Egypt’s Sovereign Wealth Fund and Abu Dhabi Development Holding Company are considering investment in the upcoming initial public offering (IPO) of Banque du Caire’s 20-30% stake scheduled mid-April
Banque du Caire is fully owned by Banque Misr. With assets of EGP 183.4bn until the end of 2019, Banque du Caire ranks among top Egyptian banks. It would be Egypt’s biggest sale of state assets since 2006. The offering is part of the government IPO programme that was announced three years ago but was repeatedly delayed.
Informed sources told Daily News Egypt that Banque du Caire will allocate the majority of the offering to strategic investors, institutions and funds. This will guarantee the success of the subscription process, especially that promotional campaigns have already succeeded in making many parties think seriously about seizing large shares in the offering process.
Several strategic local, Arab, and foreign investors have expressed their desire to subscribe to the offering, while a small percentage of the offering will be allocated to individuals, especially that the offering is large in terms of volume, and to avoid weak trading in the Egyptian Exchange due to COVID-19 fears, which suggests further delay until the situation stabilises.
Chairperson of Banque du Caire Tarek Fayed told Reuters on Wednesday that the bank targets collecting $500m of the IPO, which represents 20-30% stake of the bank. Fayed expected to sell $50-75m of the total offering to one or more strategic investors.
The sources added that the bank, in cooperation with the offering managers, EFG Hermes and HSBC, will continue the offering promotion locally and abroad in order to ensure covering the targeted sale value.
