Sawiris’ CI Capital acquisition to go ahead: sources

A deal led by Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris’s Orascom Telecom to acquire CI Capital, the investment arm of Commercial International Bank (CIB) is expected to go ahead, a source familiar with the deal told Reuters Arabic Monday.

“If it did not, CIB would put CI Capital up for sale again.” The source added.

Commercial International Bank (CIB) signed a deal to sell CI Capital to a unit of Sawiris’s Orascom Telecom for 924 million Egyptian pounds ($104.06 million).

Earlier, Sawiris said Sunday that his bid to acquire CI Capital was being held up by national security concerns and criticised state meddling in business that he said would put off investors.

The Egyptian tycoon said Earlier this year,  at the time he planned to merge CI Capital with Beltone Financial, which OTMT bought last year, to create one of Egypt’s largest investment firms.

But in a column published Sunday by state-owned Al Akhbar newspaper, Sawiris said the deal was still awaiting security clearance, adding that the hold-up was the latest move by authorities to prevent him owning a large financial institution.

Sawiris’s bid for CI Capital was challenged in February when a subsidiary of state-owned National Bank of Egypt made a last-minute counter-offer. It later withdrew after failing to agree with CIB on a timeframe for feasibility studies.

Sawiris said a state bank had also withdrawn a loan offer meant to help finance the deal. He did not name the bank.

“This gives a negative and harmful message to the investment climate, saying to investors be warned if you wish to invest in Egypt because the state will enter and compete with you using public funds,” he wrote.

“I am no longer able to keep quiet about what is wrong … as for me and my investments, God’s land is wide,” Sawiris wrote.