Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), has begun talks to raise a debut syndicated loan for $3.5 billion to fund fertiliser and oil refinery projects, two sources with knowledge of the situation have said.
The seven-year loan for Nigeria’s biggest conglomerate is split equally between Nigerian and international lenders via lead banks Guaranty Trust Bank, Standard Bank and Standard Chartered, the sources said. No one at Dangote was immediately available to comment. International lenders are weighing up the risk associated with a relatively long-term jumbo loan for a debut Nigerian borrower.
Dangote’s position as a leading company in one of Africa’s more economically stable countries is expected to appeal to deal-hungry emerging market lenders who faced a shortage of such sizeable loans in 2012.
“If any international bank wants to make a new play for Africa then this is the deal to join,” one of the sources said.
Dangote Cement in which DIL owns a majority shareholding forecasts a 38 percent rise in net profit to N81.5 billion for the first quarter compared with a year earlier, it said in a filing with the Nigerian Stock Exchange in late December.
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
