to see, okay, fine, what are you going to do?
12:37Just like what I think, I think I told you before that if we knew what we are building,
12:43we wouldn't have started it.
12:45But right now, we are not only building one, we are building two at the same time,
12:51apart from the other massive expansions that we are doing.
12:54We have now reached a different level because we don't believe,
12:59I personally don't believe in baby steps.
13:02You know, we believe in doing things at scale because we know that we have the market.
13:07Why is the market?
13:08Because the market is that we are actually replacing, dumping into our continent.
13:13So the market is there.
13:14It's not the question of we don't have a market.
13:17So we have a market and we will deliver them on time.
13:22And let me also tell you something, nobody, and I repeat,
13:25nobody can put up a refinery in the world as fast as we can.
13:31That's why we put in both these two within a period of three years.
13:37How much, I mean, when you enter a new industry,
13:41again, what do you look for before committing billions?
13:45When?
13:46You know, when you enter a new market,
13:48you have to be absolutely convinced that it works before committing billions.
13:52So what do you look for when you decide to build a pipeline or a second refinery?
13:57Well, okay, let me give you, for example, the pipeline, we're actually building it to go into the landlocked countries.
14:06You know, a lot of African countries that are landlocked, you know, especially in the Eastern Africa part and also
14:12Central Africa.
14:13And they are finding it very difficult, you know, to get products.
14:18You know, products now, for example, even when things were okay, a country like Zimbabwe,
14:25they pay almost $1.50 per liter of gasoline.
14:30You know, so that's almost $6.00.
14:34You know, right now, I don't know they're paying.
14:36It must be very high.
14:38So what we are trying to do is to make life easy for them and also make the product very,
14:43very affordable.
14:45And that's why we are now taking the products into their market.
14:50And anybody who wants to really compete with us, we should meet in the market.
14:54And for the second refinery, how much of that jet fuel will again go to Europe?
14:59You must have heads of state calling you a lot.
15:01Well, you know, majority of our jet fuel is going to go into Europe and maybe Asia.
15:09Because let me give you a simple scenario.
15:11Today, as we speak, all the airlines, Air India, Emirates, Riyadh Air, the new one of Saudi Arabia,
15:21even small one like, you know, what do you call it?
15:26Ethiopia.
15:27Okay.
15:28It's hard.
15:29These five that I counted, they have more than 1,500 aircrafts on order between now and 2030.
15:39So if they are struggling today, why do you think they will get the aviation jet fuel?
15:44It's going to be very, very difficult.
15:46And that's why we'll come in to save them.
15:50Aliko Dangote, thank you so much.
15:52Thank you so much for joining us today.
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