August 18, (THEWILL) – The Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has declared as false a recent newspaper publication that it mulls taking over the Dangote Refinery over debts owed by the Dangote Group to banks.
Leadership reports that some online news platforms had reported that Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, could forfeit the Dangote Refinery over a $7 billion debt burden owed to commercial banks in the country with a possible takeover by AMCON.
AMCON said neither Dangote Refinery nor the Dangote Group is on its debtors’ list such as could warrant its taking over of the assets.
It could be recalled that AMCON had in 2010 purchased 12,743 bad loans worth N3.8 trillion from 22 Eligible Financial Institutions (EFIs) for a purchase price of N1.8 trillion. According to AMCON, Dangote Refinery was not part of the bad debts that it took over and there was no way it would be taking over the assets of the company now.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) had recently approved the acquisition of 20 per cent minority stake by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in the Dangote Petroleum and Petrochemical Refinery.
The Dangote Oil Refinery, is a 650,000-barrel per day (BPD) integrated refinery project under construction in the Lekki Free Zone, Lagos, Nigeria.
Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote has significantly moved up in the World billionaires’ list as his fortune increased to $17.8billion as against last year’s $14.8billion to emerge as the only Nigerian in the Bloomberg’s yearly top billionaire lists.
Other Africans on the lists are three South Africans. They are Johann Rupert and family, worth $10.1billion; Nicky Oppenheimer with a worth of $7.80billion and Natie Kirsh who is reputed to be worth $7.15billion. Nassef Sawiris from Egypt is also among African billionaires with a worth of $6.93 billion.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world’s richest people. In calculating net worth, Bloomberg News strives to provide the most transparent calculations available, and each individual billionaire profile contains a detailed analysis of how that person’s fortune is tallied.
The index is a dynamic measure of personal wealth based on changes in markets, the economy and Bloomberg reporting. Each net worth figure is updated every business day after the close of trading in New York. Stakes in publicly traded companies are valued using the share’s most recent closing price. Valuations are converted to U.S. dollars at current exchange rates.
Dangote, who remains the richest man in Africa for the 8th year running, was the only Nigerian on the list of the top 120 billionaires, as released on Monday by Bloomberg in its yearly billionaire’s list.
Ellon Musk and Jeff Bezos are the richest in the world with $194billion in their respective kitty while Bernard Arnault and Bill Gates followed respectively with $174billion and $148 billion. Mark Zuckerberg was the fifth richest with $135 billion on the world’s billionaires chart.
Anthony Awunor, is a business correspondent who holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics (UNILAG). He is also an alumnus of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria Kaduna State. He lives in Lagos.
