Emirates Global Aluminum went shopping in Italy

We’re not going to declare that regional equity capital markets are reopening, but… Two developments give us heart this fine April morning: Saudi IT firm Dar Al Balad is readying what could be the Gulf’s first IPO since the drones and bombers started flying — and our friends at EFG Hermes pulled off a surprise institutional placement for fintech darling Valu.

Also this morning: Emirates Global Aluminium, which is coping with damage from Iranian attacks, has gone shopping in Italy — and Pakistan cleared another tranche of UAE deposits on fresh Saudi support.

The details:

The first Gulf IPO since the war is about to test the market. Saudi IT services firm Dar Al Balad is pushing ahead with a 30% float on Tadawul. It’s looking to raise up to USD 75 mn through the sale of 21 mn shares, per Bloomberg. Revenue jumped 30% last year to SAR 315 mn, giving bankers a growth story to pitch into a market starved of fresh paper, but the CMA approval expires in June, so the window is not particularly wide.

What to watch for: How much of this gets snapped up by domestic investors and how much goes to foreigners will be an important data point to keep in mind when we look at how the fall IPO window might shape up. We’re not expecting much activity in the coming 5-6 weeks, after which the IPO window basically slams shut until September when folks return from summer break.

(You may see some small-fry stuff on Nomu, Saudi’s baby bourse, but don’t expect big offerings on Tadawul, DFM, or ADX before fall if nobody pulls the trigger before yacht season begins…)

EGA goes shopping in Italy — again: Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) is buying 80% of Italian recycler Eco Green, per a statement. It’s the group’s third outbound deal in two years — and with Al Taweelah still under force majeure and Hormuz still a mess (to put it politely), locking in 70k tonnes a year of European scrap supply is less an ESG badge than it is a new supply chain insurance policy. The founding Scappini family will keep 20% of the combined entity.

The EGX is showing signs of life: Valu — Egypt’s homegrown BNPL platform — placed a 2.55% stake (53.8 mn shares) through an accelerated bookbuild targeting institutions, per a statement. The secondary sale, managed by EFG Hermes, likely cleared around EGP 603 mn on closing prices, implying a total valuation of EGP 24.1 bn.

Why it matters: It vindicates EFG Holding’s unusual call last year to spin Valu out rather than keep it on the balance sheet — and tells the market the EGX is still willing to pay up for local tech names that can deliver real numbers.

Aldar + Mubadala deepen their Abu Dhabi JV: Aldar Properties and Mubadala added to their AED 30 bn tie-up with the purchase of The Link — a five-building, 32k-sqm complex in Masdar City that houses Masdar’s HQ and the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence — per a press release (pdf).

Pakistan is on course to conclude its breakup with the UAE: Pakistan returned USD 2 bn to the UAE and says it will repay the remaining USD 1.5 bn of a USD 3.5 bn UAE-linked deposit by tomorrow, after Saudi Arabia extended a new USD 3 bn loan and rolled over its existing USD 5 bn deposit for a longer term. The repayments come as Islamabad awaits a fresh USD 1.2 bn IMF disbursement under its bailout program, which would help cushion reserves.

Refresher: Pakistan said earlier this month it would return USD 3.5 bn in matured UAE loan deposits. The UAE had previously rolled over a USD 2 bn deposit until 17 April after multiple extensions. Separate support has also included a USD 450 mn loan dating back to 1996, and a further USD 1 bn deposit in 2023 to help Pakistan meet IMF-related funding needs.

ALSO WORTH KNOWING TODAY-

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) took a MAD 400 mn (USD 43 mn) position in a local municipal bond issued by the Casablanca-Settat region. The issuance is a landmark for Morocco as the first bond issued by one of its regional authorities. The total issuance is worth MAD 1 bn (USD 107.5 mn) and will be used “to implement strategic investments under [the region’s] 2022-2027 Regional Development Plan.”

Abu Dhabi’s Investcorp Capital is putting USD 200 mn into senior living, multifamily, and select rental assets across California, New York, and New Jersey, per a press release (pdf). Target properties average 94% occupancy with solid in-place income — part of the firm’s push toward a USD 6 bn deployment target for FY 2025-26.

Cairo-based A15 sold its UAE-based music distribution portfolio company Viral Wave to PopArabia, the regional partner of Nasdaq-listed Reservoir, per a statement (pdf). It’s A15’s ninth fully realized exit — and another data point on the MENA tech truism: strategic M&A, not the public markets, is where regional winners cash in.

B Investments is committing EGP 560 mn (USD 10.8 mn) to European Universities in Egypt (EUE) through a mix of capital increase and a secondary sale, per a bourse filing (pdf). The bet: Egyptian university enrollments are projected to hit 5 mn by 2030, requiring some 1.3 mn new seats — and EGX-listed education stocks are already pricing in the scarcity at 20-22x earnings.

Market Snapshot

Tadawul 0.27% • ADX +0.20% • DFM +0.28% • EGX30 +0.32%

Brent USD 98.12 / bbl • Gold USD 4761 / oz • USD / SAR 3.75 • USD / EGP 51.70