Billionaire Watch
10 fantastic things Aliko Dangote has done in the last 10 years
This article x-rays 10 fantastic things Nigerian billionaire, Alhaji Aliko Dangote has done in the last ten years, as he celebrates his 63rd birthday.
The name Aliko Dangote needs no introduction across the length and breadth of Nigeria. While some believe it is a household name, others believe the bearer has a stake across all the sectors of the economy.
That Aliko Dangote has been able to hold on to the position of the richest man in Africa for 10 years is a pointer to the fact that he has achieved several enviable feats.
How is it that one man has been able to hold the position consistently for the last 10 years?
Not a few people have the above questions in their minds, and indeed it is one that is worth asking. Alhaji Aliko Dangote has managed to pull this feat by the sheer effort of personal, business decisions and actions he has taken over the years.
[READ MORE: Top 10 CEOs and how they spent 10 days in lockdown)
So, what exactly are those things he has done over the last decade? We certainly cannot consider all, but let us start by x-raying 10 fantastic things this billionaire has done in the last ten years, as he celebrates his 63rd birthday.
10
In 2011, Dangote invested a massive $400 million in the construction of a cement plant, and also invested R779 million to increase the Dangote Industries Limited stakes in Sephaku Cement (Pty) Limited, based in South Africa, from 19.76% to 64%.
His investment into the South Africa-based cement company was described as the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) ever by an African company in South Africa at the time.
If the Dangote Industries was not already present in 14 African countries at the time, one would have thought the man was in a heated race for the gold.
Keep in mind that the Dangote Group had already been listed among the top 40 African Challengers by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a United States-based rating agency; the agency had already seen the potential in the Dangote Group to rival Fortune 500 Companies.
Now isn’t this fantastic?
9
Back home in Nigeria in 2012, Dangote Cement moved to erect the biggest cement plant in Africa in Southwest Nigeria.
The most amazing thing is the fact that this rich billionaire spent $1 billion on what the Guardian referred to as “a century-old wasteland of limestone and red dirt in south-west Nigeria”.
Some must have turned their noses up at this move, possibly thinking of him as one of those “money miss road”, but 9 years after, the Dangote Cement plant, Ibese in Ogun state accounts for over 6 million metric tonnes of cement, which translates to more money for the billionaire over the years.
With this in place and the creating of new lines at Dangote Cement Plant, Obajana, he ended the era of cement import and launched Nigeria into cement export.
He was already richest black man in the world at the time and ranked 76 in the world by Forbes magazine.
[READ ALSO: Adenuga has redeemed N1billion pledge to the CACOVID fund- Otedola)
8
Dangote moved to assert his place in sugar production when in February 2013, the Dangote Sugar Refinery announced plans to acquire 95% equity stake in Savannah Sugar Company limited, SSC.
The deal was executed through a Share Sale and Purchase Agreement, SSPA, and Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) acquired 95% of the issued share capital of Savanna Sugar, amounting to 2.14 billion ordinary shares of N1.00 each.
This was about the same time the Nigerian government designed the backward integration goal, the National Sugar Master Plan to attract over $1 billion annually in local and foreign direct investments and create jobs.
Also, recall that April 2013 was the first time the mogul announced his intention to build a private refinery in Nigeria, to reduce Nigeria’s dependence on importation of petroleum products.
Such big dreams!!!
7
Aliko Dangote in 2015 signed a mammoth deal with Chinese state-owned engineering company, SINOMA, to build factories for Dangote Cement Plc.
The deal was worth $4.3 billion (£2.8 billion), and seven plants to be built across the continent and one in Nepal. It was not just another avenue to spend money, as the billionaire had done the calculation and expected the new plants to increase the company’s production capacity by as much as 25 million metric tonnes.
Great plans for his home country, no doubt!
6
As a result of the sizeable investments made over the years, Dangote Cement ended 2014 with new lines in Nigeria, factories becoming operational in Senegal and South Africa, and other plants in Cameroon and Zambia. This increased production capacity from just under 21 million tonnes in January to more than 34 million tonnes at the end of the year.
This was an unprecedented rate of expansion and the company went ahead to open new factories in Ethiopia and Tanzania in the following year.
5
The Dangote Foundation remains one of the most heart-touching innovations of Aliko Dangote. It is the largest foundation in Africa and has an annual endowment of $1.25 billion. The foundation is described as “locally focused, but globally-minded” and has contributed millions to improve nutrition, health, education and economic empowerment in Nigeria.
The foundation is a lead contributor to the ‘Saving One Million Lives’ every year in Nigeria and was at the forefront of efforts to contain the spread of Ebola in Nigeria and other parts of Africa. The foundation was the biggest private contributor to the African Union Ebola Trust Fund with a donation of $3 million.
The foundation also partnered Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to eradicate polio in Nigeria by strenghtening primary health care and making provisions for routine immunization across Northern Nigeria. The initial project commenced in Kano and Bauchi states. In January 2016, Sokoto, Yobe, Kaduna and Borno States were added to the partnership, with over $10 Million spent.
The Aliko Dangote Foundation Micro-grant programme is a N10 Billion programme designed to provide a N10,000 one-off grant to at least 1,000 vulnerable women, and in some cases, youths, in each of the 774 LGAs across Nigeria. it is national programme launched in Kano in 2011 and is being systemically rolled out across the country. The programme is being implemented in partnership with states government to complement their respective poverty alleviation drive across the country.
So far, the sum of N3.345 Billion has been disbursed to women across Kano, Jigawa, Kogi, Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Lagos, Niger and Nasarawa States.
Also, in continuation of its efforts to rehabilitate and resettle the Internally Displaced People in the Northeast, Nigeria, the Aliko Dangote Foundation commissioned 200 Housing Units of the Dangote Village Housing Estate for the Internally Displaced Persons in Maiduguri, Borno State, with Award Letters issued to the chosen beneficiaries – mostly widows with dependents.
In support of this laudable action by the Foundation, the State Government made provision for each family to be given economic empowerment tools to sustain their livelihood adding a fully functional school and a clinic to cater for the residents of the estate.
The impact of this foundation over the years can hardly be wrapped into a few paragraphs, but it has been a major contributor to alleviating poverty, just as the philanthropist billionaire intended.
4
The year 2018 was a significant one for the Dangote Group. Aliko Dangote did the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of a rice processing plant in Jigawa – the culmination of a series of events that started a couple of years earlier.
He had signed a $1 billion agreement with the Federal Government for the integrated rice production in Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kano, Niger and Jigawa.
The multi-billion processing mill had the capacity, upon completion, to process 16 tonnes of paddy rice per hour, totalling to about 14-billion-naira worth of rice per year.
It was a much-celebrated event for the year, as the rice mill was expected to improve the lives of the residents since the raw products would be bought from local farmers in Jigawa. The end aim is to make Nigeria self-sufficient in rice production.
We can expect more from this billionaire in this regard, as he has announced in recent times, his intention to do more in agriculture.
3
Dangote Cement Nigeria increased the group’s revenue in 2018 by over 10%, simply by creating favourable fuel mix at the cement plants at Obajana and Ibese. With these unprecedented innovations, the group cut out reliance on imported coal for both plans and started using coals from mines operated by the Dangote Industries Limited.
The impact of this was seen largely on foreign currency demands, thus pushing the company’s revenues. Subsequently, all eight kilns in Obajana and Ibese have been running on coal, gas or LPFO or a mixture of the three. I’m sure you didn’t know that.
And lets no forget that stunt he pulled when he bought back Dangote flour mills, the loss-making business he sold for $200 million to Tiger Brands, only to resell it to Olams years later for $362 million
2
2019 was the year of consolidating on the refinery plans which had long commenced. The peak of it all was the arrival of the specially configured facility which Dangote had since requested to be made.
The facility, which was built by Sinopec, China’s leading energy and chemical company, has been described as the largest in the world and has since been installed at the Dangote refinery.
The Atmospheric tower is expected to separate crude oil into its components (or distillation cuts, distillation fractions) for further processing by other processing units when the refinery starts full operations later this year.
According to the mogul, the refinery will within 18 months of operation, be able to meet Nigeria’s demand for petroleum products, and soon after become the largest exporter of petroleum products in Africa.
Experts support this prediction, adding that Nigeria could become Africa’s biggest producer and exporter of refined petroleum and gas products, including plastics, fertilizer, jet fuel, diesel and gasoline. This is expected to lift the economy of the entire continent.
Amazing, right?
[READ FURTHER: Dangote, Otedola, Elumelu, Ovia, others donate N19.48 billion to COVID-19 relief fund)
1
Very fresh on our minds is the donation of N2 billion naira and other materials to the Private Sector Coalition against COVID-19, just some weeks ago. It signified the tycoon’s willingness to partner with the Central Bank of Nigeria, and private sector participants, to alleviate some of the hardships which the pandemic is sure to inflict on Nigeria.
Just weeks before this, he had donated N100 million worth of materials after the Abule-ado explosion to help in rebuilding the destroyed buildings.
You may feel like we have said much here, but we have not even made mention of the infrastructural facilities he built across tertiary institutions in the country – the construction of a N1.2 Billion Dangote Business School, Bayero University Kano, or the construction of hostels or provisions of power supply at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna state and Kano University of Science and Technology, Wudil, Kano State.
So much has not been said.
The year is still very young with only 101 days gone, there’s still a lot more fantastic things that could happen this year. Keep in mind that the billionaire also has plans to buy Arsenal FC, and take the Nigerian flag all over the world.
Billionaire Watch
Elon Musk now the third-richest person in the world
Musk has seen a meteoric rise in his wealth, with his net worth growing by $87.8 billion this year.
The recent surge in many leading U.S technology stocks have unsurprisingly created wealth for their founders, investors and stock traders.
What we know: Elon Musk just surpassed the co-founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg to become the third richest person in the world. Shares of Tesla Inc. continued its unrelenting surge after the recent stock split of Tesla stocks. Musk is now estimated to be worth about $115.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Musk is the present chief executive officer of Tesla, a maker of electric vehicles.
The Palo Alto, California-based company sells sedans, sport utility vehicles, and is the state’s largest automotive employer. He’s also CEO of Space Exploration Technologies, a rocket manufacturer tapped by NASA to resupply the space station.
Musk, 49, has seen a meteoric rise in his wealth, with his net worth growing by $87.8 billion this year as Tesla shares surged almost 500%.
Also helpful: an audacious pay package – the largest corporate pay deal ever struck between a chief executive officer and a board of directors – that could yield him more than $50 billion if all goals are met.
On Monday, Nairametrics reported how Tesla’s share price rose to almost $500 following a 5-for-1 split. Nearly 70 million shares had changed hands as at then, two-thirds of the daily average over the past year.
Tesla’s $464 billion market value now exceeds that of retail behemoth Walmart Inc., the largest company in the U.S. by revenue.
Recall Nairametrics, about two weeks ago highlighted major reasons why Nairametrics believed the stock was a strong buy and could surpass the present most valuable listed technology company.
Tesla was founded in 2003 by a group of engineers who wanted to prove that people didn’t need to compromise to drive electric – that electric vehicles can be better, quicker, and more fun to drive than gasoline cars.
Today, Tesla builds not only all-electric vehicles but also infinitely scalable clean energy generation and storage products. Tesla believes the faster the world stops relying on fossil fuels and moves towards a zero-emission future, the better.
Around the World
Jeff Bezos becomes first person to cross $200 billion net worth, as Zuckerberg crosses $100 billion
The 56-year-old world’s richest man was worth $205 billion as at the close of trading on Wednesday.
Amazon founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, has become the first person to ever cross $200 billion in net worth. This happened after Amazon’s stock edged up 2% on Wednesday.
According to Forbes, the edging increased Bezos’ net worth by $4.9 billion, making him the first person to ever amass a $200 billion fortune in the nearly four decades that Forbes has been tracking the net worths of the world’s richest individuals.
This happened in spite of the fact that Bezos recently donated 7,548 of his Amazon shares –worth about $26 million– to an undisclosed nonprofit organization, as contained in a regulatory filing on Wednesday.
READ: Apple market capitalization nears $2 trillion, as Apple’s CEO becomes a billionaire
The 56-year-old world’s richest man was worth $205 billion as at the close of trading on Wednesday.
Why this matters
This development now puts Bezos almost $90 billion ahead of the world’s second-richest person, Bill Gates, who is currently worth $116.1 billion.
Gates was the first person in the world to ever cross the $100 billion in 1999 when Microsoft reached its then-peak.
Even after adjusting the figures for inflation, Forbes still estimates Bezos net worth to be over $200 billion, almost 80% up from the $115 billion he was worth on January 1, 2020.
READ: Tips that will help you win in business – Amazon Founder
This increase in net worth is said to be connected to the change in consumer habits resulting from the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown in major cities across the world. Since then, Amazon stock has gone up almost 80%.
Note that Bezos owns roughly 11% stake in Amazon which makes up more than 90% of his net worth, while his stakes in the Washington Post, aerospace company Blue Origin, and other private investments make up the rest.
Zuckerberg becomes a centibillionaire
In a similar development, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, at the end of trading on Tuesday, became a centibillionaire with $103.1 billion in net worth.
Sequel to Facebook’s stock gains, His fortune went up by $6 billion again on Wednesday putting his worth at $109.1 billion.
Chairman and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy, Bernard Arnault, has also claimed the position of the third-richest person, with net worth of $115 billion, recovering from the slip earlier in the year at the peak of the pandemic.
READ: Bitcoin robbers move 3503 BTC worth $38.5 million
Backstory
In July 2019, Jeff Bezos parted away with 25% of his Amazon stake (now worth $63 billion), in what was tagged the “most expensive divorce settlement in history”. His ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, who was the beneficiary of this settlement, is currently the world’s 14th-richest person and second-richest woman, behind L’Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers; even after giving away $1.7 billion in charitable gifts earlier this year.
Billionaire Watch
More gains than losses for Nigeria’s billionaires in Q2, 2020
The reasons for this could be the crisis that we saw in the global oil sector.
After a dramatic first quarter which ended with the declaration of a nationwide lockdown, Nigeria’s billionaires and entrepreneurs entered Q2 2020 uncertain of what the pandemic held for them.
The lockdown and restrictions on inter-state movement had lots of implications for all sectors of the economy, including the consumer goods sector which was allowed inter-state movement. The cost of transportation increased, with implications on the end-cost of the goods.
Amidst all of these, stock trading continued with the usual rise and fall which characterises the bourse. This article looks at the gains and losses of Nigerian billionaires in the midst of the drama that became a feature of the new normal.
READ ALSO: Aliko Dangote Foundation Engages 54gene Laboratory to Conduct 1,000 COVID-19 Tests per Day in Kano
Interestingly, there are major gains across the different sectors except for the oil and gas sector where we see a dip. The reasons for this could be the crisis that we saw in the global oil sector. Let’s see the millions lost and gained.
Jim Ovia
Jim Ovia is not only the founder of Zenith Bank Plc, he is also the largest individual shareholder with 3,546,199,395 direct shares and 1,513,137,010 indirect shares.
His net worth is not quite easy to ascertain, although the shares which he holds and controls in the listed bank are not hidden; hence our ability to ascertain his losses in the quarter.
The stock market opened on April 1 with a share price of N11.40 for Zenith bank shares. At this time, Ovia’s total 5 billion shares were worth N57 billion (N57,676,435,017).
After an interesting and highly positive quarter, the share price ended at N16.1 at the close of trading on June 30. With this, the worth of Ovia’s shares rose to N81.45 billion (N81,455,316,120.50).
READ MORE: Top 10 Stockbrokers trade N391.9 billion in Q1 2020 despite bearish market
The Delta-born billionaire gained an impressive N23.78 billion in the quarter.
Herbert Wigwe
Group MD/CEO of Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe directly owns 201,231,713 shares and indirectly controls 1,157,082,349.75 shares with the bank, summing up to 1,323 billion shares.
As at April 1, a unit of Access Bank share was worth N5.75, putting the worth of Wigwe’s 1.32 billion shares at N7.97 billion (N7,607,381,738.25).
When there was a dip in share price in June, Wigwe purchased shares amounting to 7,546,458 shares, and this brings his indirect shares to 1.129 million shares.
In addition to the 201,231,713 shares which he directly owns, Wigwe now has a total of 1.33 billion shares under his control.
READ ALSO: World Bank’s $2.5bn loan will hurt Nigeria’s economy – LCCI
At the close of the quarter, on June 30, Access Bank shares closed the trading day with a unit share price of N6.55.
The market value of Wigwe’s 1.33 billion shares (both direct and indirect) grew to N8.7 billion (N8,715,229,367).
Within the three-month period, Wigwe gained N1.1 billion (N 1,107,847,628.75) in his Access bank shares, from the appreciation in share price and gains on the additional shares he purchased.
Tony Elumelu
Founder and Chairman of United Bank for Africa Plc, Tony Onyemaechi Elumelu (TOE) had a total of 2.3 billion (2,304,211,118) units of shares – 190,100,234 direct and 2,114,110,884 indirect shares, valued at N11.4 billion (11,405,845,034.10) at the unit price of N4.95 on April 1.
He made a purchase of 45,378 additional shares between May and June to slightly increase his direct shares to 190,145,612, and total shares to 2,304,256,496 units.
UBA’s share price was N4.95 on April 1 and N6.25 at the close of trading on June 30; a major growth for TOE and his 2.3 billion shares.
The total worth of Elumelu’s shares grew significantly from N11.4 billion on April 1 to N14.4 billion (N14,401,603,100) on June 30.
READ ALSO: Nigerian billionaires lose billions amid COVID-19 pandemic
The billionaire gained N2.9 billion (N2,995,758,065.9) by the end of the second quarter, from the increase in share price and gains on the additional units bought.
This does not take into cognisance, other gains or losses he may have in other listed companies where he holds some shares.
Austin Avuru
Standing odd among the billionaires is co-founder of Seplat, Austin Avuru, the only one who recorded a loss for the quarter.
Avuru indirectly owns about 58,970,463 indirect shares in the oil and gas company, after selling off his direct shares.
However, the company awarded Avuru some shares under the Long-Term Incentive Plan for Directors, as well as some under the deferred bonuses, totaling to 1,774,436 units of shares. This addition now brings his shares to 60,744,889 units.
A stock price of N544.5 as at April 1 showed that these stocks were worth N33 billion (N 33,075,597,506) at the start of the quarter.
On June 30, unit share price had plummeted to N386 and Austin Avuru’s shares were worth N23.44 billion (N 23,447,531,014).
He lost N9.6 billion (N 9,628,066,492 loss) in the quarter.
READ ALSO: Disclosed insider dealing seen impacting share prices.
Mike Adenuga
Chairman of Conoil Nigeria Plc, Mike Adenuga directly controls 516,298,603 units of shares, as well as 103,259,720 units of shares controlled through Conpetro Limited, making for about 74.4% of Conoil’s issued share capital.
Conoil’s stock prices started the period at N13.15 on April 1, and closed at N21.00 at the end of trading on June 30.
This trend puts the value of Adenuga’s 619.55 million shares at a market value of N8.14 billion (N8,147,191,947.45) on April 1, and N13 billion (N13,010,724,783.00) at the close of the quarter.
Adenuga gained N4.86 billion (N4,863,532,835.55) in the second quarter of 2020.
READ MORE: What you need to know about proposed tariff review by DisCos
Aliko Dangote
Nigeria’s richest man, Aliko Dangote owns both direct and indirect shares in the companies that make up the Dangote Group.
For Dangote Sugar, the share price opened the quarter at N8.90 and appreciated through the quarter to close at N12.00 on June 30.
The billionaire directly owns 653,095,014 shares and indirectly owns 8,122,446,281 shares through the Dangote Industries Limited in Dangote Sugar, summing up to 8.77 billion shares.
The upward trend in share price caused the worth of his shares in the company to rise from N78 billion (N78,102,317,525.50) on April 1 to N105 billion (N105,306,495,540.00) on June 30, 2020.
Aliko Dangote gained N27 billion (N27,204,178,014.50) in his investments in Dangote sugar in the period under review.
Dangote Cement share price also had an upward trend from N116.80 on April 1 to N127 at the end of June 2020.
As head of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote has 14.5 billion direct shares in the company and another 27 million share units which he indirectly controls through Dangote Industries Limited.
This brings the total shares under his control to N14.5 billion (14,527,958,138) units.
READ ALSO: These billionaires are set to cash out as banks pay interim 2019 dividends
As at the beginning of the period, all 14.5 billion shares were worth N1.69 trillion (N1,696,865,510,518.40) at the market share price of N116.80. By the end of the period, the value had grown by N148 billion to N1.84 trillion (N1,845,050,683,526.00).
Adding his gains in Dangote sugar with that of Dangote Cement, we can see that the billionaire grew richer to the tune of N175 billion (N 175,389,351,022.10).
NASCON share price went up from N8.50 to N10.50 at the end of the period. However, the number of shares that Aliko Dangote owns in NASCON are not publicly available, so whatever gains he might have made from NASCON are not included in this figure.
Abdulsamad Rabiu
Abdulsamad Rabiu owns 19 billion (19,044,995,225) direct shares and 12,225,657,356 indirect shareholdings through 3 companies, totalling to 31.2 billion (31,270,652,581) units in BUA Cement.
BUA Cement stocks sold at N35.3 for a unit on April 1, and closed at N38.7 on June 30.
At the beginning of the quarter, Rabiu’s 31.27 billion shares (direct and indirect) were worth N1.1 trillion, and by the end of Q2, the value of the shares had risen well above N1.2 trillion.
Rabiu gained over N106 billion (N 106,320,218,775) in Q2, 2020.
Summary: Gains/losses (N’billion)
- Austin Avuru – 9.628
- Aliko Dangote – 175.389
- Mike Adenuga – 4.863
- Elumelu Tony – 2.995
- Jim Ovia – 23.778
- Herbert Wigwe – 1.107
- Abdulsamad Rabiu – 106.32
Download the Nairametrics News App
Note: Although these billionaires also have other private assets, and hold shares in some other listed companies, this article focuses on the major companies where they have recorded gains or losses.
Naira stabilizes across forex markets, as BDCs get another round of dollar allocation
N4.16 billion unpaid lottery revenue recovered by EFCC
Presidency denies building rail line from Nigeria to Niger Republic
Unknown entity transfers $166 million worth of Bitcoins
WHO says people with NCDs more vulnerable to severe COVID-19, lists how to prevent it
COVID-19 Update in Nigeria
Daily Parallel Market Exchange Rate – ₦465/$1
Hotels in Nigeria are on the verge of collapse
Julius Berger to diversify into Agro-processing industry
FEC approves $1.96 billion for Kano-Niger Republic railway
Pingback: Dangote, MTN emerge most admired African brands | TOGOWEB