Business · Egypt
Banque du Caire starts trading in Cairo on Monday after the biggest private book in EGX history
Shares priced at EGP 5.30, the top of the range, value the state-owned lender at about EGP 80.8bn. Retail investors bid for 27 times the stock on offer, and the exchange will let the price move up to 40% on day one.
CAIRO — Banque du Caire, one of Egypt’s largest state-owned lenders, will start trading on the Egyptian Exchange on Monday after an offering that the bank says drew record demand. At the final price of EGP 5.30 a share, the top of the indicative range of EGP 4.82 to 5.30, the bank is valued at about EGP 80.83bn (around $1.46bn), Banque du Caire said in its final price announcement on 26 October.
The sale is a partial exit by Banque Misr, which owns the bank. Egypt’s cabinet approved selling a 30% to 45% stake on 22 October, and the Financial Regulatory Authority signed off on the larger size, Arab Finance reported. In total 6.86 billion shares were offered, worth about EGP 36.37bn (c. $658m).
Who bought
Most of the stock, 95% of the offering, went to institutions and wealthy investors in a private placement worth about EGP 34.55bn (c. $625m). Orders in that book reached about EGP 205.8bn (c. $3.72bn), roughly six times the shares available. The bank says both figures are records for an EGX IPO in pound terms. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the IFC, Helikon, Sustainable Capital, RWC and Waha Investments had signed on before the book opened. Excluding them, the private tranche was covered about 19.8 times, the bank said.
The public tranche of 343.1 million shares closed on 28 October with orders for about 9.29 billion shares, 27.08 times the stock available, giving an allocation ratio of 0.0369, according to the exchange. Enterprise calculated that roughly EGP 49.2bn was chasing EGP 1.8bn of stock.
Day one rules
The EGX has listed the shares on its moderately active market, where same-day trading, T+1 and margin trading are allowed. On Monday the price can move up or down by as much as 40%, double the usual limit, without temporary suspensions, until a new closing price is set, according to the exchange’s statement. For 30 days, from 2 November to 1 December, the offering manager must keep an open buy order at EGP 5.30. Only shares bought in the public offering can be sold into it.
AB24’s reading from Cairo: Banque du Caire is the largest test so far of Egypt’s programme to sell stakes in state companies, which the IMF has pushed as part of its loan programme. Monday’s close, and whether the stabilisation order is used, will show whether the demand in the books carries through to the open market.
Sources: Banque du Caire final price announcement, 26 Oct 2026; Arab Finance, 28 Oct 2026; EGX statement via Mubasher / Hosny & Partners; Enterprise, 28 Oct 2026. Dollar figures are the bank’s or Enterprise’s conversions.
— AB24 · Cairo