Nigeria’s Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals has completed a $2.5bn private placement, bringing external investors into its shareholder base for the first time as it seeks funding for expansion and future growth.

The company said in a statement circulated on July 23 that it had issued and allotted about $2.5bn of new equity after receiving demand equivalent to 3.7 times the original offer size.

The company said it believed the transaction was Africa’s largest publicly disclosed primary equity private placement by value.

Proceeds will be used to expand the refinery and petrochemical complex, strengthen its capital structure and provide additional financial flexibility, the company said.

The placement attracted international and African institutional investors, sovereign-linked investment vehicles, development finance institutions and strategic partners.

The company identified Africa Finance Corporation and India Infra Buildco, an investment vehicle facilitated by Afreximbank, among the investors.

Dangote did not disclose the price of the new shares, the number issued, the post-transaction valuation or the resulting ownership structure. The original offer size was also not specified.

Aliko Dangote, president and CEO of Dangote Industries and chairman of the refinery, described the placement as “a strategic step to deepen and further institutionalise the Enterprise’s shareholder base, while raising capital to complement our internal cash flows and external funding, as DPRP advances its expansion agenda”.

“This further demonstrates our profound commitment to developing domestic refining and petrochemical capacity – reducing Africa’s reliance on imported refined products and strengthening the continent’s energy security,” he said.

Dangote Petroleum Refinery Managing Director and CEO David Bird said the level of demand reflected investor confidence in the company.

“The exceptional demand we saw is a testament to our operational excellence, execution capacity, and investor confidence in DPRP’s leadership,” Bird said.

Reuters reported in June that the refinery was seeking about $1bn through a pre-listing placement. The company’s subsequent announcement did not explain whether the offer was enlarged or whether the two figures referred to different stages of the fundraising.

The transaction is separate from the refinery’s proposed public listing. Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission said in June that no application for an initial public offering or public share offer had been filed or approved and ordered intermediaries to stop unauthorised public solicitation.

The equity raise is also separate from a $4bn syndicated term loan announced in March, of which Afreximbank underwrote $2.5bn.

Located in the Lekki Free Zone near Lagos, the refinery has a nameplate capacity of 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) and is among the world’s largest single-train refineries.

Dangote plans to expand the refinery’s processing capacity to 1.4mn bpd by 2028.