E-finance announces indicative price range for its IPO

E-finance for Digital and Financial Investments S.A.E. (“e-finance Investment Group”, “e-finance”, the “Company”, the “Group” or the “Issuer”), Egypt’s first fintech platform and one of its leading developers of digital payments infrastructures, announced Thursday the indicative price range for its initial public offering (the “IPO” or the “Offering”) of 257,777,778 ordinary shares on the Egyptian Exchange (“EGX”).

The offering will consist of a sell-down of 80,000,000 secondary shares and a capital increase of 177,777,778 primary shares, together representing 14.5% of the Group’s share capital, and will involve a placement to certain institutional investors in Egypt and elsewhere (the “Institutional Offering”) and a retail offering to retail investors in Egypt (the “Egyptian Retail Offering” and, together with the Institutional Offering, the “Combined Offering”).

The proceeds of the capital increase will be utilized to fund the Group’s future operational expansion plans.

The indicative price range for the shares to be offered in the Combined Offering has been set between EGP 12.50 and EGP 13.98 per ordinary share.

The final price announcement will be determined in accordance with a book-building process and is expected to occur on or around October 9, 2021.

The Egyptian Retail Offering subscription period is expected to run from October 6, 2021 to October 13, 2021. Trading of the Issuer’s shares on the EGX is expected to begin on or around October 18, 2021.

On September 23, 2021, the Group received registration approval from the Egyptian Financial Regulatory Authority (the “FRA”). Completion of the Combined Offering is conditional upon receipt of customary regulatory approvals of the FRA and the EGX and on the finalization of the book-building process.

Commenting on the Offering, the Group’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ibrahim Sarhan, said: “e-finance Investment Group is ideally positioned to capitalize on Egypt’s strong market fundamentals and booming digital space, which has witnessed consistently strong growth since the Group’s inception. Through our unique position within the government payments ecosystem along with our Group’s business model that sees us benefit from cross-portfolio synergies and integration across our subsidiaries, e-finance is able to maintain a ubiquitous presence across the Egyptian digital space and its various payment and collection channels.

Armed with an optimized corporate structure, clearly defined growth strategies and expanding operational capacity, the Group will utilize proceeds from our IPO to continue capturing new opportunities that unlock and maximize value for governments, businesses, and individuals across the digital space.”

Egypt’s first fintech platform, e-finance Investment Group was founded in 2005 with the purpose of operating the Government of Egypt’s financial network. Today, e-finance is the sole entity authorized exclusively to process and settle Government payment and collection transactions and is the state’s digital partner of choice, with a dynamic business model covering the entire digital payments ecosystem. The Group’s revenues grew by a 2018-20 CAGR of 30% to record EGP 1,232 million for 2020 and EGP 904 million for H1-2021. EBITDA expanded by a 2018-20 CAGR of 35% to EGP 465 million[1] and recorded EGP 379 million for H1-2021. The Group’s performance underscores its centrality to Egypt’s payments ecosystem and its continuous development of innovative products and services that generate value for state-owned and private enterprises across the breadth of Egypt’s growing economy.

Renaissance Capital Egypt for Promoting and Underwriting of Securities S.A.E. (“Renaissance Capital”), CI Capital Investment Banking S.A.E. (“CI Capital”) and Al Ahly Pharos Investment Banking S.A.E. (“Al Ahly Pharos”) have been appointed as Co-Lead Managers, while NI Capital is the IPO advisor to the Company. Zaki Hashem & Partners (“ZH&P”) has been appointed as counsel to the Issuer, while Norton Rose Fulbright LLP is acting as U.S. counsel to the Co-Lead Managers.