Investors With Br10 Million Can Buy Into Dangote Refinery IPO Through Ethiopian Depository Receipts

Betegbar Yaregal

#EBR_News Oct 15, 2026

Ethiopian investors with at least Br10 million in capital will be able to buy into the Dangote Petroleum Refinery initial public offering (IPO) through Ethiopian depository receipts priced at Br74.90 per share.

The Ethiopian Securities Exchange (ESX) and Dangote Industries Limited presented the arrangement at an investor roadshow in Addis Ababa on Thursday. ESX Chief Executive Yodit Kassa described the offering as a first for the Ethiopian market.

Ethiopian Capital Market Authority (ECMA) Director General Dagmawit Shiferaw told EBR that qualification requires at least Br10 million, excluding a car and a home, held in a bank account for the past six months. She said banks and insurance companies can also participate.

Under current arrangements the offer is limited to qualified investors. ECMA’s notice on Tuesday capped the number of investors at 100 unless the Authority grants approval. Dagmawit said the cap may soon be updated, which could allow more investors to join.

Peter Ashade, chief executive of United Capital, explained how the process works. Investors first register interest and complete an application form that meets ECMA rules and know-your-customer checks.

Applications are pooled and submitted as a single block through a nominee arrangement in Nigeria. Investors pay only after allotment is announced, within two working days, rather than upfront. Peter said this is unusual in African markets. Dividend arrangements are being worked out with the parties involved.

A depository receipt is a certificate issued locally that represents a share held abroad. Each receipt represents one Dangote share, which a nominee holds in Nigeria. A custodian in Ethiopia will receive the shares, and the receipts will be issued to successful investors.

According to the presentation, the joint distributors, United Capital, CBE Capital and Wegagen Capital, will then seek ECMA and ESX approval to list the receipts, which would trade in line with the Nigerian share price.

Listing therefore remains subject to regulatory approval. Peter also said Kenya and Botswana are following similar routes.

According to the offer terms presented, Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE is selling 4.1 billion new shares at ₦525 each, a base offer of ₦2.15 trillion (about $1.6 billion). Group Chief Financial Officer Murat Arden said ten shares cost about $3.7.

The offer is fixed-price and can rise to ₦2.80 trillion with a 30 percent over-allotment option, which Reuters has put at up to $2.1 billion. The shares will list on the Nigerian Exchange’s (NGX) main board. The offer terms say the proceeds will fund a second refining train, taking capacity from about 700,000 to 1.4 million barrels a day.

Presenting management accounts, Murat said the refinery earned $22.5 billion in revenue in the first nine months of 2026, about 2.5 times last year’s. EBITDA, a measure of operating profit, reached $5.5 billion, including $2.9 billion in the third quarter alone, against $2.6 billion for the whole first half.

Murat reported profit after tax of $4.7 billion, cash of $6.7 billion, operating cash flow of $3.7 billion and a net margin of 21 percent. The numbers are unaudited.

Asked by EBR whether the profits can last, given reports that the refinery has benefited from the Middle East disruption, Peter said demand within Africa would sustain the business “either there is war in the Middle East or not.”

Aliko Dangote said orders have already exceeded the target more than fourfold, but too few come from African investors. That is why the closing date moved from 13 to 27 October. Peter said, citing information from the Dangote team, that almost 51 of Africa’s 54 countries are taking part in some form.

Dagmawit said the aim is to widen access over time. ECMA and Nigeria’s regulator have begun alignment talks, and retail investors, more issuances and a broader range of products could follow as regulatory cooperation advances.

Temi Popoola, Group Managing Director of NGX, said the deal should be seen as a test of cross-border investing rather than simply a capital raise. He said foreign exchange and market infrastructure have long hindered such links, and noted that NGX is a strategic investor in ESX.

Dangote also tied the offer to the group’s Ethiopian plans. He said investment here has reached about $5 billion, covering a 3-million-tonne fertiliser plant at Gode, 140 megawatts of power generation, a new cement plant and a cement plant acquired from the government.

He said a Djibouti–Ethiopia fuel pipeline with a tank farm was launched about ten days ago. He said the group intends to sell at least 10 percent of the Ethiopian fertiliser business on ESX.

Speaker of the House of Peoples’ Representatives Ahmed Shide said the partnership between Ethiopian Investment Holdings and Dangote covers both the Gode complex and the Djibouti pipeline. He stressed that investor protection must go hand in hand with market development.

The offer closes on 27 October. Whether Ethiopia becomes a genuine venue for African securities depends on ECMA and ESX approving the receipt listing, and on whether the qualified-investor limits are relaxed. If Dangote follows through on the fertilizer listing, ESX would also gain its first large locally generated issuance.