EGYPT – Mass transit and shared mobility provider, Swvl has officially been listed on the NASDAQ stock market in the New York stock exchange with an initial offer price of US$9.95 per share.
The listing follows approval of a merger with special purpose acquisition company (Spac) Queen’s Gambit Growth Capital, the first blank-cheque company led entirely by women, at a shareholders’ meeting.
The planned merger was announced in July last year. Swvl is the second Arab technology company to be listed on Nasdaq after music streaming platform Anghami, which was also floated through a Spac in February.
“The key thing for us is that we’re the first tech-enabled mass transit player to list on any exchange globally — so not just the first out of the Middle East, we’re the first out of the entire world,” said Youssef Salem, Swvl’s chief financial officer.
Swvl Holdings’ ordinary shares and warrants commenced trading under the ticker symbols GMBT and GMBTW, respectively, and will change to SWVL and SWVLW.
Expected proceeds from the listing will total US$640 million, including US$160m in immediate capital and US$480m over the next few weeks if certain closing conditions are met.
“We’re getting a substantial amount of capital from the transaction — more than we originally anticipated, so we have an overfunded business plan,” added Salem.
“We’re getting the public currency that allows us to recruit the best talent and do all of the M&A that we wanted to do. And we have long-term investors who really want to see through the execution and value creation.”
Before the listing, Swvl pre-funded approximately US$70m in a US$121.5m Pipe (private investment in public equity) offering.
The company is planning to expand to several countries over the next six months, including Colombia, Peru, Mexico, South Africa, and the US.
In August, Swvl entered Europe and Brazil through its acquisition of Shotl, a Spanish Uber-like service for bus and van operators.
The company also acquired a controlling stake in South American firm Viapool in November, granting the company access to Argentina and Chile and paving its entry into Brazil and Mexico.
This month, Swvl acquired door2door, a European high-growth mobility platform that has a 24 percent market share in Germany.
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