The Central Bank of Egypt has agreed to complete the acquisition of 76% of the capital of the Arab Investment Bank by the Consortium of the Egypt Sub-Fund for Financial Services and Digital Transformation, wholly owned by the Sovereign Fund of Egypt and EFG Hermes Holding.
According to Arab Net, EFG Hermes Holding said in a statement to the Egyptian Stock Exchange, today, Monday, that the approval of the Central Bank of Egypt is the fulfillment of one of the important conditions.
The EFG Hermes and the sovereign fund announced on June 24, 2020 that they had obtained approval from the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Egypt to start the process of due diligence on the Arab Investment Bank, and that For the purpose of acquiring 76% of the bank’s capital, most of it by subscribing to an amount of 3.8 billion pounds to increase the issued and paid-in capital of the bank to become 5 billion pounds.
Hermes' stake in the Arab Investment Bank will reach 51% through subscribing to 423 million shares with a total value of 2.55 billion pounds at a price of 6.03 pounds per share, and Egypt's sovereign fund will own 25%. With a total value of 1.25 billion pounds, the National Investment Bank is 24%.
Selling a stake in the Arab Investment Bank, which was established in 1974 with the aim of financing government projects, is part of a program that the government started in 2004 to sell its stakes in banks.
Earlier, the CEO of the Egyptian Financial Group Hermes expected that the group would finish acquiring a majority stake in the Arab Investment Bank during the third quarter of this year.
