Middle-East music streaming service Anghami prepares for a NASDAQ listing

 

By Emmanuel Legrand

Abu Dhabi-based music streaming service Anghami, which operates in the Middle East and North Africa, will be listed on the NASDAQ in New York through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in a transaction that will value the company between $220 and $300 million.

 

  Anghami will be merging with Vistas Media Acquisition Company Inc, a SPAC set up last year. The transaction includes a combined $30m commitment from UAE financial firm Shuaa Capital and $10m from the parent of the SPAC, according to Reuters.   

  “Being a US listed public company gives us access to growth capital and a global platform that is the best in the world,” said Anghami co-founder and CEO Eddy Maroun in a statement.

High revenue markets

  Anghami’s Chairman and CTO Elie Habib, one of services' two founders, told Bloomberg that the music platform plans to invest funds raised through the listing to build up its presence in markets like Saudi Arabia and Egypt. “We want to have a deeper penetration into high-growth, high revenue markets,” said Habib.

  Anghami relocated its headquarters from Beirut in Lebanon, where it was founded in 2012, to the capital of the United Arab Emirates at the start of this year, in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office. 

  Anghami has licensing partnerships in place with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group. However, international publishers have been frustrated by the difficulty to get Anghami to negotiate licensing deals. One publisher suggested to Creative Industries Newsletter that having the company listed will be a good things as it will increase the level of scrutiny on business issues such as licensing.

70 million users

  Investors in Anghami include Middle East Venture Partners, Samena Capital, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Co., MBC Group and Etihad Etisalat Co. Collectively, they own around 68% of the company, with the rest controlled by the founders.

  The platform claims to have over 70 million registered users who consumer around one billion streams per month from a catalogue of over 57 million songs.