Moroccan Bourse Expects Two IPOs in 2020, Bets on MSCI Comeback

RABAT (Capital Markets in Africa) – Two companies are expected to go public on the Casablanca Stock Exchange this year, the Moroccan bourse’s managing director said Wednesday, in IPOs that could help revive trading and return the country to emerging market status.

Karim Hajji, speaking at a conference in Marrakesh, didn’t identify the two companies. But Hamza Bennani, who heads Aradei Capital, a REIT that has property assets valued at 4 billion dirhams ($416 million), said in an interview on the conference’s sidelines that it plans to list on the exchange this year to raise its capital.

Moroccan officials are trying to patch up the country’s deteriorating finances and spur new activity and economic growth, and the new listings, along with government plans to divest in some state assets, are key to that effort.

Government plans to sell off some state assets should give a boost to what’s Africa’s second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization. The government’s privatization of state phone giant Maroc Telecom in the early 2000s helped inject greater liquidity into the market.

Efforts to boost the exchange and sell off some state assets is part of a broader push backed by King Mohammed VI to develop a new growth model for the economy. The potential assets cited have been state carrier Royal Air Maroc and storied luxury hotel La Mamounia.

Hajji said it was doubtful the state IPOs would include phosphate giant OCP, which has been dubbed the Aramco of fertilizers because it controls over half the world’s known reserve of the fertilizer component.

“Probably, a unit or two of OCP can be privatized,” he said without providing more details.

Taken together, the efforts should help raise Morocco to emerging market status within two to three years, he said. The kingdom was relegated to MSCI frontier status in 2013 amid a liquidity squeeze and an absence of fresh listings.

“Liquidity has been a key problem for the last 10 years,” Hajji said.