Egypt’s IPO pipeline fills out as Banque du Caire’s retail book runs 27x covered

Banque du Caire’s retail book closed 27x oversubscribed on Wednesday, with retail investors ordering some 9.29 bn shares against the 343.1 mn in the upsized public tranche, Al Arabiya reports, citing a bourse statement. At the EGP 5.30 final price that is roughly EGP 49.2 bn (c. USD 921 mn) chasing EGP 1.8 bn (c. USD 34 mn) of stock.

The book is allocated pro rata and without discretion, so applicants get about 3.7% of what they asked for. Trading is expected to start on Monday, 2 November, with a buyback option letting retail investors lodge sell orders for 30 months after the debut.

More IPOs lining up in Cairo: A plastics maker 54.5% owned by state banks has filed to list on the EGX. The Egyptian exchange said it received the request from Alamal Alsharif for Plastics on Tuesday and is reviewing the listing documents before passing them to the listing committee. The notice covers issued capital of EGP 796.3 mn, divided into 7.96 mn shares at a par value of EGP 100, and runs for five working days through 2 November.

The year-end deadline is doing the work. Alamal Alsharif was among the names under consideration when the government moved in March to set a timeline for IPOs or stake sales in at least 20 state companies, part of meeting the IMF program requirements before it concludes in December. Four are meant to be trading by then: Banque du Caire within days, Misr Life Ins. in late November or early December, and El Nasr Glass and Spring & Transport Needs Manufacturing (Yayat) in December.

Adnoc is looking for buyers for its 10% of global energy storage operator VTTI, with India’s Adani Group among the suitors. An agreement could value Rotterdam-based VTTI at c. EUR 3 bn (USD 3.4 bn), which would put Adnoc’s stake at around EUR 300 mn, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. Co-owners IFM Investors and Vitol, which hold 45% each, may also sell down.

It would be selling into the disruption that lifted the asset. Traders pay more for storage when supply is interrupted, and VTTI holds oil products, chemicals, biofuels, and LNG at terminals across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, including the UK’s Dragon LNG, Italy’s Adriatic LNG, and one in Fujairah. Adnoc bought in during 2019 to secure storage in its export markets, saying then that holding product closer to customers gave it more control over where, when, and how it reached them.

Emirates NBD Capital held 21% of MENA equity capital markets bookrunning through the first nine months, Zawya reports. Regional equity fundraising fell 71% y-o-y to USD 2.1 bn in 1H, so that share sits on a much smaller base than a year ago.

It is looking outward. The investment banking arm, which secured an India license last year, wants to rank among India’s top investment banks within three to five years, CEO Hitesh Asarpota told IFR. It is also widening its Turkey pipeline, where the group owns DenizBank.

Dubai’s BY Venture Partners has closed a USD 60 mn third fund for early-stage AI, taking its assets under management above USD 200 mn. The Dubai Future District Fund anchored it, with MultiLane, Transmed Capital, the Idriss Family Office, and other institutional and private investors joining, according to a press release. It will write cheques of up to USD 1 mn into AI-native companies building tools for enterprise workflows, from pre-seed to series A, and has made 15 of a planned 40 investments — PQ Shield, Cosyne, and Isometric among them, alongside Huspy and Invisible from earlier funds.

Series A is where the money thinned out. MENA’s early-stage dealcount fell 45% y-o-y over nine months even as mega-rounds hit a record USD 813 mn in 3Q, and UAE series A rounds halved in 1H as foreign investors wrote smaller cheques and startups struggled to find leads. AI companies took around 60% of what series A startups did raise in that half.

Abu Dhabi’s Private Department of Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalid Al Nahyan has launched an LNG fund targeting USD 1.2 bn at initial close. ADGM-regulated eem Partners will manage Pvt Dpt – LNG Fund (CEIC), with the department’s affiliate KSH Investments as strategic consultant, state news agency Wam reports. The fund is part of the department’s partnership with EIG and MidOcean and comes on top of the USD 1.13 bn it committed to MidOcean in July, taking its LNG commitments past USD 2.3 bn.

Saudi Arabia could raise as much as USD 12 bn more on international debt markets before year-end, Jefferies chief Middle East economist Alia Moubayed told Asharq Business. With USD 14.8 bn already raised from international markets this year, a further USD 12 bn would take international issuance to about SAR 100 bn, or roughly 46% of the Kingdom’s planned financing need against the 25-30% it set out to cover from abroad.

Kuwait’s Warba Bank has issued KWD 80 mn (c. USD 260 mn) of perpetual additional tier 1 sukuk at a 5.50% coupon, according to the Gulf Capital Market Association. The KWD denomination is the notable part for a Gulf AT1, a market that prices almost entirely in USD.

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