CIB accepts final OTMT bid for CI Capital – sources

Egypt’s largest listed lender Commercial International Bank (COMI) accepted billionaire Naguib Sawiris’s bid to buy its investment arm CI Capital, market sources said on Sunday.

The sources said the deal would solidify Sawiris’s nascent financial services company.

“Sawiris made an initial offer worth 910 million Egyptian pounds ($116.22 million) but in the final offer he made today the deal was worth a little more than that,” one source told Reuters.

Sawiris-owned Orascom Telecom (OTMT) had made an initial offer for CI Capital in December. The company completed the due diligence process on Thursday.

OTMT plans to merge CI Capital with Beltone Financial, which it bought in November for almost 650 million Egyptian pounds.

The companies had no official comment.

Sawiris is one of the country’s most prominent businessmen and the founder of the Free Egyptians political party, which had a strong performance in recent parliamentary elections.

OTMT has holdings in media, technology and cable businesses as well as energy, transport and logistics.

CI Capital is working on four initial public offerings this year in the construction, consumption and tourism sectors. It also plans to open a brokerage firm in the United Arab Emirates in the second quarter of this year.

source:Arab Finance