Shares for Egypt’s Emaar Misr for Development have been offered to institutional and retail investors at E£3.8 ($0.50) each following the bookbuilding part of the initial public offering (IPO) process.

Majority shareholder, Dubai based Emaar Properties expects the initial market capitalisation on the Egyptian Exchange to be E£17.6bn ($2.3bn), down from earlier estimates of E£17.9bn.

The 510 million shares for institutional investors were 11 times oversubscribed during the bookbuilding process.

The 90 million shares reserved for the retail offering, which began on 18 June, were 36 times oversubscribed, according to the Egyptian Exchange.

The offering has raised E£2.28bn, marginally below Emaar’s target of E£2.3bn.

Trading is expected to begin in July.

Both the decision to list and the high investor interest show renewed confidence in the Egyptian real estate market.

This is despite concerns over the realisation of $45bn Capital City project and UAE-based Arabtec’s one million homes project.

In total, Emaar Misr has issued 600 million shares, representing approximately 13 per cent of the post share offer capital.

Emaar Properties retains a stake of around 87 per cent in the developer.

The coordinators and bookrunners are local EFG Hermes, US-based JP Morgan. The lead manager is Dubai’s Emirates Financial Services, part of Emirates NBD.

The funds raised in the IPO will be used to continue developing commercial projects in Egypt, primarily Emaar Square, part of the Uptown Cairo project, the planned international marina and hotels in Marassi and Downtown area in its Mivida project, which includes both retail and office space. They will also fund pre-launch costs for the Cairo Gate project, as well as growing its landbank.