B Investments mulls expansion as it starts trading on EGX amid investors' interest

Company aims to use IPO proceedings in renewable energy, non-banking financial services

B Investments is mulling an ambitious expansion plan in 2018, as it started trading on the Egyptian Exchange in a ceremony held on Thursday.
The private offering of the company's shares was oversubscribed by 100 local and international organisations, and high-net-worth individuals from several Arab countries, including Kuwait and the UAE, the co-founder of the company, Alaa Sabaa, said during the opening session.
B Investments' initial public offering (IPO) was oversubscribed 84.4 times by the end of the sale of 422m shares out of 5m shares offered to the public offering.
The Egyptian Exchange set the period from 29 March to 29 April to open the market for the purchase of B Investments shares within the mechanism of stock price stability.
B Investments is an Egypt-based, Egypt-focused private equity company established in 2006, with an active growth capital investor managed by BPE Partners, a leading private equity manager with over EGP 15bn in market value of portfolio investments.
The company portfolio investments include Madinet Nasr for Housing and Development (MNHD), Total Egypt, Giza Systems, Ebtikar for Financial Investments, Infinity Solar Assets (three solar power-generating assets in Benban, Egypt).
The price of the company's share in the offering is EGP 10.75.
B Investments is hoping to gain EGP 460m from the sale of 43m shares, with the aim of using the outcome of this IPO in financing projects in the renewable energy and non-banking financial services sectors.
Sigma Capital was the sole coordinator and bookrunner, while Zaki Hashem & Partners acted as the legal counsel to the issuer.
The company reported a robust set of results for the FY 2017 with consolidated revenues closing the year at EGP 171.6m, as opposed to consolidated revenues of EGP 108.6m in FY 2016 after adjusting for foreign exchange (FX) gains of EGP 99.8m in FY 2016, thus showing a 58% y-o-y growth in revenues between FY 2016 and FY 2017.
Net profit after tax and minority interest for the year recorded EGP 133.2mn, implying a net income margin of 77.6% and a y-o-y growth of 125% after adjusting for FX gain recorded in 2016.
"It is with great pleasure to report these exceptional results in anticipation of the first day of trading at the end of this week," said B Investments Chairman Hazem Barakat.
"Our performance during 2017 can be attributed to the remarkable growth of all of our portfolio companies despite the challenges that have risen in 2017. B Investments has demonstrated its solid position in the Egyptian market and its ability to continue to create shareholder value" added Barakat.
"Heading in to 2018, B Investments has a very vibrant pipeline of potential investments and will be rapidly implementing our post-IPO strategy of investing in our existing portfolio companies along with investments in new attractive sectors based on our active value investing approach," commented Sabaa.