EFG Hermes, the leading financial services corporation in Frontier Emerging Markets, successfully concluded advisory to Fawry for Banking and Payment Technology Services (Fawry), Egypt’s pioneering operator of electronic payment networks, on its EGP 1.64 billion initial public offering (IPO) on the Egyptian Exchange.

Fawry is one of the fastest growing ventures in the MENA region, with an innovative service suite spanning alternative digital payments, supply chain services, agent banking and SME lending.

EFG Hermes acted as sole global coordinator and bookrunner on the transaction, with Zulficar and Partners serving as local counsel. Shares of Fawry have begun trading on the Egyptian Exchange under the stock symbol FWRY.CA.

The offering saw Fawry’s selling shareholder PSI Netherland Holding B.V., offer 254,629,483 existing ordinary shares, representing 36% of Fawry’s total shares, in a combined offering at an offer price of EGP 6.46 per share. The combined offering included a local private placement to institutional investors outside the United States, Australia, Canada and Japan, in addition to a public offering to retail investors in Egypt. The private tranche was 15.9x oversubscribed while the retail tranche was 30x oversubscribed.

“Fawry’s successful IPO marks a number of important milestones for EFG Hermes and for Egypt’s equity capital markets,” said Mohamed Ebeid, Co-CEO of EFG Hermes’ Investment Bank. “In addition to being the first IPO the market has seen in 2019, it also marks a continuation of EFG Hermes’ track record of introducing and successfully generating demand for new sectors in the Egyptian capital market, which is also in line with our goal of continuously renewing interest in the Egyptian Stock Exchange.”

“EFG Hermes has consistently been at the forefront of the region’s largest and most successful public offerings given its extensive global client network and ability to attract substantial international interest in exciting equity stories,” added Ebeid.

“EFG Hermes has again demonstrated its ability to initiate new industries into Egyptian equity capital markets,” said Moustafa Gad, Managing Director and Co-Head of EFG Hermes Investment Banking. “Our teams have taken the lead in introducing stories from across Egypt’s business universe, from the food industry to healthcare and education. With the completion of today’s transaction, we have inducted yet another industry, digital payments, to the market, further solidifying our long and successful track record of pursuing groundbreaking transactions,” concluded Gad.

Fawry’s IPO marks EFG Hermes’ fifth ECM transaction of 2019, following the successful conclusion of landmark transactions in the MENA region and beyond, including the follow-on offering for Eastern Company on the EGX, the successful IPO of global payments platform Finablr on the LSE, the sale of 31.5% of Cleopatra Hospitals Group on the EGX as well as the IPO of Arabian Centers Company on the Saudi Tadawul.