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By Asma Alsharif

CAIRO, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Egypt's largest listed lender CIB COMI.CA sold a near-72 percent stake in its investment banking arm CI Capital to Egyptian and Gulf investors on Thursday, as part of a move to shed subsidiaries and focus on core actives.

Commercial International Bank's announcement of the deal came a day after it confirmed it was in talks to sell a majority stake in CI Capital, which banking sources say is worth near 1 billion Egyptian pounds ($56.50 million). urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1DV31S

CIB did not say how much the sale, structured as a book-building process, was worth.

"It is noteworthy that CIB plans on maintaining a minority stake in CI Capital Holding and will continue to provide its support to the company during the foreseeable future," CIB said.

The transaction is expected to be finalised once all necessary regulatory approvals were obtained, the bank said.

CIB had been seeking buyers for its investment unit since a planned sale to Beltone Financial BTFH.CA , agreed in February, failed to win regulatory approval. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1912ZM

Beltone Financial is owned by billionaire Naguib Sawiris' Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding OTMT.CA , which is embroiled in a standoff with the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority over its shareholding structure. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N1C91PR

Beltone has also clashed with the regulator and stock exchange over the repeated suspension of its shares. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1CN39S

Sawiris had planned to merge CI Capital with Beltone Financial to create one of Egypt's largest investment firms.

Analysts say the new deal was likely to go through as it did not face such regulatory hurdles. The announcement was made after stock market trading had ended. ($1 = 17.7000 Egyptian pounds)

(Writing by Lin Noueihed; Editing by Alexandra Hudson) ((ahmed.aboulenein@thomsonreuters.com; +20 2 2394 8097; Reuters Messaging: ahmed.aboulenein.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: COM INTL BK DIVESTITURE/