Cairo – Mubasher: Pharos Research has maintained their ‘Equalweight’ recommendation for Commercial International Bank – Egypt’s (CIB) stock based on fair value (FV) of EGP 90 per share.

CIB, which makes up more than 33% of the Egyptian Exchange’s (EGX) benchmark EGX30 index, is expected to stay as “the perfect proxy for the macro transformation story” in Egypt, according to a research note released on Tuesday.

As long as Egypt is included in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the heavyweight stock will maintain reserving a spot in the index, Pharos noted.

The EGX-listed bank is likely to remain as the top-rated private sector lender, the research firm added.

Earlier this day, CIB reported a 27% year-on-year profit rise for the full-year 2018, registering EGP 9.58 billion, up from EGP 7.53 billion in 2017.

Net income surged to EGP 18.14 billion last year from EGP 12.5 billion a year earlier.

Meanwhile, standalone profits climbed to EGP 9.55 billion during the period between January to December 2018, versus EGP 7.55 billion in 2017.

Additionally, the board of directors of CIB had recommended the distribution of cash dividends worth EGP 1 per share for 2018.

Last month, the Listing Committee at the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) had approved to raise CIB’s issued capital to EGP 14.5 billion from EGP 11.6 billion through bonus shares distribution.