anghami stock

Anghami stock has for some time been trading at less than $1 per share, and the company is facing a possible NASDAQ delisting as a result.

Despite scoring a $5 million investment about two months ago, Middle Eastern streaming service Anghami (NASDAQ: ANGH) is facing the possibility of being delisted from NASDAQ due to its sagging stock price.

Abu Dhabi-based Anghami just recently announced in a formal release that it had received a written notice from the mentioned stock exchange, indicating a violation of a NASDAQ rule concerning “continued listing requirements.”

Said violation refers specifically to Anghami’s per-share stock price, which, as of October 5th, had been “below $1.00 per share for the” latter 30 business days. According to the corresponding rule, in order to trade on NASDAQ, companies must maintain a “minimum bid price of $1 per share” and have 400 or more “total holders.”

Now, the formerly high-flying streaming platform, shares in which peaked at about $18 apiece in early 2022, will have 180 calendar days, until April 2nd of next year, “to regain compliance.” As described in the Sony Music-partnered business’s release on the matter, Anghami will be cleared to remain on NASDAQ if its shares maintain a closing price of over $1 each for at least 10 consecutive trading days.

Meanwhile, “should the situation not resolve itself,” Anghami “intends to consider available options to cure the deficiency and regain compliance with the minimum bid requirement within the compliance period, including by potentially approving a reverse share split,” higher-ups signaled.

(Earlier in 2023, Anghami co-founder Elie Habib had pushed back against rumors that his company planned to delist from NASDAQ in favor of making shares available via the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.)

At the time of this writing, Anghami stock was worth 88 cents per share, representing a six percent boost from Friday’s close but an approximately 47 percent falloff from 2023’s beginning. Having debuted on NASDAQ in February of 2022 as part of a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger, Anghami initially boasted an over $500 million valuation.

Backed by major Middle Eastern financial players, the streaming platform in late June of the same year scooped up a live events company called Spotlight. Additionally, Anghami disclosed seemingly strong revenue and user growth throughout 2022.

But on the heels of a material stock-price slip, November of 2022 brought with it a layoff round affecting 22 percent of Anghami staff. Also in November, reports suggested that Spotify was considering purchasing the MENA competitor – though the possible buyout, besides not yet coming to fruition, doesn’t appear to have been publicly discussed by the involved parties during the past 11 months.

Separately, Access Industries-owned streaming service Deezer began trading on the Euronext Paris in 2022 following a SPAC merger of its own. The Paris-headquartered platform has likewise grappled with subscriber and stock-price woes in the interim; shares were worth €2.64 each when the market closed today.