Dangote Group has discussed listing its refinery on multiple African stock exchanges to broaden participation in a $1.6 billion initial public offering, though differences in regulatory requirements across markets have complicated the effort, the head of Ivory Coast's regional stock exchange disclosed.
Edoh Kossi Amenounve, Chief Executive Officer of the Abidjan-based Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM), told Reuters that discussions began in April following an invitation from Dangote Group. The talks focused on how stock exchanges across the continent could participate in the IPO despite the varying listing regulations that govern each market. "It was not easy to have a kind of consensus on how the IPO can be conducted in all these different markets," Amenounve said.
One approach under consideration involves Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs), which would allow securities representing Dangote refinery shares to be listed on other African exchanges. Amenounve cited similar arrangements already in place in Kenya and Botswana as examples of how this structure could work. The refinery's IPO, which closed on October 28, drew subscription demand of about N6.4 trillion ($4.77 billion) from Nigerian retail and institutional investors, roughly three times the value of shares offered. The shares are expected to be listed on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) later in November.
Amenounve highlighted a significant obstacle: companies seeking listings across multiple African markets must currently obtain separate approvals from the securities regulators in each jurisdiction. He argued that this process could be streamlined through regulatory harmonisation and mutual recognition among African regulators. "If you want to ease this kind of process, maybe it is time to think about harmonisation and mutual recognition," he said. The technological infrastructure for cross-border securities trading is already available through the African Exchanges Linkage Project (AELP), but regulatory barriers continue to prevent its full use.
In a separate development, Amenounve disclosed that BRVM has postponed the launch of West Africa's first derivatives market to 2027 due to outstanding regulatory and technological requirements. Initial products are expected to include forward contracts on market indices and selected stocks.