60 million euro IPO concluded on the Bank of Cairo, listed on the stock exchange

Egypt has completed the largest initial public offering (IPO) in the history of its stock exchange, listing 45% of the Bank of Cairo's shares from today, and raising over 36.3 billion Egyptian pounds (about 650 million dollars, almost 600 million euros).

It is Egypt's sixth largest banking institution in terms of assets, but is one of Egypt's largest and most historic commercial banks. Founded in 1952, it is today a fundamental pillar of the Egyptian financial system. Among the large international investors, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which acquired a 6.9% stake for 100 million dollars, to support the digitalisation and governance of the institution.

This is an important piece of a plan of privatizations and asset sales driven by the agreements with the International Monetary Fund and the need to reduce public debt, which will soon be followed, in December, by a public offer on a 20% stake in Misr Life Insurance, the largest life insurance company in Egypt and in the entire Arab region now controlled by the Egyptian Sovereign Fund.

The Bank of Cairo's negotiations were inaugurated today by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly himself, who defined this debut as "a turning point in the path of economic reform and the culmination of the state vision aimed at increasing the participation of the private sector and broadening the shareholder base among citizens and investment institutions". The president of the Egyptian Stock Exchange, Omar Radwan specified that the tranche reserved for the retail public was subscribed over 27 times, with purchase orders that exceeded 9.28 billion shares. The tranche intended for institutional investors, many of them from the Gulf, also recorded large participation, both at an international and institutional level.

The operation saw Banque Misr, Egypt's second largest bank, sell existing shares, rather than foreseeing a raising of new capital by Banque du Caire through the issue of new shares.