Vodafone Egypt is seeking to obtain the necessary approvals from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to raise its stake in B Investments and Masary to 20% after completing the first step of acquiring 10% of the two companies by subscribing to the capital increase.
Omar Al-Labban — Head of Investor Relations at B Investments — told Daily News Egypt that Vodafone Egypt becoming part of the ownership structure of B Investments and Masary will push the growth of the two companies. Vodafone will also benefit from the two companies’ selling points, which amount to about 140, and will be able to reach a different category of clients.
He also pointed out that the implementation of the deal at the nominal value does not reflect the actual value of the two companies. The initial main goal is to make Vodafone present within the corporate ownership structure to achieve an integration of services, which positively affects the two companies.
Furthermore, he stressed that there is an investment plan for integration, which will begin implementation soon.
On the impact of the deal on the Egyptian Stock Exchange’s (EGX) offering plan, Al-Labban said that there is no conflict, adding that the offering will continue but may witness some delays due to market conditions.
Zaki Hashem and Partners’ firm played the role of legal adviser to B Investments, and Hafez Partners’ firm was an adviser to Vodafone Egypt in the deal.
B Investments Holding revealed that Vodafone Egypt has subscribed at a nominal value to increase the capital of both B Investments and Masary — one of the subsidiaries of Ebtikar Holding for Financial Investments.
Ebtikar Holding announced that Vodafone Egypt now owns a stake of 9.99% of both B and Masary, bringing the contribution of Ebtikar in B Investment’s capital to about 90.01%, while it will still own about 63.64% of Masary.
Earlier, Vodafone Egypt and B Investments signed a memorandum of understanding in preparation for Vodafone’s subscription to increase the capital of B Investments and Masary with a 20% stake in both companies.
B Investments recorded a net profit of EGP 72.92m from January till the end of September 2021, compared to EGP 153.55m in profits during the same period last year.
The company’s revenues, however, declined to EGP 112.08m, down from 2020’s EGP 189.83m.
