Morocco’s Mutandis launches IPO to raise 400 mln dirhams in Casablanca

RABAT (Reuters) - Morocco’s Mutandis received a green light on Friday to launch an initial pubic offering (IPO) to raise 400 million dirhams ($42.1 million), only the second this year on the Casablanca stock exchange, bourse regulator AMMC said on Friday.

Founded in 2008, Mutandis is an industrial and commercial group specialising in consumer goods. It owns nine plants in Morocco that produce mainly detergents, canned fish, fruit juice and plastic bottles.

Through the IPO, Mutandis aims to enhance access to funding and boost investments through the acquisition of new industrial plants in Morocco and the setting up of others in sub-Saharan Africa, said a prospectus published on AMMC's website.

"We export a third of our output. Half is sold in Africa and the other half in Western Europe," Mutandis founder Adil Douiri told a news conference at Casablanca Stock exchange.

(Reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi; Editing by Adrian Croft)