Swvl could debut on EGX in 2022-2023: Mass transportation startup Swvl is considering an initial public offering on the Egyptian Exchange in 2022-2023 following its planned debut on the Nasdaq in 4Q2021, CFO Youssef Salem told Reuters, without providing further details.

News of the company’s Nasdaq ambitions broke last month when it announced (pdf) that it had agreed to go public on the tech-heavy exchange through a merger with blank-check firm Queen’s Gambit Growth Capital. The agreement values the company at around USD 1.5 bn, and the listing will raise the company’s capital to USD 550 mn from USD 100+ mn today.

Swvl will become profitable for the first time in 2024 before earning over USD 170 mn in 2025, Salem told the newswire. The ridesharing outfit is yet to generate a profit since being founded in Cairo in 2017. Revenues are forecast to rise to USD 79 mn this year from USD 26 mn in 2020, before reaching USD 800 mn in 2024 and over USD 1 bn in 2025.

Top-line growth fuelled by rapid expansion plans: Swvl plans to expand into as many as 30 cities in 20 countries by the middle of the decade, including southern and western Europe, Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, Salem said. Founder Mostafa Kandil had said last week that the company was looking to acquire an unnamed European firm as part of its expansion plans. It’s also looking at branching out into new sectors such as logistics, advertising and financial services starting 2023, he added.

Swvl currently operates in 10 cities in six countries including Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kenya and Pakistan. By 2025, the company expects to operate 2 mn trips a day compared toa over 3 mn trips a month at present.

Advisors: Ibrachy & Dermarkar is Swvl’s legal advisor on the SPAC merger, while Shahid Law Firm and Vinson & Elkins acted as legal advisors for Queen’s Gambit.

BACKGROUND- Swvl was established in 2017 by Mostafa Kandil, Mahmoud Nouh and Ahmed Sabbah to offer intra and inter city travel options and has landed over USD 90 mn in funding from investors that include Cairo’s Sawari Ventures and Silicon Badia.

IN OTHER IPO NEWS- State-owned Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD) could go public on the EGX in a record IPO within two years, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi said yesterday, Hapi Journal reports. ACUD — the company responsible for management of the new capital — owns EGP 100 bn worth of liquid assets, holding between EGP 3-4 tn in assets under management, El Sisi said, without providing any further details. The ACUD IPO — which would be Egypt’s largest ever once finalized — is still pending hiring a financial advisor, lead arranger and bookrunner for the EGP 100 bn transaction, EGX Chairman Mohamed Farid told Sada El Balad’s Ahmed Moussa (watch, runtime 17:39) last night. No further details were given on the size of the potential stake that could be put on offer.