Egypt’s stock exchange had granted Beltone Financial the country’s first licence for exchange-traded funds (ETF), the bourse’s head Mohamed Omran said.
Egypt, whose economy has been battered by more than three years of political and economic turmoil, is trying to attract capital back into the country and restore investor confidence.
“The infrastructure and the regulations relating to the index funds are ready for work and within six weeks we can see trading of index funds papers on the bourse,” Omran said.
Beltone Financial was the first company to express interest in ETFs, which are listed investment funds, and is launching a fund called XT-Misr that mirrors the performance of the country’s EGX 30 stock index.
Beltone chairman Aladdin Saba declined to reveal the size of the fund but said the firm would participate in it with 10 million Egyptian pounds (R15.1m). Egypt’s last initial public offering of shares was in 2010. – Reuters