Nigeria's Dangote refinery aims to draw more retail investors than Aramco IPO, CEO says

Nigeria's ​Dangote Petroleum Refinery is using Saudi Aramco's blockbuster listing as a benchmark ‌for its own IPO in terms of retail subscribers, Chief Executive David Bird said on Tuesday. Speaking at the ‌Fujairah Energy Markets Forum, Bird said the refinery is ‌targeting 10 million retail investors for its planned initial public offering.

Last month, Nigeria's Dangote Group launched Africa's largest share sale yet ⁠in an ​initial public ⁠offering of its oil refinery that could raise 2.15 trillion naira ($1.6 ⁠billion), if fully subscribed. Aramco, which raised $29.4 billion in its 2019 ​IPO by over-allotment of shares, had said it would ⁠sell up to 0.5% of the state oil giant to ⁠retail ​investors.

"Our benchmark is the Aramco listing, which I think (had) over 4.5 million retail subscribers," Bird said. "So ⁠we are going to try and smash that with 10 ⁠million retail ⁠subscribers and we are well on our way."