Banque du Caire IPO: 30% stake to list on EGX in November

The Banque du Caire IPO moved ahead on Sunday as the state-owned lender said it intends to float 30% of its share capital on the Egyptian Exchange, with trading expected to begin in November.

The offering is a secondary sale of about 4.575 billion existing ordinary shares held by parent Banque Misr, the bank said in a statement on 11 October. No new shares will be issued, so the proceeds will go to the selling shareholder rather than to the bank, EnterpriseAM reported.

The deal is split into two tranches. A private placement will target qualified institutional investors in Egypt and selected international markets, while a public offering will be open to retail investors in Egypt.

Banque du Caire IPO structure and timeline

Subscription is expected to be completed by the end of October, subject to regulatory approvals, with the shares due to start trading in November. The bank still needs the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) to approve the offering documents and the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) to sign off on the listing.

No price range has been disclosed. EnterpriseAM, citing a fair value of EGP 80–80.5 billion reported in September, estimated the 30% stake at about EGP 24 billion (roughly USD 460 million).

CI Capital is lead global coordinator and joint bookrunner, and EFG Hermes is joint global coordinator and joint bookrunner, according to Daily News Egypt. Baker McKenzie is advising on US and English law, with Helmy, Hamza & Partners advising on Egyptian law.

Hussein Abaza, managing director and chief executive officer, called the planned listing “a key milestone in the bank’s more than 70-year history”, Ahram Online reported. He said the lender has a diversified business across retail, corporate, SME and microfinance banking.

Half-year profit of EGP 8.94 billion

Banque du Caire reported net profit after tax of EGP 8.94 billion (about USD 171 million) for the first half of 2026, according to figures published with the announcement. EnterpriseAM put the year-on-year increase at about 22%.

Net interest income reached EGP 18.79 billion and net fee and commission income EGP 3.42 billion. The annualised return on average equity was 27.6% and the annualised net interest margin 7.4%.

Total assets stood at EGP 561.22 billion (about USD 10.8 billion) on 30 June 2026. Gross loans were EGP 280.25 billion, customer deposits EGP 443.87 billion and total equity EGP 66.82 billion.

The non-performing loan ratio was 3.7% at mid-2026, down from 5.0% in 2017, while the cost-to-income ratio improved to 35.9% from 48.7% over the same period, Daily News Egypt reported.

The bank serves roughly 3.2 million customers through a network of 242 branches, a figure that includes planned openings, and 2,205 ATMs across all 27 governorates. Its mobile banking service has one million users.

Abaza joined the bank in 2024. Readers can follow other lenders in our banking and financial services coverage.

What the Egyptian Exchange listing means for investors

The Banque Misr stake sale forms part of Egypt’s privatisation programme. Banque du Caire is among the state-owned entities the government plans to offer under a divestment plan backed by a USD 8 billion International Monetary Fund loan programme that ends by mid-December 2026, according to Ahram Online.

The listing has been discussed for several years, and the size of the stake has shifted. Officials had pointed to a sale of between 30% and 40% earlier this year, EnterpriseAM reported.

The offering will also test demand on the local bourse. EGX chairman Omar Radwan said in September that market capitalisation had exceeded EGP 4.3 trillion, with average daily trading of nearly EGP 10 billion, Ahram Online reported.

EnterpriseAM said the transaction would be about three times the size of the recent USD 150 million MNT IPO. It quoted banking analyst Hany Abou El Fotouh as saying it was not yet clear whether the market could absorb both offerings.

For regional investors, the Banque du Caire IPO offers exposure to a lender with a 22.1% capital adequacy ratio and a retail franchise in a country where only 43% of people over 15 held a bank account in 2024, according to the announcement.

The bank has said it plans to grow cross-selling and non-interest income, which made up 17.8% of net banking income in 2025. It has not specified a dividend payout ratio.

The next step is the public subscription notice, which is expected to set out the price, the size of each tranche and any lock-up on Banque Misr’s remaining shares. The bank has not named any cornerstone investors.

Further details are expected through Banque du Caire and the exchange once the FRA and EGX approvals are in place. More regional deal news is available on our MENA business news page.