ADQ Holding — one of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign funds — acquired a stake in Egypt’s Commercial International Bank (CIB) worth $911.457m as part of a move aiming to acquire stakes in five companies listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) for EGP 28.5bn.
The deals included acquiring stakes in the CIB, Fawry, Alexandria Container Handling, MOPCO, and Abu Qir Fertilisers.
The UAE is a major supporter of Egypt, as it has always provided very important economic support in the form of investments or other assistance.
The CIB announced the execution of the deal through the block trading mechanism on 340.096m shares with a value of $911.457m.
The EGX said in its statement on Tuesday that a deal was also executed through the high-volume deals mechanism on the shares of Fawry for Banking Technology and Electronic Payments for 215.124m shares valued at $68.598m.
A deal was also executed on Abu Qir for Fertilisers and Chemical Industries for 271.573m shares valued at $391.945m and another deal that was executed with Alexandria Container Handling Company for 476.721m shares valued at $186.067m, along with a deal for 45.823m shares from Misr Fertiliser Production Company at a value of $266.553m.
US agency Bloomberg revealed earlier that the Abu Dhabi Sovereign Fund held talks with Egypt to invest about $2bn by buying state-owned stakes in some companies, at the top of which was CIB.
Bloomberg added that this investment enjoys Egyptian approval, especially after the Central Bank of Egypt recently raised its interest rates for the first time since 2017 and devalued the local currency.
