Fawry plans to acquire minority stakes in 2 companies in Egypt, expand into Arab countries

CAIRO – 8 February 2021: Fawry for banking and electronic payments technology plans to acquire minority stakes in a company or at least two during the current year in addition to expanding in a number of Arab countries, according to the company’s founder and CEO Ashraf Sabry

"We are investing in emerging companies during our work ... We are currently studying 7 or 8 digital companies that offer their services to the final beneficiaries,” Sabry added in an interview with Reuters.

"By the end of this year, we will have an investment or two in the companies we are studying," he clarified. 

Sabry said that the company, which also operates in the UAE, has a plan to expand in the region. "During this year, we will be present in at least two Arab countries.”

He said that the volume of Fawry business is growing between 40 and 50 percent annually, and that the company aims to maintain this percentage.

Fawry’s CEO pointed out that the company, which invests about LE 120 million annually in developing its technologies, focuses more on increasing its investments in banking services, mobile devices and commercial chains.

During the first nine months of 2020, the company achieved profits of LE 145.19 million, compared to profits of LE 76.25 million in the same period of 2019, taking into account the minority rights.

The company's revenues increased to LE 892.721 million at the end of September 2020, compared to revenues of LE 614.33 million in the comparative period of 2019.

At for standalone results, the company's profits reached LE 122.43 million in the first nine months of 2020, compared to LE 67.14 million in the same period of prior year.

In August 2020,  Fawry became a Unicorn officially, Fawry’s former Managing Director Mohamed Okasha announced on his LinkedIn account, clarifying that the company’s market capitalization hit $1 billion.

A unicorn is a business term to indicate a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion.

Fawry is the first Egyptian company to reach a market cap of $1 billion.

Fawry, currently owned by five local, foreign and Arab funds, was established in 2009 and is operating in the field of banking technology and provides financial services to individuals and companies. The management and employees account for about 8 percent of the company's shares.

The company has about 20 million customers, according to its data, and deals with 2.1 million transactions daily.

Fawry offered 36 percent of its shares on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) in 2019 to collect LE 1.6 billion; of which about 21 percent will be offered to Actis, Banque Misr and National Bank of Egypt at 7 percent each.The remaining 15 percent is divided into a public offering of small investors by about 5 percent, and 10 percent are floated to financial institutions and major investors.

EGX’s data revealed earlier that initial public offering’s (IPO) of digital payment company Fawry on EGX was oversubscribed by 30.3 times at LE 6.46 per share.