Anghami, the leading Middle Eastern music streaming platform, is facing the risk of being delisted from Nasdaq as its stock price has fallen below the required $1, currently standing at $0.85. This situation arises despite a previous SPAC merger with Vistas Media Acquisition Company and a recent injection of a $5 million investment from SRMG Ventures.
The company, which was initially valued at over $500 million following its 2022 SPAC merger, has violated Nasdaq's "continued listing requirements" due to its share price falling below $1 for 30 consecutive business days. In response to this challenge, Anghami may possibly implement a reverse share split to regain compliance by April 2nd, 2024 if it fails to maintain a closing price of over $1 each for ten consecutive trading days.
This news comes in spite of Anghami's full-year 2022 report showing positive financial growth, with a 35.6% YoY revenue increase and an uptick in paying subscribers to 1.52 million out of its 120 million users across 16 MENA countries. The Q1 2023 gross profit margin stood at 23%, contributing to a $3.1 million YoY EBITDA increase.
In order to navigate these challenges, Anghami has implemented cost-cutting measures including reducing its workforce by 22% and decreasing cloud computing expenses by 19%. Co-founder Elie Habib denied rumors of delisting from NASDAQ to list on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange in 2023.
Despite rumors of a potential acquisition by Spotify (NYSE:SPOT), no deal has been made so far. In 2022, Anghami acquired live events company Spotlight but also laid off 22 percent of its staff. Meanwhile, Deezer, another streaming service owned by Access Industries and listed on Euronext Paris following its own SPAC merger, has been grappling with subscriber and stock-price issues, with shares recently closing at €2.64 each.
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