Cairo-based Rameda Pharmaceuticals is set to price Egypt’s second private-sector initial public offering (IPO) of the year, revitalizing the country’s lacklustre IPO market, which has struggled to recover to pre-revolution levels, despite a healthy pipeline of state and non-state run companies.
Rameda is in the marketing phase of a listing that will value the company in a range of $214 million to $286 million on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX). It could be the largest Egyptian IPO since 2015.
Egyptian ECM activity has been slow to pick up after index-provider MSCI cut the North African country’s weighting in May 2015, in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, prompting investors to withdraw funds.
A successful deal would be a positive signal for investors, and good news for the large IMF-backed privatization programme that is yet to begin in earnest.
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Amr Helal, |
“What investors are looking for is new sizeable, investible ideas, for new names to come to market, and for existing names to provide more liquidity,” says Amr Helal, CEO North Africa at Renaissance Capital.
Egyptian listed IPOs peaked in 2015 when companies raised $752 million, though this fell sharply in 2016 to $214 million.
