Banque du Caire Shares Rise 6.3% on EGX Debut After $658 Million IPO
The listing is the Egyptian Exchange's largest ever by pound value, with the institutional tranche 5.95 times covered and retail demand 27 times the shares on offer.
Banque du Caire shares rose 6.3% in their first session on the Egyptian Exchange on Monday, after an IPO that raised $658 million (EGP 36.37 billion) and ranks as the bourse's largest listing ever by Egyptian pound value.
Banque Misr sold a 45% stake in the bank through the offering and retains 55%. The sale covered 6.86 billion shares at $0.095 (EGP 5.30) apiece, the top of the indicated range, valuing Banque du Caire at about $1.46 billion (EGP 80.83 billion). The government had initially planned to offer 30% and lifted the stake with approval from the Financial Regulatory Authority.
The offer was split between institutional and retail buyers. Some 6.52 billion shares, or 95% of the total, went to institutions and qualified investors, drawing orders worth $3.72 billion (EGP 205.8 billion) — 5.95 times the shares available. Strip out cornerstone investors and that tranche was 19.79 times covered.
Retail investors took the remaining 343.1 million shares, 5% of the offering, and submitted demand worth $921 million (EGP 49.2 billion), 27 times the amount on sale.
Cornerstone and strategic commitments came from the EBRD, the IFC, Helikon Investments, Sustainable Capital, Redwheel and Waha Capital.
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly rang the opening bell at the exchange on Monday. Central Bank of Egypt Governor Hassan Abdalla attended the ceremony, along with senior executives from the National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr and Banque du Caire.
Madbouly described the sale as support for the government's privatization drive. Abdalla said the scale of demand, secured against difficult conditions in regional markets, reflected international investors' confidence in the bank. EGX Chairman Omar Radwan called the transaction a record for the exchange and put its total value above EGP 36.37 billion.
The debut closed a long wait. Banque du Caire's shares were registered on the EGX in 2017, but market volatility and disagreement over valuation pushed the offering back repeatedly.
The listing sits inside a wider state divestment program meant to cut state ownership, pull in domestic and foreign capital and widen private sector participation. The program targets stakes in 30 companies named under the State Ownership Policy Document, 20 of them affiliated with the Ministry of Public Business Sector and 10 operating in petroleum.
Offerings previously floated as candidates include Engineering for the Petroleum and Process Industries (Enppi), Egyptian Linear Alkyl Benzene (Elab), Petroleum Marine Services (PMS) and El Maamoura for Construction and Tourism Development. The government is also working through the procedures for selling a stake in Misr Life Insurance.
For the exchange, the question is whether a bank trading above its IPO price pulls more state assets to market. The 30 companies named under the ownership policy document leave a queue of potential listings, and this week's order book is the argument officials will take to the next seller.
