Africa’s richest billionaire Aliko Dangote has seen his net worth plummet in the past 10 days due to a massive sell-off of shares in his cement company Dangote Cement Plc, which resulted in a significant drop in the company’s share price on the Nigerian Exchange.
According to data obtained – the leading industrialist, who ranked as the 61st richest man in the world according to Bloomberg nearly four weeks ago, is now ranked 70th as a result of the impact of the $700-million net-worth loss that he recorded over the past 10 days.
Dangote, the world’s only Black billionaire worth more than $15 billion, derives nearly half of his $20.3-billion fortune from Dangote Cement, Africa’s leading cement behemoth, which has a production capacity of 51.55 million tonnes per year across 10 countries.
Since May 30, exactly 10 days ago, Dangote’s net worth has dropped from $21 billion to $20.3 billion at the time of writing this report, as the market value of his stake in his flagship company Dangote Cement has dropped significantly due to the performance of its shares on the local bourse.
Profit-booking and portfolio-rotation by local investors have forced the company’s share price to fall from an all-time high of N300 ($0.7226) to N277 ($0.667) at the time of writing this report, resulting in a $700-million drop in Dangote’s net worth.
Despite the multibillion-dollar decline in his net worth, Dangote remains one of the few African billionaires whose wealth has increased by more than $1 billion this year, with a year-to-date net worth gain of $1.17 billion, according to data retrieved from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
With a fortune of $20.3 billion, the leading billionaire remains Africa’s richest man, ahead of South Africa’s richest man, Johann Rupert, who is presently worth $9.75 billion.
