Uganda has approved the Dangote Petroleum Refinery Initial Public Offering (IPO), allowing selected Ugandan investors to access the offer days after Kenya gave a similar approval.
Uganda’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA) issued the approval on Tuesday, October 6, allowing the IPO to be marketed and distributed in the country under specific conditions.
The offer, however, will not be available to the general public in Uganda. It will only be marketed to high-net-worth individuals and professional investors.
The regulator said all marketing and distribution of the IPO must be done through a CMA-licensed intermediary and will require written clearance from the authority.
SBGS Uganda Limited is currently the only intermediary authorised to facilitate the offer for Ugandan investors.
CMA Uganda said the application was submitted on behalf of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE. The regulator also confirmed that the IPO and its offer documents had already been approved by Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission.
However, the Ugandan regulator clarified that its approval does not amount to an endorsement of the IPO or a recommendation to investors.
The approval comes days after Kenya’s CMA allowed eligible Kenyan investors to access the same IPO through Global Depository Receipts (GDRs).
In Kenya, Renaissance Capital (Kenya) Limited was appointed to facilitate the investment, with the GDRs expected to be listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange after the IPO, subject to the required approvals in Nigeria.
The development also comes days after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Dangote refinery project in Lamu on September 30.
Museveni has maintained that Uganda will continue with plans to develop its own oil refinery in Hoima, despite Dangote choosing Lamu for the KSh2.2 trillion East African project.
Speaking at the Lamu ceremony, Museveni said he supported the project but was not ready to invest in it at the time.
“This one, I support, but I will not invest yet,” he said.