The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) has announced their acceptance of Banque du Caire's application to list its shares in the EGX with a capital of EGP 2.25bn, distributed over 562.5m shares with a nominal value of EGP 4 per share in a statement on Wednesday. Tarek Amer, governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has previously said in March 2016, that the CBE will offer the state-owned Banque du Caire in the EGX during 2017 in order to increase its capital by 20%. The initial public offering (IPO) of the bank is a step within the framework of a plan to offer shares of banks and public companies on the EGX in order to gather around EGP 6bn-8bn per year, as part of the government's economic reform programme, which includes offering companies from the petroleum and industry sectors in the EGX. The last IPO of the bank is expected to be completed in two stages; the first stage includes the IPO of global depositary receipts (GDR) on the London stock exchange with a ratio of roughly 5%, according to governmental sources, while the second stage is the IPO in the EGX at 15%. "GDR offering will allow the bank to expand their investor base, and provide US dollars liqudity, leading to stabilising the share price," said Ahmed Abou El Saad, chairperson of Rasmala, a company for investment funds. Moreover, CBE is expected to offer a share of the Arab African International Bank, which is 50% owned by the CBE and the rest is owned by the Kuwaiti side, according to Amer. Adding that the Egyptian government will offer 20% of its shares and Kuwait will offer an equal amount.
