Egypt’s EFG-Hermes announced Sunday it plans to distribute 1.08 billion Egyptian pounds ($121.62 million) from the sale of a 40-percent stake in Credit Libanais to its shareholders in the form of cash and share buybacks.
Egypt’s largest investment bank said last week it had completed the sale of the stake worth $310 million in the Lebanese bank.
EFG-Hermes’s board had approved the sale of a 40 percent stake in Credit Libanais to Arab and Lebanese investors for $33 per share along with plans to sell the rest of its shares at the same price by May next year.
According to its website, EFG-Hermes held a total of 63.7 percent of shares in Credit Libanais before the sale.
EFG-Hermes bought the stake in 2010 for $542 million, saying at the time that it would help it expand into Lebanon and the Levant and broaden its product range.
But the civil war in neighbouring Syria has hit Lebanese banks and the broader economy hard.
Source: Reuters
