Emaar plans to float 13% of Egyptian unit

Dubai's Emaar Properties plans to list a 13 per cent stake in its Egyptian unit on Cairo's stock exchange, the UAE developer said on Wednesday.

The share sale will comprise of a public offering to retail investors in Egypt, plus a private placement to local and international institutions, according to a filing to the Dubai Financial Market.

Emaar did not state when the initial public offering of Emaar Misr would be launched, but said it was still finalising internal and regulatory approvals for the sale. It will retain 87 per cent stake after the listing.

Emaar said its unit would use some of share sale proceeds to fund new developments and expand its land bank in Egypt.

Emaar Misr would be the second Emaar unit to be listed inside a year, after Emaar Malls Group raised Dh5.8 billion ($1.58 billion) from its 15.4 per cent IPO last September, while the parent firm has also said it wants to float its hospitality unit.

The Egyptian unit in April reported a profit of 172.7 million Egyptian pounds ($22.63 million) for the first three months of 2015, up from 30.7 million pounds a year earlier.

Mohamed Alabbar, Chairman of Emaar Properties, said the injection of fresh capital will allow Emaar Misr to continue to pursue new growth opportunities and further progress its developments.

Emaar Misr achieved cumulative net sales of 23.9 billion Egyptian pounds since inception up to March 31, 2015 – of which EGP7.1 billion of net sales were in 2014 and EGP2 billion in Q1 2015.
 

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