Egyptian fintech MNT-Halan pares IPO gains after heavily subscribed listing

MNT-Halan’s Egyptian business has surrendered most of its first-day gains since listing on the Egyptian Exchange, leaving the shares about 2% above their offer price despite heavy demand for the IPO.

MNT Tech Holding for Financial Investments closed at EGP 25 on Thursday, October 22, compared with an offer price of EGP 24.50. The shares had finished their debut session on October 20 at EGP 26.12, up 6.6%, before falling to EGP 25.80 on Wednesday and declining a further 3.1% on Thursday, according to Investing.com’s historical trading data.

Thursday’s decline came during a broader sell-off in Egyptian equities, with the benchmark EGX30 falling 3.4%. Across MNT-Halan’s first three sessions, the index was almost unchanged from its close immediately before the listing.

The EGP 7.84 billion offering was Egypt’s largest IPO in US dollar terms since 2021, according to EFG Hermes, a joint global coordinator and bookrunner. Parent company MNT Investments B.V. sold 320 million existing shares, representing 20% of the Egyptian business, at a price implying an equity valuation of EGP 39.2 billion.

The initial response had suggested considerable appetite. The institutional tranche was 11.2 times subscribed, attracting orders from more than 300 investors across over 10 countries, while the retail allocation was covered 43.6 times, with more than 41,500 subscription orders. Combined demand reached approximately EGP 126 billion, according to EFG Hermes. Commercial International Bank and London-based asset manager Redwheel participated as cornerstone investors.

That demand has translated into a more modest premium in public trading. By Thursday, the stock was 4.3% below its first-day closing price, although investors allocated shares at the offer price remained ahead. Trading volume also fell from about 47.7 million shares on the debut day to 5.6 million on Thursday.

The listing covers only the Egyptian operations. The parent and its businesses in Türkiye, Pakistan and the UAE remain private, so the listed company’s valuation is not directly comparable with the $1.4 billion valuation reported for the wider group in June.

The group’s earlier backers include Development Partners International, Apis Partners, Algebra Ventures, Wamda and Abu Dhabi’s Chimera Investment. The IPO’s selling shareholder was MNT Investments B.V., rather than those investors selling their parent-company holdings directly.

Public shareholders are buying exposure to a business spanning microfinance, SME lending, consumer finance and payments, delivered through the Halan app and a physical network of more than 1,200 distribution points across 25 governorates. The company reported approximately 1.9 million annually active customers and more than EGP 178 billion in cumulative financing disbursed as of June 30.

Because the offering was entirely secondary, its proceeds went to the selling parent. Fresh capital is due to enter the Egyptian business through a separate subscription by MNT Investments B.V. for up to EGP 4 billion of new shares at the offer price. That planned capital increase would support expansion while diluting the percentage ownership of investors who bought into the IPO.