Beltone acquisition of CI Capital pending until court case resolved: market watchdog

The head of Egypt’s market regulatory body said Wednesday that Beltone Financial’s acquisition of CI Capital would be delayed pending resolution of a court case involving shareholders of CI Capital and its parent company.

In February, Commercial International Bank (CIB), which owns CI Capital, signed a deal to sell its investment bank to a unit of billionaire Naguib Sawiris’ Orascom Telecom for 924 million pounds ($104.06 million)

Sawiris said 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 the deal has faced a series of delays.

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.

The billionaire investor later said the deal was being held up by national security concerns and criticised the state for meddling in business that he said would put off investors.

The head of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) Sherif Samy told Reuters on Wednesday that the latest delay involves settlement of a court appeal made by several CI Capital shareholders refusing to sell their shares.

Source: Reuters