Egypt’s Pioneers to IPO real estate developer Rooya this year

Egypt’s Pioneers Holding plans an initial public offering of real estate developer Rooya Group within this year, its deputy chief executive told Amwal Al Ghad in an interview Sunday.

Rooya has a real estate portfolio of about 9 million square metres, with 6 million of that currently under development.

The planned IPO aims to finance Rooya’s future expansions in future projects in the country, Pioneers’ deputy chief executive Yasser Zaki.

Earlier, Pioneers’ chief executive Waleed Zaki said in an interview with Reuters in 2015: “We cannot specify the size right now, but it will be a large public offering and will certainly exceed one billion (Egyptian) pounds,”

Pioneers specialises in market research and brokerage services but also has investment arms in real estate, industry and financial services. Pioneers currently runs two funds;  Al-Raed, an equity fund with a capital of 50 million Egyptian pounds ($5.6 million), and a real estate direct investment fund of a capital of 126 million pounds ($14.2 million).

Pioneers acquired 60 percent of Rooya’s shares in March 2015 for 1.2 billion pounds.