Sawiris sells his share in Beltone to Emirati Chimera Investments

Sawiris sells his share in Beltone to Emirati Chimera Investments

The board of directors of Orascom Financial Holding, whose main shareholder is Egyptian business tycoon Naguib Sawiris, has agreed to sell its 259.1 million shares in Beltone Financial Holding Company to the Emirati Chimera Investments a price of LE1.485 ($0.0527) per share, with a total transaction value of LE384.8 million ($20.3 million).

Analysts believe that the reason for Sawiris’ acceptance of the UAE offer is Beltone’s accumulated losses over the past years, and his lack of interest at the present time in the non-banking financial services sector.

Beltone Financial Holding received two acquisition offers during June; The first is from WM Consulting, in alliance with strategic investors, at an initial price of LE1.35 ($0.0712), and the second is from the UAE’s Chimera Investments, at an initial price of LE1.485 ($0.0527) per share.

The company agreed to the last offer, and notified the stock exchange management to issue a sale order for the shares.

Financial market expert and vice chairman of the a stockbroking company, Mutassim al-Shahidy, attributed the reasons for Sawiris’ sale of his stake in Beltone Financial Holding to the problems caused by the latter company during the offering of the Tharwa Capital Holding Company for financial investments, which forced him to buy