Egyptian lending and payments company MNT-Halan closed up about 6.6% on its first day of trading on Tuesday, after the country's biggest initial public offering in at least five years.

The shares were offered at 24.50 Egyptian pounds each and closed their first session at about 26.12 pounds, valuing the listed Egyptian business at nearly 42 billion Egyptian pounds ($770 million). The listing is Egypt's largest in dollar terms since 2021, according to EFG Hermes, which advised on the offering.

MNT-Halan is often described as Egypt's first fintech "unicorn," a status based on the valuation of its parent company, which also has operations outside Egypt.

The sale of 320 million shares covered 20% of the Egyptian business.

The listing comes despite an increasingly volatile regional environment since the US-Israeli war with Iran unleashed a series of widening conflicts and sent global energy prices surging.

At the weekend, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi asked parliament to authorise the armed forces to defend Saudi Arabia from attacks by Yemen's Houthis if Riyadh asks for support. A vote is expected next week.

Interest in MNT-Halan was a testament to "how solid the underlying foundations" of the market and company are, CEO Mounir Nakhla told Reuters after a ceremonial bell-ringing at the session's opening.

"It is a country that has a 115 million population, growing very fast, more and more tech savvy and in need of financial services through technology – and we are right here solving this problem," he said.

The Egyptian business recorded 19.8 billion pounds in revenue in 2025, up from 13.2 billion pounds the year before, according to financial statements posted by the company.

Since its inception, MNT-Halan has disbursed about 178 billion Egyptian pounds of loans, which it calculated as being worth about $6.1 billion based on average historic exchange rates, the company said in the statement announcing its IPO earlier this month.

It has about 1.9 million active customers and had a gross loan book of about 46.7 billion Egyptian pounds at the end of June, it added. MNT-Halan has also bought a bank in Pakistan and a micro-leasing company in Turkey.