Orascom Investment Holding (OIH) requested approval on Wednesday from the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), to present a voluntary offer to buy a non-controlling stake of 216.03m or 144.02m shares minimum of Sarwa Capital, at EGP 7.36 ($0.4121) each.
The company’s letter to the FRA provided two options, the first is that Orascom will pay EGP 7.36 per share if it only acquired 216.03m shares, the other is to pay EGP 6.62 per share if it acquired between 144.02m and 216m shares.
The OIH has the right to accept or refuse to buy the offered shares in case the number of shares was less than 144.02m shares.
Tamer Al-Mahdy, OIH’s managing director, told Daily News Egypt that the acquisition request of non-controlling Sarwa Capital is part of the company’s strategy to enter new sectors, including the non-banking financial sector.
He pointed out that Orascom has sufficient liquidity to implement the deal, which will be self-financed.
According to the company’s business results until the end of June, the liquidity in its financial statements reached about EGP 2.6bn, while the current deal worth about EGP 1.6bn.
The FRA must approve any acquisition deal of more than 10% stake of the capital of any securities company in accordance with the Capital Market Law.
The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) decided to set the minimum price of Sarwa Capital shares at its public offering price of EGP 7.36 per share, starting from Thursday’s session until the end of the trading session where a new closing price is registered.
If the trading was not executed within five working days from the date of moving price limits, the last closing price before moving the price limits will be confirmed.
“We have been following Sarwa Capital for a long time, and we believe it will grow significantly in the coming period,” he said.
Mahdi expected that the retail sector will be one of the leading sectors in the Egyptian economy.
He added, “the current price of Sarwa Capital’s shares is very attractive and we seek to acquire more than 25% of the company.”
Regarding concerns about the weak performance of Sarwa Capital shares since its IPO, Al-Mahdy said: “we have no concerns about the company’s shares, and the EGX is not the only stock market that has experienced setbacks recently.”
In response to reports that the OIH has made that offer in an attempt to boost Sarwa Capital offering which is managed by OIH-affiliated Beltone Financial, Al-Mahdy said, “no one will pay EGP 1.5bn to do such a thing, and we work in favour of all shareholders in the OIH.”
Moreover, the main shareholder of Sarwa Capital, Consolidated Financial Holding (CFH), which owns 52.77% of the company have pledged to maintain 51% stake of the company’s capital for two years.
Sarwa Capital is set to start raising its issued capital from EGP 100m to 115m, through new shares to existing shareholder Consolidated Financial Holdings at the IPO price of EGP 7.36 per share