SAIB exits credit-card JV at double book as Helios sees second Egyptian deal collapse

It’s a rare morning in which there is no real thread or running theme in our region’s markets or the dealflow that’s emerging. A Saudi bank has found a buyer willing to pay better than double book to take a credit-card JV off its hands, a year on from the fee-cap regime that made the business harder to run — and Helios Investment Partners has now had two Egyptian deals die on it inside seven weeks. Everything else on the page is capital formation, from Riyadh, Kuwait City, and Cairo.

SAIB is exiting its card JV at a premium. The Saudi Investment Bank (SAIB) is selling its 50% stake in American Express Saudi Arabia to its JV partner, Amex Middle East, for SAR 1.43 bn (USD 381.4 mn) upfront, plus deferred consideration, and is exiting the venture entirely, according to a Tadawul disclosure. The value of the transaction is more than double book value, with a roughly SAR 792.4 mn gain expected.

SAIB is cashing out of a steady earner as economics tighten. Sama’s 2025 reforms capped credit-card fees — international transaction charges at 2% and withdrawals at 3% — are squeezing issuer margins even as Saudi Arabia’s cashless shift accelerates.

Raya Holding’s board walked away from Helios’ bid for its frozen-food unit, according to an EGX disclosure (pdf), marking the UK-based, Africa-focused PE firm’s second collapsed local transaction in under two months. Raya’s BoD resolved yesterday not to proceed with Helios Investment Partners’ amended offer for 100% of Raya Foods, citing unmet conditions required to complete the transaction.

Helios had been circling Raya Foods since last year, opening with a bid for 49% before moving on the whole company. Its other Egyptian transaction died the same way: Telecom Egypt scrapped the sale of a 75-80% stake in its Regional Data Center Hub — a USD 230 mn transaction — on 17 July, its board finding that Helios hadn’t satisfied conditions tied to third parties.

Al Rajhi Bank has priced a USD 600 mn Tier 2 social sukuk at a 6.232% profit rate, according to Zawya. That's subordinated capital for the Kingdom's largest Islamic bank, raised in a labelled format Al Rajhi has leaned on before — it billed a 2024 deal as the first sustainable AT1 capital sukuk issuance in the market, and followed it with a USD 1 bn AT1. Social- and sustainability-labelled paper has become the default wrapper for Saudi bank capital, not the exception.

Kuwait International Bank (KIB) is in the market with a five-year benchmark USD sukuk, a senior unsecured Reg S issuance off KIB Sukuk Limited’s USD 1.5 bn trust certificate issuance program, Zawya reports. The lender, rated A (stable) by Fitch, earned Central Bank of Kuwait sign-off in early August to issue up to USD 600 mn under the program through a Cayman-incorporated SPV.

Synergy Capital and Nawy Now have raised EGP 1 bn (USD 19.6 mn) in under a year on Egypt’s first Ijarah-based fixed-income fund. The second issuance closed at EGP 633 mn (USD 12.4 mn) — the second tranche under a five-year, EGP 5 bn (USD 98 mn) program. The two rounds together hit c.21% of that target in under 12 months. The fund is a Shariah-compliant, lease-to-own structure backed by real-estate mortgage receivables from Nawy Now’s loan book. It’s the first fund of its kind in Egypt or the Middle East. MFIC, Synergy Capital’s asset-management arm, runs it.

Dubai-born fitness tech platform Enhance raised USD 18.2 mn in equity and venture debt to grow its operational footprint across the US from 700+ locations, according to a press release (pdf). Enhance is targeting 850 US locations by the end of 2026, with faster deployment planned for 2027 through new strategic partnerships, Enhance founder Tarek Mounir says. Dubai-based Global Ventures led the equity tranche, while the venture debt was structured by India’s Stride Ventures.

In the US, Enhance’s entry point is enterprise SaaS — per-location licensing. Where gyms want more, Enhance runs personal training end-to-end, tying its revenue to the gym’s PT income rather than its software budget. The GCC remains its largest revenue base, with Saudi Arabia being its fastest-growing market.

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Egyptian education platform 3C Coding School raised USD 3 mn in a seed round led by MRG Economic Group, with participation from angel investors. The edtech plans to put the proceeds toward entering the Saudi market and accelerating the development of an AI-powered learning platform.

Riyadh-based agentic AI platform Cofe Tech closed a pre-IPO round valuing the firm at USD 178 mn, targeting a Tadawul listing by 2029; the round was co-led by Waed Ventures, Aditum Investment Management, Masarrah Investment, and Alyasra Foods.

Travel technology platform FlyAkeed secured SAR 94.3 mn in growth funding — an equity round led by Sanabil Investments, Artal Capital, stc’s corporate VC fund, and Aljazira Capital, plus a separate Murabaha sukuk financing led by Artal Capital — earmarked for its deferred-payment offering, AI and analytics capabilities, and GCC expansion.

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