Qatar National Bank acquires stake owned by French banking group
Qatar National Bank (QNB) has put in an offer to buyout all of Egypt’s National Societe Generale Bank (NSGB) after reaching an agreement to purchase 77.17 per cent in the firm from France’s Societe Generale.
The deal with Societe Generale is valued at $1.97bn, and if the Qatari lender acquires the remaining shares of the Egyptian bank, the total deal value will be $2.6bn.
QNB plans to launch a tender offer to buy all the shares in NSGB early next year, and Societe Generale has already agreed to sell its majority stake to the Qatari bank. The acquisition is expected to close in the first half of 2013.
The acquisition will further QNB’s dominance of the regional banking sector. It is already the largest bank by assets in the Middle East and North Africa and has plans to become a regional banking brand. It is also notable for being one of the largest investments into Egypt by the foreign company for the past two years.
Qatar has already shown itself to be supportive of post-revolutionary Egypt. In April, it was revealed that QNB and Qatar Petroleum invested around $450m in total to rescue the $3.6bn Mostorod refinery, which had been struggling to get financing in place as a result of the uprising. In November, Qatar also announced that it is working with Egyptian investment firm Citadel Capital (another investor in the Mostorod project) to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facility, that would pave the way for the Gulf state to import gas into Egypt.
QNB was advised on the deal by the US’ JP Morgan and its own investment banking arm QNB Capital, along with Clifford Chance.
You might also like...
Alstom wins Jeddah airport deal
18 April 2024
Chinese contractor to build 86-storey tower in Dubai
18 April 2024
Japan and UAE to explore clean energy cooperation
18 April 2024
Contract awarded for Algeria steel project
18 April 2024
A MEED Subscription...
Subscribe or upgrade your current MEED.com package to support your strategic planning with the MENA region’s best source of business information. Proceed to our online shop below to find out more about the features in each package.