Egyptian billionaire Yasseen Mansour’s Palm Hills closes seventh securitization bond

Leading Egyptian real estate group Palm Hills Development has finished its seventh securitization bond issuance program of about EGP1.1 billion ($70 million), which was launched as a means to cover operating activities and working capital requirements.

According to Zawya, the issuance was fully underwritten and co-arranged by several banks, including National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, Misr Capital, Commercial International Bank — Egypt and Ahli United Bank — Egypt.

The securitization bond issuance was launched and completed with Sarwa Capital, a subsidiary of Contact Financial Holding, the largest non-bank financial services provider in Egypt.

This comes nearly six months after the real estate group completed its sixth securitization bond program for a gross receivables portfolio of EGP1.2 billion ($76.4 million).

The latest bond issuance program, backed by its receivables portfolio of around EGP 1.05 billion, will be deployed to cover core operating activities and working capital requirements.

According to a bourse filing on Thursday, the leading real estate group revealed that the bonds are related to 331 handed-over residential units.

Egyptian billionaire Yasseen Mansour, the chairman of the real estate group, said the bond program will take the group’s securitized receivables portfolio to EGP 6.2 billion ($394.6 million). This is up from EGP5.1 billion ($324.6 million) in June 2021.

“I am very pleased with the successful closing of our seventh securitization transaction, bringing our gross securitized receivables portfolio to EGP 6.2 billion ($394.6 million) since we started the programme back in 2016,” he said.

“We are pleased to successfully close the seventh securitization bond for Palm Hills Developments issued as part of the agreed securitization program in which we issued together around EGP4.6 billion,” Contact Financial Holding CFO Ayman El Sawy said.

The bond program aligns with Palm Hills’ plans to upscale its operations. The group recently unveiled plans to invest EGP3.8 billion ($242 million) in 2022 to cement its position in the real estate industry and unlock its value as a going concern.

The management believes the strategic move will place Palm Hills in a favorable position to tap into gains in the real estate industry following the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of press time, Dec. 3, shares in the real estate group were trading at EGP1.79 ($0.114), 2.77-percent lower than their opening price on the Egyptian Stock Exchange this morning.