Shares in MNT-Halan, the Egyptian fintech and non-bank lender, rose as much as 18 per cent on their first day of trading on the Egyptian Exchange on Tuesday, after an initial public offering that raised EGP 7.84bn ($150mn) and drew overwhelming demand from institutional and retail investors. The stock, which trades under the ticker HALN, opened at the offer price of EGP 24.50 before climbing to EGP 28.91, valuing the listed Egyptian business at roughly $745mn.
The offering — Egypt’s largest IPO in dollar terms since 2021 and the biggest by a private company in a decade, according to adviser EFG Hermes — was structured as a secondary sale of 320mn existing shares, or 20 per cent of MNT Tech Holding for Financial Investments, by parent MNT Investments B.V.. The private tranche for qualified investors was 11.2 times covered, rising to 19.4 times excluding cornerstone commitments, while the retail tranche was 43.6 times oversubscribed, drawing more than 41,500 orders and total demand of about EGP 126bn ($2.3bn), EFG Hermes said. More than 300 investors from at least 10 countries participated in the private placement, including institutions from the Gulf, the UK, France, Switzerland and South Africa.
Commercial International Bank, Egypt’s largest private-sector lender, and London-based asset manager Redwheel acted as cornerstone investors, committing to more than a third of the base offering. The parent company has said it will inject up to EGP 4bn of the proceeds back into the Egyptian business through a closed subscription at the offer price, providing fresh capital for expansion.
The IPO comes amid a fragile revival of foreign appetite for Egyptian assets. The EGX30 index has roughly doubled over the past two years, and foreign and Arab investors have been net buyers in recent sessions. Egypt has completed multiple reviews under its $8bn IMF-supported programme, which has stabilised the currency and brought inflation down from its 2024 peaks, though the pound has depreciated by roughly 14–17 per cent over the past year and headline inflation remains above 14 per cent. The government has also accelerated its privatisation programme, with the long-awaited IPO of state-owned Banque du Caire expected to follow MNT-Halan to market.
A fintech lender with a hybrid model
MNT-Halan, founded in 2018, operates across microfinance, consumer finance and small-business lending, combining its mobile app with more than 1,200 physical distribution points across 25 governorates. It reported about 1.9mn active customers and a gross loan book of EGP 46.7bn ($947mn) at the end of June 2026. For the full year 2025, the Egyptian business recorded adjusted revenue of EGP 20.5bn ($376.7mn) and net income of EGP 1.98bn ($36.38mn), up 44 per cent year on year. The company says non-performing loans across its portfolio are below 2.5 per cent, although credit quality remains a key sensitivity given its focus on underbanked borrowers.
At the offer price, the listed Egyptian entity was valued at about 20 times 2025 net income and 1.9 times adjusted revenue. That sits at a premium to traditional Egyptian consumer-finance groups such as Contact Financial Holding, which trades at around 18 times earnings, but below the multiple of 28.7 times earnings commanded by fintech peer Valu, according to market data cited by Cairo-based Waya. The valuation is also a discount to the $1.4bn valuation MNT-Halan’s global parent secured in a private funding round in June 2026 — although that figure covered operations in Egypt, Turkey, the UAE and Pakistan, whereas the Cairo-listed vehicle contains only the Egyptian business.
Risks beyond the debut pop
The first-day share-price gain echoes the reception of Egypt’s last blockbuster tech listing, e-finance, which rose more than 40 per cent on debut in 2021. But MNT-Halan’s offering is smaller in dollar terms than that EGP 5.8bn deal, which was worth roughly $370mn at the prevailing exchange rate, underscoring how the pound’s depreciation has reshaped the arithmetic of Egyptian capital markets. The “largest since 2021” claim refers to the absence of any larger dollar-denominated IPO in the intervening years, rather than to MNT-Halan surpassing e-finance in absolute dollar size.
The company also faces a more crowded and regulated competitive landscape. Rivals including Khazna, Paymob and Valu are vying for the same underbanked customer base, while the Financial Regulatory Authority has tightened oversight of consumer-finance and buy-now-pay-later providers, including a temporary freeze on new fintech-based consumer-finance licences introduced in February 2026. MNT-Halan already holds the relevant licences, but the regulatory direction signals greater scrutiny of underwriting standards and collection practices.
For EFG Hermes, which acted as joint global coordinator and joint bookrunner, the transaction is a reputational win after a quiet period for Egyptian equity issuance. Mostafa Gad, global head of investment banking at EFG Hermes, called it “a defining milestone for MNT-Halan and an important moment for the Egyptian capital market,” pointing to the company’s “technology-enabled hybrid distribution model” and “strong financial performance”. The adviser’s fee was not disclosed.
Whether MNT-Halan’s listing proves a turning point or a one-off will depend less on the first-day pop than on the company’s ability to sustain loan-book growth without deteriorating asset quality, and on Egypt’s success in keeping inflation and the currency stable enough to retain foreign portfolio capital. For now, the deal has given the EGX a much-needed new name in a high-growth sector and a test case for how investors price Egyptian fintech risk. The market’s verdict, after the initial euphoria fades, will be watched closely by the queue of state and private companies waiting to list.