Once banks have been appointed, it will take at least five months to complete the process

The Nigerian company, controlled by Aliko Dangote, has approached investment bankers to discuss a potential UK listing, said the people, who asked not to be named as the talks aren’t public.

Once banks have been appointed, it will probably take at least five months to complete the process, one of the people said.

The cement maker is also considering issuing a debut Eurobond, according to two different people familiar with the matter.

“We have not, to the best of my knowledge, taken such a decision,” Anthony Chiejina, Dangote Cement’s spokesman in Lagos, said in an emailed response to questions, without commenting on the banker talks.

Fresh capital would enable Dangote Cement to fund expansion plans in sub-Saharan Africa and broaden its base of investors.

It sees London as a more favorable place to attract about $1 billion (Sh102 billion) than in its home base of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, where no firm has raised more in an initial public offering than Starcomms Plc’s $796 million (Sh80 billion) in 2008.

Market valuation

Dangote Cement has a free float in Lagos of 14.9 per cent and a market valuation of $12.3 billion (Sh1.23 trillion) . It mulled raising equity in London in 2010.

At the time, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Company and Morgan Stanley helped it prepare a sale that could have raised as much as $5 billion (Sh501 billion) before the move was abandoned.

The revival of the plan comes as Dangote Cement shares climb to near records as the Nigerian economy recovers from a downturn caused by the 2014 slump in oil prices.

The economy of Africa’s most populous nation went into recession in 2016 as government revenue plunged.

Nigerian stocks are up 11 per cent this year in dollar terms, the sixth best performance globally according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Aliko Dangote has a net worth of $13.5 billion (Sh1.35 trillion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His Dangote Industries Ltd. conglomerate has interests in sugar, flour and packaged food as well as controlling the cement company.

The 60-year-old has repeatedly expressed a desire to bid for London’s Arsenal Football Club and is building a 650,000 barrel-a-day oil refinery near Lagos, at a cost more than $10 billion (Sh1.02 trillion.