Dangote vs MTN Nigeria vs Airtel Africa: Comparing Africa’s Biggest Listings

MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa are two of the most-cited large listings on the Nigerian Exchange, and both offer useful, verifiable comparison points for thinking about a future Dangote Refinery IPO.

MTN Nigeria listed on the NGX on May 16, 2019, but notably not through a traditional IPO; it used a “listing by introduction,” meaning existing shares became tradable on the exchange without the company raising new capital or existing shareholders selling stakes to the public at that point. It listed 20.4 billion shares at ₦90 each, adding roughly ₦1.8 trillion to the exchange’s market capitalization on day one and becoming the second-largest listed company on the NGX at the time, behind Dangote Cement.

Airtel Africa took a different path: it listed simultaneously on the London Stock Exchange (as its primary listing) and the NGX (as a secondary listing) in July 2019, following a book-building process. Its shares are structured to be fungible between London and Lagos, meaning investors can, subject to conditions, move their holdings between the two exchanges. Airtel Africa remains dual-listed today and is a constituent of the UK’s FTSE 100 index.

A Dangote Refinery IPO, based on what’s currently reported, is expected to differ from both: unlike MTN’s listing by introduction, it’s expected to be a genuine capital-raising IPO, selling new or existing shares to the public (reports have referenced up to 10% of the company) to raise fresh proceeds. And unlike Airtel Africa’s LSE-primary structure, current reporting suggests the refinery IPO is targeting NGX as its main listing venue, with some reports mentioning a possible multi-exchange African listing, a different structure from Airtel’s London-Lagos dual listing. (Note: a separate, different Dangote entity, Dangote Cement, is the one reportedly pursuing an LSE secondary listing, not the refinery.)

For investors, the practical lesson from MTN and Airtel is that “big NGX listing” can mean very different things structurally, a listing by introduction, a dual-listed IPO, or a straightforward domestic capital raise, so it’s worth reading Dangote’s eventual prospectus carefully rather than assuming it will resemble either precedent exactly.