Morocco's Chaabi group plans six IPOs after SNEP
CASABLANCA, April 2 (Reuters) - Moroccan industrial group Chaabi aims to list six more of its companies after it successfully floated chemicals unit SNEP (SNP.CS) last year, its chairman, Miloud Chaabi, said on Wednesday.
Chaabi's conglomerate, Ynna Holding, has interests in real estate and construction, agribusiness, tourism, retail and manufacturing.
"Six profitable and important companies from Groupe Miloud Chaabi will be listed on the bourse," Chaabi told reporters and analysts in Casablanca.
"We will follow ... SNEP's IPO because we are happy with the market and our shareholders are seeing the benefits," he added.
He did not specify which companies would be up next but analysts say a likely candidate is Chaabi Lil Iskane, the group's real estate arm.
The listings are likely to add momentum to the small Casablanca bourse, which has seen funds pour into the market in recent years but a relative lack of new investment opportunities, stretching valuations of listed stocks.
Family-owned firms dominate Morocco's private sector but many are ill-adapted to the modern global economy and could find it hard to survive as trade barriers between Morocco and the outside world gradually fall, economists say.
(Reporting by Lamine Ghanmi; Writing by Tom Pfeiffer, editing by Richard Chang)
