Egypt invites banks to pitch for role in AlexBank stake sale (updated)

Telecom Egypt SAE

13/06/2023 13:25

(Updates with context)
    By Hadeel Al Sayegh and Yousef Saba
       June 13 (Reuters) - Egypt's Ministry of Finance has
invited banks to pitch for an advisory position on the sale of
its 20% stake in Bank of Alexandria, a subsidiary of Italy's
Intesa Sanpaolo  ISP.MI , two sources familiar with the matter
said.
    The invitation went to local and international banks, said
the sources, declining to be identified as the matter is not
public.
    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.
    The Arab world's most populous nation is grappling with an
economy in crisis and its currency has depreciated by roughly
half since Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year, which
prompted foreign investors to pull more than $20 billion out of
Egyptian treasury markets.
    Egypt signed a $3 billion rescue plan with the International
Monetary Fund in December that targeted $9.7 billion in foreign
direct investment in the financial year ending June 30.
    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 programme 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 time.    
    ($1 = 30.8500 Egyptian pounds)

 (Reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh and Yousef Saba
Additional reporting by Patrick Werr in Cairo
Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)
 ((Hadeel.AlSayegh@thomsonreuters.com; +971566883310))