MNT-Halan, an Egyptian financial services platform for lending, payments, investments and e-commerce, began trading on the Egyptian Exchange on 20 October under the ticker HALN.CA. The offering covered 320 million existing shares, 20% of its capital. The private tranche was 11.2 times oversubscribed and the public tranche 43.6 times, with more than 41,500 orders. The company has served about 7.9 million customers and disbursed more than EGP 178 billion in financing.
What it means: MNT-Halan's listing matters beyond Egypt, because it shows emerging-market fintechs can find liquidity on local exchanges and not only in New York. The very heavy oversubscription of the public tranche shows retail investors want exposure to companies digitising credit and payments in countries with large underserved populations. MNT-Halan's model, combining microloans, instalment purchases, payments and e-commerce in one app, resembles the super apps of Asia and Latin America. The main risk for such companies is the quality of the loan book in an environment of high inflation and currency devaluation, which affects both borrowers and the dollar value of the investment. The offering consisted of existing shares sold by the main shareholder, so it brought no new capital into the company itself. For the wider Mediterranean region, the success may encourage more fintech listings on local exchanges. It is also an example of how mobile-led financial inclusion can become an investment story, something discussed less often in Europe.
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