The Egyptian Finance Ministry has invited local and international banks to pitch for an advisory role on the sale of its 20% stake in Bank of Alexandria (Alexbank), Reuters reports quoting two sources it says are close to the matter.
The finance ministry and Intesa Sanpaolo did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment. Bank of Alexandria could not immediately be reached for comment.
The ministry said early this year it was seeking to sell the 20% stake it still owns in the lender also known as AlexBank. Intesa Sanpaolo bought the other 80% in 2006.
To prop up its economy, Egypt’s government announced in April last year it was seeking to attract investments of $10 billion in each of the coming four years, part of a programme to increase private participation in the economy.
Progress on stake sales has so far been slow. In addition, Gulf countries Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar – which have previously come to Cairo’s rescue with tens of billions of dollars – have toughened conditions of support.
Egypt, suffering a severe shortage of hard currency, has not sold any major assets for foreign currency since August. Those sales mostly went to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).
Last month, Egypt sold 10% of Telecom Egypt on the Egyptian Exchange in local currency, raising 3.75 billion Egyptian pounds ($122 million).
Qatar’s finance minister said last month his country was committed to injecting $5 billion of investments into Egypt’s economy, as was promised last year.
Egypt’s central bank said last month it planned to fully divest its stake in United Bank as part of the government’s stake sale program and had appointed Barclays as international financial adviser.
That came shortly after Saudi Arabia’s PIF paused a plan to acquire the bank because of a disagreement with Egyptian authorities over its valuation, sources said at the
