Premium Card and Sarwa Capital are launching a consumer finance joint venture this month, once Premium Card gets the greenlight for its consumer finance license application from the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), CEO Paul Antaki tells Al Mal. Premium and Sarwa will each hold 50% of the JV. The JV, which is yet to be named, is looking to secure a 40% share of the consumer finance market in the next three years, which has significant growth potential as more people turn to short-term borrowing. FRA officials said in July that there could be as many as 30 licensed consumer finance players in Egypt by the end of the year. In the past two weeks alone, the regulator approved licenses to CI Capital’s Souhoola and GB Auto’s Drive.

On Premium Card’s securitization program: Antaki said the company plans to issue its fourth round of securitized bonds — part of its EGP 2 bn securitization program launched last year — in January and finish the program by the end of 2021. Premium Card issued an initial offering of EGP 169 mn in bonds in October 2019, followed by a EGP 172 mn issuance in April and a further EGP 182 mn in September.