Second tranche of Emaar Misr’s IPO 36 times oversubscribed

Emaar Misr offered 90 million shares last week in the second tranche of its IPO, the largest flotation on the Cairo exchange since 2007. Traders said it drew subscriptions for 3.23 billion shares.

Emaar Misr said it would use the net proceeds raised from the offering, together with its existing cash resources, principally to further the development of the commercial areas of its projects under development, including primarily Emaar Square in Project Uptown Cairo. — AFP

Dubai — Emaar Misr, the Egyptian subsidiary of Dubai-based developer Emaar Properties, said on Thursday that the second tranche of its $2.3 billion initial public offering was oversubscribed by about 36 times.

Emaar Misr offered 90 million shares last week in the second tranche of its IPO, the largest flotation on the Cairo exchange since 2007. Traders said it drew subscriptions for 3.23 billion shares.

Emaar Misr is floating 12.99 per cent of the company, equaling 600 million shares. Of these, 510 million have been allocated to institutional investors. That tranche was 11 times oversubscribed, Dubai-listed Emaar said earlier this month.

The shares were priced at 3.8 Egyptian pounds ($0.4984) per share, parent firm Emaar Properties said last Thursday. Based on the offer price, Emaar Misr’s market capitalisation at listing will be approximately EGP 17.6 billion ($2.3 billion). Emaar Misr has a portfolio of investments in Egypt worth around 53 billion Egyptian pounds ($6.95 billion).

According to Mohamed Ali Alabbar, Chairman of Emaar Misr, the company’s focus remains on establishing a strong base of shareholders to support its future development plans and growth strategy.

“We look forward to concluding the public offering tranche, and to the company’s next growth phase as a listed company.”

Emaar Misr said it would use the net proceeds raised from the offering, together with its existing cash resources, principally to further the development of the commercial areas of its projects under development, including primarily Emaar Square in Project Uptown Cairo, the planned international marina and hotels in Project Marassi and Downtown area in Project Mivida.

The company said it also intends to use a part of the net proceeds to fund pre-launch expenditures and costs in relation to the development of Cairo Gate, as well as selectively growing its land bank through the potential acquisition of select land plots. Emaar Misr appointed EFG Hermes and JP Morgan as the joint global coordinators and joint book runners for the offer.

— issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com