Arab Investment Bank may become 3rd Egypt public bank to seek bourse listing

State-run Arab Investment Bank plans to float some of its shares on Egypt stock exchange, the bank’s chairman Hani Seif El-Nasr told Amwal Al Ghad Monday.

Arab Investment Bank’s current shareholding comprises the state-run National Investment Bank, with a 91.5 percent stake, in addition to Egyptian, Syrian, and Libyan governments, with an 8.5 percent stake.

The timing and amount of AIB’s floating on Cairo bourse are still under study, Seif El-Nasr said on the sidelines of the Egyptian Banking Institute’s conference in Cairo.

Listing on Cairo bourse shall bolster AIB’s capital base, the banking official added.

Earlier in February, the state-run National Investment Bank’s board member Momtaz al-Saeed told Amwal Al Ghad the bank’s plans to float some of its shares in the Arab Investment Bank on local bourse soon.

AIB could be the third state-run bank to have plans to float on Cairo bourse after Egyptian central bank governor Tarek Amer announced late Saturday his country’s plans to list two public lenders this year.

Egypt’s third biggest public lender Banque du Caire will seek a capital increase on the stock exchange by floating a 20 percent stake before the end of the year, Amer said.

The Egyptian banking top official further said that Egypt and Kuwait would each offer a 20 percent stake on Egypt’s bourse of the Arab African International Bank, a joint 50/50 owned venture this year between the Central Bank of Egypt and Kuwait Investment Authority.

“We want to strengthen the bourse, to make it attractive [to investments],” added Amer in a televised interview on Saturday night.

The Egyptian Banking Institute (EBI) is hosting its 8th Annual Conference ‘Risk Management: New Trends in the Banking Sector’ in Cairo Monday.