Shuaa Capital, the Dubai-based investment bank, has re-launched its securities brokerage business in Egypt as part of plans to expand the bank’s capital markets offering in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena).
Shuaa Securities commenced operations in the Egyptian market on Sunday after securing official approvals from the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA).
Shuaa suspended its brokerage business in Egypt after the global financial crisis in 2008 hit trading volumes.
“The launch of Shuaa Securities Egypt is a natural extension to Shuaa’s broader brokerage network, giving retail and high-net-worth clients from across the region easier access to Egyptian capital markets,” the bank said.
“The re-engaging of the Egypt market by a much stronger Shuaa Securities is expected to pave the way for further expansion by the group’s other business lines on the North African platform over the medium term.”
Shuaa announced in August this year that it planned to reintroduce its brokerage services in the Egyptian market, pending discussions with regulators.
With an initial 40 staff, Shuaa Securities Egypt was granted approval on November 11 and has been executing its first transactions since.
“Due to the country’s strong economic fundamentals and depth of available opportunities, we have received strong interest in the Egyptian market from clients in 2017,” said Fawad Tariq-Khan, the general manager of Shuaa Capital.
“Shuaa Securities Egypt will enable us to meet this demand and help us to deliver another significant element of the Group’s long-term growth strategy.”
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Shuaa said the re-launch of the Egyptian business was “testament” to the financial restructuring the group instigated in 2014.
This month, Shuaa reported a nine-month profit of Dh60 million, its highest since 2007. Net profit for the three months ending September 30 climbed to Dh23m from a net loss of Dh35.3m in the corresponding period last year, Shuaa said in a statement to Dubai Financial Market.
The group is now implementing a growth strategy focusing on its real estate asset management and credit businesses, to which it attributed a substantial portion of its third-quarter profits.
In July, Shuaa entered into an agreement to acquire Integrated Financial Group (IFG), towards the acquisition of Integrated Capital and Integrated Securities.
The signing of the agreement follows the completion of a due-diligence process initiated in March. The deal is pending regulatory approvals.
