EFG To Sell Qinvest Joint Venture Stake Next Year, Arqaam Says

EFG-Hermes Holding (HRHO.CA) will sell its 40 per cent stake next year in the investment bank it is forming with QInvest and will become a holding company, Arqaam Capital Ltd said.

EFG-Hermes would hold assets in Lebanese unit Credit Libanais SAL, as well as a private equity unit managing $980 million (Dh3.6 billion) and a “large surplus capital position, part of which will be distributed to shareholders,” analysts including Jaap Meijer said in a report. The Cairo-based bank was added to Arqaam’s core portfolio with a buy rating and a price estimate of 15.9 Egyptian pounds, a 34 per cent premium to yesterday’s closing price.

The biggest publicly traded Arab investment bank and QInvest, a unit of Qatar Islamic Bank, said in April they planned to form the largest investment bank in “the Arab World, Africa, Turkey, South and South East Asia,” including EFG- Hermes’ investment banking and brokerage businesses. Egypt’s financial regulator said yesterday it will allow the proposed joint venture to proceed.

Gulf News