My dream of buying Arsenal is over, says Africa's richest man
Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has given up hope of buying Premier League football club Arsenal after its value shot up while he was building the continent’s largest oil refinery.
"I regret not buying it before but my money was needed in completing my project then," the tycoon said in an interview on Bloomberg Television in New York on Monday."I don’t have that kind of excess liquidity to go and buy a club for $4 billion," which he suggested was about Arsenal’s current valuation, adding that he would have bought it for $2 billion a few years ago.
Either way, Dangote believes completing the refinery was a good decision, considering the value of the petroleum project to Nigeria — even if it affected his sporting ambition. The billionaire and the government have long said the project will finally wean Africa’s largest crude producer off imported fuel and help it end a subsidy that costs billions of dollars annually.
"I think the best decision was for us to go and complete our refinery," Dangote said."I will remain a major supporter of Arsenal."
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