Emirates NBD, the largest bank in the UAE by assets, has signed a deal to buy the Egyptian business of France’s BNP Paribas for around $500m.

It is the second time a Gulf Bank has bought the Egyptian arm of a French bank looking to sell out of the country. Earlier in December, Qatar National Bank agreed a $2.6bn deal to acquire the Egyptian business of Societe Generale.

Announcing the acquisition, Emirates NBD said it would acquire 95.2 per cent of the shares in BNP Paribas Egypt from the French bank, and also offer to buy the remaining shares from minority shareholders. If the Dubai-government controlled bank succeeds in acquiring all the shares, the total deal will be worth $500m, or 1.6 times the book value of the company.

BNP Paribas Egypt is based in Cairo. In 2011, it had revenues of £E731m ($121m) and earnings of £222m from a network of 69 branches, 200,000 retail customers and 3,000 corporate clients.

Emirates NBD wants to start expanding into the region to offset slower growth in its domestic market. It has said plans to build its international revenues to 20 per cent of total revenues from around 5 per now, over the next three years.