Three new initial public offer (IPO) share flotations with a total value of over $300 million are planned for the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) this year, says Egypt’s largest investment bank. According to a story on Reuters, these would be the first listings on the Cairo bourse since the revolution, the last IPO was in 2010.
The Egyptian Exchange has been booming in recent months, after suffering in the political turmoil since Mubarak’s fall in 2011.
Reuters reports that Karim Awad, co-CEO of EFG Hermes, told financial newspaper Al-Mal that Egypt’s Arabian Cement Company would be one of the listings but did not name the other two. Awad told Reuters by email: “The IPOs will hopefully happen this year. The exact timing in the year will be agreed with the companies who are undertaking the IPOs and considering the state of the financial markets.”
Egyptian stock market investors have chosen to ignore increasing violence and repression and are focusing instead on the ongoing national economic and political stabilization, particularly since the 14 Jan referendum approving a new constitution and cleared the way for presidential and parliamentary elections. The main EGX 30 Price Return index of the Egyptian stock exchange is up over 45% since the army ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July 2013, after mass protests against his rule.
As reported here, Egypt’s financial regulator the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) will implement new regulations for companies listed on the bourse from tomorrow (1 Feb), which could help boost liquidity and attract listings and further investment.
On 28 Jan, Finance Minister Ahmed Galal said details of its second stimulus package since Mursi’s ousting would be announced within days. The aim is to boost growth and investment, which had slowed dramatically. Government had done a first stimulus package of EGP30 billion ($4.3bn) last year and promised a second of the same size this month. Gulf countries have pledged more than $12bn in aid since Mursi was overthrown and Galal has said that EGP20bn would go on public investment and the rest would create a new public-sector minimum wage.
Before the 2011 revolution, Egypt was attracting around $8bn a year of foreign direct investment (FDI) but that shrank to $4bn in the year to June 2012 and $3bn to June 2013. Investment Minister Osama Saleh said this week they expect to beat the target of $4bn in FDI by June 2014.
Here is last week’s Economist article on Egypt.