Egypt’s state-owned Banque du Caire is reported to be preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) during the second half of 2019. The bank's chair, Tarek Fayed, was quoted by Masrawy on April 18 as saying that a stake of 20-30% would be floated.

Fayed valued the stake at an estimated $300 million to $400 million, with EFG Hermes and HSBC serving as lead underwriters. Founded in 1952 as a commercial bank, Banque du Caire’s market share currently stands at 5% in terms of savings, according to Fayed, and at the end of 2018 it held assets estimated at 165.7 billion Egyptian pounds ($9.66 billion). By comparison, the National Bank of Egypt, the country’s largest bank in terms of assets, with 1.5 trillion pounds ($87.4 billion), has a market share of 29% in terms of deposits. 

Abdel Mottaleb Abdel Hamid, professor of economics at the Cairo-based Sadat Academy for Management Sciences, told Al-Monitor that the IPO is expected to be the largest in Egypt in the past 10 years. 

“It will have a positive impact on the banking sector, the bank’s performance, the stock market and the economy as a whole,” Abdel Hamid said. “The IPO is well-timed and is in line with Egypt’s economic reform program.”