The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.
Bloomberg
Commercial International Bank Egypt SAE approved an offer by billionaire Naguib Sawiris’ Orascom Telecom Media And Technology Holding SAE to buy its investment-banking unit CI Capital.
Orascom Telecom made a non-binding offer to buy CI Capital for 924 million Egyptian pounds ($118 million), Egypt’s biggest publicly-traded lender said in a filing to the country’s bourse on Monday. The deal is subject to agreement on final terms and conditions before it is concluded, the bank said.
This would be Sawiris’ second acquisition of an investment bank after he bought Beltone Financial Holding SAE in November and another step toward his announced target of diversifying Orascom Telecom operations beyond telecommunications to include financial services, transportation and energy.
“The strategy behind the CI Capital acquisition could be to create a regional investment bank; starting with creating synergies with the recently acquired Beltone Financial,” Harshjit Oza, an analyst at Naeem Holdings, said in a phone interview in Cairo.
CIB shares rose as much as 2.1 percent in Cairo and Orascom Telecom shares gained as much as 3.7 percent .