The majority owner of Dangote Cement, Dangote Industries, has divested its 1,5% shareholdings in the largest publicly listed company in Nigeria. The said stake was sold to a sovereign wealth fund for 45.8 billion naira or US$289.3 million according to the broker of the deal.

The broker of the deal was Renaissance Capital, who reported that each share in the stake was priced at 179 naira. This pegged the enterprise value of the Lagos based firm at US$19.3 billion. Even with the sale of the stake, Dangote Industries still retains more than 90% of the cement firm, according to Bloomberg compiled data. 

The company is the largest producer of building materials in Africa. Dangote Cement has the capacity to produce 19.3 million metric tons of cement in Nigeria. The plan with the proceeds of the sale is to increase the production capacity to 29 million tonnes by 2015. Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote owns the company and the holdings firm.