The initial public offering (IPO) for the Egyptian digital payments company Fawry was oversubscribed by 30.3 times at a price of 6.46 Egyptian pounds (39 U.S. cents), data from the Egyptian stock exchange showed on Monday. Fawry plans to list 36 percent of its share capital, worth up to 1.6 billion Egyptian pounds ($97 million), in the flotation. It said Actis, Banque Misr and National Bank of Egypt would each be offered about 7 percent of the stock, and 5 percent would be offered to retail investors. A private placing representing the remaining 10 percent of the share capital was 15.9 times oversubscribed, raising about 360 million Egyptian pounds, investment bank EFG Hermes said last Thursday. "The subscriptions for both the public and private offerings for Fawry were large and strong because the industry itself is new to the market and has greater than average growth," said Radwa El-Swaify, head of research at Pharos Securities Brokerage. "The view of investors this time around is towards the long-term payoff and not the short-term," El-Swaify said. Fawry expects trading in its shares to start on the bourse on August 8 after receiving approval from the exchange. Fawry, founded in 2009, is owned by local and foreign investment banks. About 8 percent of its shares are held by management and employees. Fawry's network processed 600.1 million transactions last year with a total value of 34.2 billion Egyptian pounds, EFG Hermes said in its statement. The company made a core profit of 152 million pounds in 2018, up 41.2 percent on the previous year. The last IPO by a private company on the Egyptian stock exchange was that of consumer finance business Sarwa Capital in October 2018. Source: Reuters
