Dangote Cement is No.1 on Biggest Company in Nigeria List

Dangote Cement has been ranked as the biggest Nigerian company by market capitalisation.

The ranking is done annually by a business profiling and ranking magazine in Nigeria, TheSignature50, in partnership with The Nigerian Stock Exchange.

It ranks Nigerian companies by minimum market capitalisation of $50 million.

Market capitalisation is the total value of a company based on the current market price of its shares and the total number of outstanding shares.

In its latest ranking, Dangote Cement topped the list with a market capitalisation of $9.6 billion, followed by MTN Nigeria which was ranked the biggest telecommunications company with a market capitalisation of $7.7 billion.

The magazine said Dangote Cement is bigger than the largest cement companies in Mexico, Japan, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Taiwan Japan, Argentina and Qatar.

“By market capitalisation, Dangote Cement is bigger than the largest cement company in Mexico – Cemex ($5.6 billion), Japan-Taiheyo Cement ($3.3 billion), Indonesia- Semen Indonesia ($4.7 billion), Taiwan- Taiwan Cement ($7.8 billion), Colombia-Cementos Argos ($2 billion), Saudi Arabia- Yanbu Cement ($1.7 billion), Denmark -Aalborg Cementir Holding ($1 billion), Argentina-Loma Negra ($1 billion) and Qatar-Qatar National Cement ($802 million),” it said.

It added that in terms of market capitalisation, Dangote Cement equals to Emaar Properties, the owners of Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Dangote Cement is owned by Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man.

Other companies that made the list were Nestle Nigeria which was ranked as the largest consumer goods company with a market capitalisation of $3.8 billion while Guaranty Trust Bank, the biggest in the banking sector, had a market capitalisation of $3 billion.

Rated the largest brewery in the country, Nigerian Breweries’ market capitalisation was put at $1.5 billion.

In the oil and gas sector, Seplat led the park with a market capitalisation of $1.1 billion.

BUA Cement made the list with a market capitalisation of $4.5 billion; Airtel Africa, $3.7 billion and Zenith Bank, $2.2 billion.

BUA Group, Airtel and Zenith Bank were rated the second largest in their respective cement, telecommunications and banking sectors.