Dubai Group subsidiary transfers shares of EFG-Hermes in block trade

Cairo: A subsidiary of Dubai Group has transferred more than 72 million of its shares in EFG-Hermes

on Monday to another subsidiary of the same group, sources familiar with the deal told Reuters.

Earlier on Monday, a bourse statement said a block trade was implemented for 72,601,532 shares of EFG-Hermes with a total value of 938 million Egyptian pounds ($105.63 million).

The statement did not say who the buyer was or give more details but sources familiar with the deal said the trade was a transfer from a fully owned subsidiary of Dubai Group to another subsidiary of the group.

Dubai Group is in the process of selling its stake in Shuaa Capital and is also obliged to divest its holdings in EFG Hermes and Bank Muscat this year, Fadel Al Ali, the chief executive of Dubai Group’s parent firm Dubai Holding, said in May.

EFG-Hermes is due to report its second-quarter results this month. The firm reported a first-quarter net loss of 63.66 million Egyptian pounds ($7.2 million) from a profit of 181.55 million a year earlier, after taking a non-cash impairment charge on its Credit Libanais stake sale process.

The firm completed the sale of a 40 per cent stake worth $310 million in Credit Libanais after obtaining board approval, the company said in a bourse statement on June 8.