Mubasher TV
Contact Us Advertising   العربية

Beltone plans $42mn expansions in 2015 - chairman

Beltone plans $42mn expansions in 2015 - chairman
Beltone Holding
BTFH
-2.82% 3.45 -0.10
Beltone Financial Holding aims to invest around EGP 300 million ($42 million) to expand its domestic operations next year because it believes the worst of the country's economic instability has passed, its chairman told Reuters.
"The entire world is open to us. I see that the transition period in Egypt has ended. The investment opportunities that exist domestically are the best that can be found in the region," Aladdin Saba said.
"We will propose our expansion plan for 2015 to the board of directors. I envision us investing in the non-bank financial sector by setting up new firms, or by buying existing businesses if they would enable us to achieve our goal and save us time.”
"The decision to distribute dividends for 2013 was made under certain circumstances that have changed entirely, and our policy too has changed,” Saba said in an interview at the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit.
"The first sign of change was the company heading towards acquiring a stake in Hermes. Therefore we decided, whereas our policy was to be conservative and distribute cash dividends, to look into expansion and investment opportunities.”
He added, "We have liquidity of 120 million pounds and this covers a portion of the expansion that we are working on. There may be a new stage of external funding for the remainder of our investments, either through a capital increase or through obtaining bank loans.”
The top official also said his company is working on four new primary offerings, but all of them will occur in 2015.
"We have an offering with a value above 1 billion pounds, and another with a value of around 750 million pounds. We can say that the aggregate value of the four offers will exceed 2 billion pounds.”
Asked when Beltone might proceed with ETFs, Saba said: “At the earliest. Beltone is not waiting for anything. There are still a few minor changes being made to the offering circular.”
Meanwhile, Osama Rashad, investor relations manager, Beltone Financial, said earlier the company is set to complete procedures of launching the first exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) with EGP 5 million capital, and is seeking EGP 250 million from the launch.
Rashad told state-owned news agency MENA required documents are being prepared to issue the subscription prospectus after the approval of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA).
The issue was delayed from last June because some requirements were not fulfilled. Egypt's stock exchange had granted Beltone the country's first licence for exchange traded funds (ETF).
Beltone Financial was the first company to express interest in ETFs, which are listed investment funds.