Egypt’s Banque du Caire eyes slimmed-down IPO post-Covid

Banque du Caire was so nearly there.

The Egyptian lender was on track to complete a $500 million initial public offering in the spring of 2020. Everything was in place. Its owner, state-owned lender Banque Misr, had committed to offloading up to 30% of the Cairo-based bank.

Underwriters HSBC and EFG Hermes had a slew of anchor investors, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, ready to buy up to $75 million worth of available stock.

The IPO mattered on a number of levels. To the state, it would breathe new life into a privatization process that had been left to drift. It would also deepen liquidity on the Egyptian Exchange. A concurrent sale of global depositary receipts (GDRs) in London would encourage international investors to buy into a newly reenergized economy.

Then