Egypt’s state-run digital payments infrastructure and fintech platform, e-finance, on Sunday announced its intention to float up to 14.5% of its shares on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2021.
The company will offer almost 258 million shares to investors, of which 177.8 million in a primary issue, and 80 million in a secondary sale.
The offering will include a private placement to certain institutional investors in Egypt and internationally, and a retail offering in Egypt, according to the company’s statement, which didn’t disclose how many shares might be allocated to institutional players.
At the same time, e-finance is in the process of obtaining the required approvals and registrations related to the offering, including from the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) and EGX.
The company’s strong recent growth rates are set to attract investors. Its revenues grew to EGP 1.2bn in 2020, good for a 2018-2020 CAGR of 30%, and recorded EGP 904m in the first half (H1) of 2021. EBITDA expanded at a 2018-20 CAGR of 35% to EGP 465m in 2020 and recorded EGP 379m in H1 2021,
The company’s net profit grew at a 2018-20 CAGR of 41% to EGP 352m in 2020 and EGP 276m in H1 2021. Revenues and net profit grew between H1 2018 to H1 2021 at a CAGR of 37% and 68%, respectively. NPM has expanded from 16.8% in H1 2018 to 30.5% in H1 2021.
In addition to processing EGP 2.1trn in government transactions, e-finance offers a wide range of digital services through subsidiaries:
– e-cards, the largest producer of payment cards in Egypt, offering integrated smart solutions tailored to banking, transportation, cultural, education, club and smart city services,
– Khales, provides a central bill processing hub for 13 partners through a network of more than 326k POS machines, in addition to its digital channels including a mobile app and a digital bill payments portal,
– e-aswaaq, a digital purchasing platform with more than 300 thousand merchants specializing in agriculture, commerce, industry, and tourism,
– e-nable, a business process outsourcing (BPO) arm, offers solutions from HR and IT outsourcing to full contact center services.