Dangote Refinery cuts debt to $3.65B ahead of Africa’s largest-ever IPO

Africa’s largest oil refinery has been quietly turning itself into a debt-repayment machine. Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals, the 650,000-barrel-per-day behemoth on the outskirts of Lagos, slashed its outstanding debt by $570 million in a recent paydown, bringing total borrowings down to roughly $3.65 billion from a peak north of $9 billion. That cleanup is no accident. The refinery is gearing up for what will be the continent’s biggest-ever share offering, a deal that could raise as much as $2.1 billion if overallotment options are exercised. The numbers behind the offering Dangote plans to sell 4.1 billion ordinary shares at a price of 525 Nigerian naira each, translating to a base raise of approximately $1.63 billion. With demand-driven expansion of up to 30%, the total could stretch to around $2.1 billion. At those figures, the IPO would value the refinery at somewhere in the range of $47 billion to $50 billion. The subscription window opens on September 14, 2026, and closes on October 13, with a minimum buy-in of just 10 shares. Listing is expected by November. A refinery that actually makes money During the first half of 2026, Dangote Petroleum posted revenue ...