Banque du Caire makes its EGX debut

Here are the stories driving the day, both at home and abroad. Banque du Caire (BdC) closed its first session on the EGX up 0.19% at EGP 5.31 a share, following a blockbuster IPO that drew heavy investor demand despite the regional market jitters brought on by the war. The stock reached EGP 5.68 in the opening minutes and dipped as low as EGP 5.25, below the EGP 5.30 offer price, before the close. The bank’s market value at close was EGP 80.98 bn (c. USD 1.51 bn), against EGP 80.83 bn at the offer price.

Trading was heavy. Some 373.1 mn shares, worth EGP 2.02 bn, changed hands across 30.1k trades. That’s 4.1x the c. EGP 488 mn worth of CIB shares that traded on an average day over the past six months and 1.6x the EGP 1.26 bn MNT-Halan saw on its debut. The EGX30 closed down 0.70%.

One analyst tells us pricing at full fair value left little room for a first-day pop. “There was no discount to give investors a reason to buy more after listing,” Okaz Asset Management Managing Director Randa Hamed tells EnterpriseAM. “Trading around the offer price is the natural result.”

The IPO reflects “the resurgence of foreign institutional appetite for tier-one Egyptian assets,” Maged El Ayouti, co-head of investment banking at joint global coordinator EFG Hermes, said in a statement (pdf).

REFRESHER- Banque Misr sold 45% of BdC for EGP 36.37 bn (c. USD 680 mn) in a stellar IPO, pricing at the top of its range. Four foreign funds — Helikon, Redwheel, Sustainable Capital, and Waha — committed USD 256 mn as cornerstone investors, and the EBRD and the IFC came in later. Institutional orders covered the private placement 5.95x, EFG said, and the retail tranche was 27x covered. Retail allottees can sell their shares back at the offer price until 1 December.

The government is negotiating again with Brussels over “preferential treatment that gives Egyptian exports a longer chance” under the EU’s carbon border levy as the mechanism nears full application, a senior government official tells EnterpriseAM. It is also reviewing how countries in Asia and Latin America handled the mechanism to work out its options. What Cairo wants now, another government official tells us, is a phased timetable tied to several Egyptian environmental measures so that goods in the designated sectors keep reaching the EU more easily.

MEANWHILE- JPMorgan raised its year-end inflation forecast for Egypt to 14.3% from 13.4%, Asharq Business reports. The revision reflects currency pass-through after the EGP shed roughly 7.3% against the USD during October on hot-money outflows.

^^We’ll have more on these stories in tomorrow’s edition of EnterpriseAM.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- It’s looking like another warm fall day in the capital tomorrow, with the mercury rising to 31°C before dropping to an overnight low of 21°C, according to our favorite weather app.

MAKING HEADLINES ABROAD-

The digital pages this afternoon are dominated by reports of hacking targeting emergency alert apps in Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine’s Air Alert app sent false warnings Sunday night of nuclear and chemical threats as well as the risk of street combat in Kyiv and other cities. Later, Russia’s Emergency Situations mobile app reported it was hit by a cyberattack that allowed attackers to send false information to the public. One of the fake alarms on Ukraine’s app was broadcast in the Russian language and said that Russia was about to launch a hypersonic Oreshnik missile, which can carry nuclear warheads. It has not been made clear whether both attacks are connected in any way or who might have carried them out.

MEANWHILE- Crypto scammers are putting the industry on edge, with Binance recording USD 3.64 bn in net outflows following Thursday’s record USD 6.3 bn hack, which the FBI attributed to North Korea. In nearly 10 hours, the company recorded USD 4.65 bn in withdrawals and USD 1 bn in deposits, leaving net outflows equivalent to 2.1% of Binance’s USD 171 bn in total assets. Withdrawal volumes have declined since, and the platform is moving to cover its losses with an ins. and security fund and USD 6 bn raised from its corporate treasury.