Aliko Dangote’s company bought 25% of Kenya Pipeline Co. as Africa’s richest man expands his energy empire across the continent.“We bought 25% of their pipeline network for the distribution of petroleum products,” the Dangote Industries Ltd. founder and chief executive officer said at an event in London on Wednesday, without saying which of his companies bought the stake. Kenya Pipeline, whose network forms the backbone of the country’s fuel-distribution system, had a block trade of 4.5 billion shares worth 42.5 billion shillings ($327.4 million), the Nairobi Securities Exchange said in a report on Monday. The company, which was wholly state-owned until it sold 65% in an initial public offering earlier this year, has a market value of 163.9 billion shillings.
The billionaire is building a replica of his 700,000 barrel-a-day Nigerian oil refinery in Kenya’s Lamu archipelago at a cost of about $16 billion. It’s part of a multibillion-dollar infrastructure development plan known as the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia transport corridor that includes railways, pipelines, a power plant, roads and airports. Its construction would reduce the region’s reliance on oil from the Middle East — a need that’s becoming increasingly pressing since the Iran war erupted, disrupting production and supply chains.
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Source: Bloomberg Markets · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing