Dubai: The Abraaj Group said on Wednesday it has sought an approval to raise the offer price of its bid for Egypt’s Bisco Misr to 88.09 Egyptian pound, amounting to a total purchase price of 1.013 billion Egyptian pound.
The company said it wants to maximise Bisco Misr’s value by raising its local market share, expanding its business regionally, and increasing its production capacity. Bisco Misr owns three baking facilities in Cairo and Alexandria.
Should Abraaj be successful in its bid, it plans to retain the BiscoMisr brand name. The company will continue to be run from Egypt with Egyptian management, and its shares will continue to be listed on the Egyptian Exchange, the company said in a statement.
The bidding war is part of a flurry of mergers and rights issues on the Cairo bourse, an exchange which has struggled to revive investor confidence during the political and economic turmoil that followed popular uprisings in 2011.
Egypt’s government this year launched a raft of reforms aimed at luring back foreign investors and shoring up growth while cutting a ballooning deficit. The competing offers from Kellogg and Abraaj are the latest sign foreign investors are returning to the market.
Abraaj Capital, the Middle East’s largest private equity firm, has been pushing to expand in emerging markets. It already owns stakes in Egypt’s Orascom construction, budget carrier Air Arabia and supermarket chain Spinneys.
Abraaj is keen to continue investing in Egypt given the country’s broad attractive market, remarkable growth potential and the positive developments it has recently witnessed. Abraaj has been active in the Egyptian market for almost a decade. The size of the Group’s investments in the country via its Funds is estimated at $1 billion, and is expected to double in the near future.
