Egypt to resume its IPOs in September through up to three offerings

Egypt is expected to resume its initial public offering (IPO) programme for the state-owned enterprises from September through December through initiating two offerings up to three offerings, head of Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) Mohamed Omran said.

After getting a robust push from the government in 2019 through offering the Eastern Company, Egypt’s IPO programme subdued amid the rising threat of the pandemic.

Earlier in April, Minister of Public Business Sector Hisham Tawfik said the programme is scheduled to resume in the third quarter of 2021 and the IPO will include companies that spur the investors’ appetite without revealing the names or the number of the companies expected to go public.

Omran made his statements during a press conference at the FRA held on Tuesday to showcase the authority’s achievements over the past four years and to announce its strategy going forward.

Omran also noted that the domestic market is expected to witness the first issuance of green bonds for a private sector company on Wednesday with a total value of $100 million, the first of a kind for the private sector in Egypt.

During the conference, Omran revealed that Egypt’s financial market experienced a significant growth in the issued securities in the primary market over the past four years (2017-2020) to more than EGP 500 billion.

During the same period, securitization bond issuances recorded EGP 56 billion, EGP 25 billion of which posted in 2020 which is the highest securitization value in the Egyptian financial market.

On the Egyptian exchange market (EGX) performance, Omran noted that trading value doubled in 2020 to reach EGP 689.6 billion compared to EGP 333 billion in 2017.

On the other hand, the EGX’s capital market value declined in 2020 to about EGP 650 billion, down from EGP 685 billion recorded by end of 2017, according to Omran.

Regarding insurance activity, Omran said that the gross investments in the sector jumped by 26 percent in 2020 to EGP 108 billion, up from EGP 86 billion in 2017.

Meanwhile, the investments of the private insurance funds climbed 36 percent in 2020 to post EGP 83 billion, up from EGP 61 billion in 2017.