Aliko Dangote reaffirms desire to buy Arsenal Football Club

22 Sep 2016
Financial Nigeria

Summary

Dangote said he plans to complete some ongoing billion-dollar projects before undertaking to buy the London-based club.

Aliko Dangote, President and Chief Executive, Dangote Group

Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has reiterated his desire to buy Arsenal Football Club, an English Premier League club. Dangote, who is an Arsenal fan, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in New York on Wednesday that he plans to complete some ongoing billion-dollar projects before undertaking to buy the London-based club.

“There’s no doubt I’ll buy Arsenal and it’s not a problem of money,” Dangote said. “Maybe three to four years. The issue is that we have more challenging headwinds. I need to get those out the way first and start having tailwinds. Then I’ll focus on this.”

Dangote, who has a current net worth of about $10.9 billion, according to Bloomberg, announced his intention to buy Arsenal last year. He revealed that he had a discussion about buying a stake with the club’s owners in 2010, but they failed to reach an agreement.

Arsenal Holding Plc, the holding company of Arsenal FC, is listed on London’s ICAP Securities & Derivatives Exchange with a market capitalization of about £1 billion ($1.3 billion). The company’s largest shareholders are Stan Kroenke, an American billionaire, who owns a 67 percent stake, and Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who owns a 30 percent stake in the company.

“It’s not about buying Arsenal and just continuing with business as usual,” Dangote said. “It’s about buying Arsenal and turning it around. I’ve run a very successful business and I think I can also run a very successful team. Right now, with what we’re facing, over $20 billion of projects, I cannot do both.”

Dangote Group is currently constructing a $14 billion petrochemical complex in Lagos. The project includes a refinery capable of processing 650,000 barrels of oil per day and a fertilizer plant, with a capacity to produce 2.8 million metric tonnes of urea and ammonia per annum. The project is due to be completed in 2018.


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