Egypt's Beltone Financial and billionaire Naguib Sawiris were offered 48 percent of the shares they were seeking for a 20-percent stake in investment bank EFG Hermes, traders said on Sunday, the last day of the offer period.

 

Beltone and Sawiris's New Egypt Investment Fund had offered around $257 million for the EFG stake at LE16 ($2.24) per share, but an independent financial advisor (IFA) set the fair share price at LE22.93.

 

"The stake which the bidders managed to acquire, close to 10 percent, still makes them major shareholders in EFG-Hermes, which has a very fragmented shareholders structure," Eissa Fathy, vice president of the securities division at Cairo's Chamber of Commerce, told Ahram Online.

 

Traders said the bid consortium attracted offers for 54.4 million shares at LE16.

 

EFG-Hermes is Egypt's largest listed investment bank, with a market capital of LE8.8 billion.

 

The firm had reacted defensively to the tender offer made last month as well as subsequent rumours of an intended merger, hiring an IFA "to opine on the fair value of the stock and the fairness of the offer, upon its approval by EFSA, in order to help shareholders evaluate its attractiveness," it said in its statement.

 

"The board feels that the highly dominant position of the company in the market does not warrant the consideration of consolidation with any of its competitors in Egypt which would likely negatively affect the shareholders’ value," said EFG-Hermes about rumours that rival Beltone Financial Holding might be seeking a full-on merger.