Bank of Alexandria sold for $1.6b

27 Oct 2006

Dubai: Italian group Sanpaolo IMI has acquired Bank of Alexandria for $1.6 billion, in what is said to be the first privatisation in Egypt of a state-owned bank, according to a statement issued by Trowers and Hamlins, the legal advisors.

Turin-based financial services and banking group Sanpaolo IMI drafted in Trowers and Hamlins' team in Cairo in the purchase of the retail and commercial bank.

Sara Hinton, Partner, of Trowers & Hamlins, who was involved in the acquisition, says: "This privatisation is significant not only because of value, but because this is the first of the big four state-owned banks to be privatised.

"The government of Egypt has been talking about privatisation of the state-owned banks since the mid-1990s but now it has actually happened."

The 80 per cent stake acquisition was a giant step for Egypt's banking reforms to privatise state-owned banks and reduce the number of banks in the country from approximately 60 to 26.

Bank of Alexandria has 188 branches (6.8 per cent of the market share), 1.5 million customers and 6,000 employees.

In June this year it had total assets of 4.7 billion euros.

Following the merger of Banque Misr and Banque du Caire, it will be the third largest bank in Egypt and the largest privately owned bank.