Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt’s Cabinet has granted approval to the Egyptian Financial Group Hermes Holding (EFG Hermes) and the Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE) to acquire a 76% stake in the Arab Investment Bank (aiBANK).

The acquisition will be carried out by increasing the bank’s issued and paid-up capital to EGP 5 billion, according to a statement on Wednesday.

EFG Hermes will own 51% of the bank and the Sovereign Fund of Egypt will hold a 25% interest, while the National Investment Bank will keep the remaining stake of 24%.

The deal is still subject to approval from regulatory entities, including the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).

In April, the board of directors of EFG Hermes approved the fair value (FV) estimation report of the capital raise shares of aiBANK prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in which it valued the bank at EGP 900 million to EGP 1.2 billion with an average FV of EGP 1.1 billion.