Fintech startup Khazna could set up a SPAC in 2024, a company spokesperson told Enterprise, confirming a report from Al Shorouk that quoted Khazna co-founder and CEO Omar Saleh. Khazna is looking into setting up a blank check company with international investors, which could be listed either at home or abroad, Saleh is quoted as having said, without disclosing further details.

All part of wider expansion plans? The fintech player is considering acquiring three technology companies operating in the local market, Saleh said, without explicitly linking the SPAC plans to any potential acquisitions. The company is also considering expanding abroad in one or two regional markets in the first quarter of 2023, he added.

SPEAKING OF SPACs- Whatever happened to our first homegrown blank check firm? The paperwork for Egypt’s first SPAC has been filed and is still waiting on approvals from the Financial Regulatory Authority, an FRA spokesperson told Enterprise. FRA head Mohamed Omran caused a bit of a stir yesterday when he appeared to suggest that Egypt’s first SPAC had already been established in a televised interview with Bloomberg Asharq (watch, runtime: 1:45), without providing further details. The firm had been set to list on the EGX by the end of January or early February, Omran said previously — but that was before the global tide turned against SPACs, which were struggling even before the major blow dealt to equities markets amid the Russia-Ukraine war.

Background: The FRA late last year issued the rules and regulations for establishing local blank-check firms, after the regulator greenlit EGX boss Mohamed Farid’s proposal to allow SPACs in Egypt. The proposal was partly driven by an increased interest in SPACs in the MENA region, following Swvl’s move to merge with blank-check firm US Queen’s Gambit Growth Capital and list on the Nasdaq (which should complete within days), as well as Anghami’s SPAC debut earlier this year.

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