Orascom Amsterdam Unit Gets Acceptances for 80% of OCI Shares

By Yomna Yasser On Jan 26, 2013

Orascom Construction Industries (OCI), the Egyptian contractor transferring its stock to an Amsterdam-based unit, said it received binding commitments for the deal from investors holding 80 percent of the shares.

OCI NV has conversions and and commitments for 95 percent of outstanding global depository receipts, the company said in a statement today. In addition, 8 percent of shareholders will tender their stock in a local offer, it said.

OCI said Jan. 19 it had secured $2 billion from investors led by Bill Gates’s Cascade Investment LLC to help transfer its listing to NYSE Euronext Amsterdam. OCI NV, which plans to absorb all local stock and global depositary receipts of Cairo- based Orascom Construction, hopes the Amsterdam listing will help lower borrowing costs, Chief Executive Officer Nassef Sawiris said on Jan. 18.

OCI NV said that investors including the Sawiris family and Abraaj Capital, holding 140 million shares and representing 91 percent of Orascom’s Regulation S global depositary receipts, accepted the offer to exchange shares.

Bloomberg