Crypto News: Next Africa: Landmark listing

Welcome to Next Africa, a daily newsletter on where the continent stands now — and where it’s headed. Sign up here. In today’s edition, we look at:

Plans to list Aliko Dangote’s refinery in Nigeria
Sierra Leone’s ex-president returns after charges dropped
UN-backed plans for more accurate world maps

A Mega IPO for a Mega Refinery

The countdown to Africa’s biggest initial public offering has begun.

Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals, which operates the continent’s largest refinery and is controlled by billionaire Aliko Dangote, plans to sell 4.1 billion shares priced at $0.40 each.

That will bring in more than $1.6 billion to help fund its expansion, adding to the $2.5 billion it raised in a private placement.

The offer will open in a week and the stock is expected to begin trading on the Nigerian exchange in November. The firm will use the money to almost double the facility’s existing crude-processing capacity of 700,000 barrels a day.

WATCH: Bloomberg’s Anthony Osae-Brown reports on the IPO.

Watch now — WATCH: Bloomberg’s Anthony Osae-Brown reports on the IPO.

The listing will be a significant milestone for Nigeria’s capital markets and extend a growing continental trend.

Other companies that have sold shares to the public this year include Ghana’s ZEN Petroleum, Moroccan healthcare technologies distributor T2S, premium grocer Gourmet Egypt and Kenya Pipeline Co.

The Dangote offer will value the refinery business at almost $50 billion, equivalent to the combined market capitalization of the three biggest firms that currently trade on the Lagos bourse.

The timing is opportune. Nigerian equities have been surging, with the main index up more than 70% in dollar terms this year — the world’s best performance after South Korea’s Kospi.

The West African country is also due to regain its frontier-market status in FTSE Russell’s equity indexes on Sept. 21. The reclassification will boost its visibility among international investors and could spur purchases by funds that track the benchmarks. The refinery listing will help deepen liquidity and attract even more foreign capital.

For Africa’s richest person, a successful IPO will further validate his decision to personally put up most of the $20 billion it cost to build a plant that’s now a critical supplier of refined fuel to the region and beyond. — Nduka Orjinmo

Dangote during the refinery’s commissioning ceremony in 2023.

What Everyone’s Reading

MTN has been meeting with international bond investors after a decade out of the eurobond market as Africa’s largest mobile-network operator pursues a major acquisition and a significant debt comes due next month. The meetings were part of a non-deal roadshow, indicating no specific transaction was being marketed, while laying the foundations for a new issue should MTN pursue one, sources say.

South African agricultural exports rose 10% in the second quarter from the same period a year ago, buoyed by higher volumes and better prices, and as shipments to the US surged. Agriculture has been a rare bright spot for the economy, with exports rising steadily over the past two decades thanks to a growing citrus industry and a diversification into other types of fruits and nuts.

Former Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma, accused of plotting to overthrow the government in 2023, has returned from Nigeria after criminal charges against him were dropped. Koroma was accused of treason and placed under house arrest following the coup attempt in which at least 21 people died. He was later granted bail on medical grounds and allowed to leave for Nigeria.

Spain’s government has taken over Ceuta’s port to shelter hundreds of migrants living on streets and beaches more than a month after a mass influx from Morocco overwhelmed the North African enclave. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is still grappling with the fallout from the late-July incident, in which about 80,000 people illegally crossed into Ceuta, with dozens dying in the attempt.

Angola plans to raise as much as $228 million from the sale of a 34% stake in Standard Bank de Angola previously held by a jailed former insurance tycoon. The Angolan government in 2020 seized a 49% stake in the lender from Carlos São Vicente, who was later convicted of crimes including embezzlement and tax fraud.

Thank you for your responses to our weekly Next Africa Quiz and congratulations to Jacob Lubner, who was first to correctly identify Egypt as the nation that’s home to the recently built tallest building in Africa.

Behind the Numbers

South Africa has a raft of data out this week. Firstly, the Iran war’s oil shock likely slowed GDP growth in the second quarter as it squeezed demand, writes Bloomberg Economics’ Yvonne Mhango. The print will be published on Tuesday.

Thursday’s current-account data is expected to show the balance swung into deficit in the three months through June, reversing two quarters of surpluses, as higher fuel imports swelled the import bill.

Manufacturing and mining data for July will offer the first glimpse of third-quarter output. Monthly production probably picked up modestly, but likely fell from a year ago.

Last Word

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for world maps to more accurately reflect the relative size of Africa and other regions, over the objections of the US. The so-called Mercator projection, in use since the 16th century, makes Africa look comparatively small while inflating the size of land masses further away from the equator. As a result, the continent appears to be roughly as big as Greenland, even though it’s about 14 times as large. The US opposition echoed the Trump administration’s broader campaign against what it calls “woke” policies.