Banque du Caire begins trading on the EGX in Egypt's largest-ever IPO, selling 45% for EGP 36.37bn

The bell-ringing in Downtown Cairo

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly attended the ceremony, alongside Central Bank of Egypt Governor Hassan Abdalla, Financial Regulatory Authority Executive Chairman Islam Azzam, Egyptian Exchange Executive Chairman Omar Radwan, National Bank of Egypt chief executive Mohamed El-Etreby, Banque Misr chief executive Hisham Okasha and Banque du Caire managing director and chief executive Hussein Abaza. Madbouly called the listing a turning point in Egypt’s economic reform path and a crowning of the State Ownership Policy, which aims to broaden the ownership base to citizens and institutions and raise private-sector participation.

Radwan, speaking at the exchange’s historic headquarters, said the day marked a new and defining phase for the capital market: the completion of its largest listing, worth more than EGP 36.37 billion, for a bank founded in 1952. Abdalla pointed to the interest shown by major international institutional investors, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Finance Corporation, as well as retail investors, as evidence of confidence in the Egyptian banking sector and the wider economy.

The offer in numbers

The final offer price was EGP 5.30 a share, the top of the indicative range of EGP 4.82 to EGP 5.30, implying a market value of about EGP 80.83 billion for the bank. The offering comprised 6,862,500,000 ordinary shares, 45% of Banque du Caire’s issued share capital: a private placement of 95% of the offering (6,519,375,000 shares) and a public tranche of 5% (343,125,000 shares). The public offering was oversubscribed 27.08 times, with orders for nearly 9.291 billion shares, while total investor demand reached about EGP 255 billion, roughly seven times the offering. The private placement closed on 23 October, with demand of about six times the shares offered.

Because the sale involved existing shares, the EGP 36.37 billion in proceeds goes to Banque Misr, the selling shareholder, which keeps 55% of the bank; it is not new capital raised directly into Banque du Caire. EnterpriseAM reported that Banque Misr remains locked in, with exchange rules freezing 51% of the bank for two years. The shares trade on the EGX main market, in the banking sector, under the ticker BQDC.

Early trading and the safety net for retail subscribers

In early trading the share rose above its offer price: it reached EGP 5.68 in the first minutes, according to session coverage, after opening at the EGP 5.30 reference price, with about 95 million shares changing hands for more than EGP 600 million in the first quarter of an hour. No closing price for the day is stated in this article, because the coverage checked here reported early-session levels rather than a verified close.

Retail subscribers have a 30-day price-stabilisation window: from 2 November to 1 December 2026, eligible retail investors may sell their allocated shares back at the EGP 5.30 offer price through a stabilisation fund run by CI Capital, under the terms of the offering prospectus. The exchange allowed the share to move up to 40% in either direction on its first day, with no temporary halt mechanism, according to FinTech Gate’s session coverage.

The listing had been a long time coming. The government first announced plans to privatise Banque du Caire, Egypt’s sixth-largest bank by assets, in 2007, and the move was delayed by the global financial crisis and repeatedly postponed thereafter. Its completion now tests whether foreign and domestic institutions keep buying beyond the offering itself — and whether the depth shown by this record sale carries over into the wider market.