Nigerian billionaire and Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, is now Africa's first $20 billion man and one of the top 25 richest men in the world.
The President/Chief Executive of the pan-African conglomerate, the Dangote Group, has become the first African entrepreneur to lay claim to a $20 billion fortune as the stock value of his flagship holding, Dangote Cement, leaped just about three-fourths since March when Forbes last released its yearly ranking of the world's richest people.
With a current market cap of $20.5 billion, Dangote Cement becomes the first Nigerian company to achieve a market capitalisation of over $20 billion. The global business and financial intelligence news magazine, Forbes, reported that Dangote's 93 per cent stake in the cement company is now worth $19.5 billion.
Added to this are his controlling stakes in other public-listed companies like Dangote Sugar and National Salt Company of Nigeria, and his significant shareholdings in other blue chips like Zenith Bank, UBA Group and Dangote Flour.
He equally has extensive real estate portfolio, jets, yachts and current cash position, which includes over $300 million in recently-awarded Dangote Cement, which puts his current worth at over $20 billion.
With his fortune, Dangote is richer than Russia's richest man, Alisher Usmanov, India's Lakshmi Mittal and running neck and neck with India's Mukesh Ambani. He is also catching up on such Americans as Google's billionaire founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Dangote Cement had recorded an unprecedented surge in share price largely due to market response to its impressive results in the first quarter of this year. Its unaudited results for the three months ending March 31 showed that the company's pre-tax profit rose to $339 million, representing an 80.6 per cent increase from last year and a strong indicator of the company's future earning potential.
The results also indicate a 79.5 per cent rise in its earnings per share over the corresponding period last year. While Forbes reasoned that other companies might eventually achieve this, it noted but it would take a bit of time. Dangote Cement currently accounts for over a quarter of the total market capitalization of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
The second largest company on the NSE is currently West Africa's largest manufacturer of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, Nigerian Breweries, with a market cap of $8.5 billion.
Dangote debuted on Forbes' billionaires list in 2008 with a fortune at $3.3 billion, which dropped to $2.5 billion in 2009 and plunged further to $2.1 billion in 2010.
This, however, surged 557 per cent in 2011 to $13.8 billion after he took Dangote Cement public. He dropped to $11.2 billion in last year's rankings, but rebounded at $16.1 billion this year. Since March, his fortune has jumped another 30 per cent.
Forbes believes that Dangote still has bigger ambitions, as he reportedly told the magazine's Wealth Editor, Luisa Kroll, at Davos in 2011 that he expected his firm to have a market cap of $60 billion within five years.
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