Lebanon’s Blom Bank enters new talks to sell Egypt business to ABC Bahrain

Lebanon’s Blom Bank enters new talks to sell Egypt business to ABC Bahrain

Lebanon's Blom Bank on Wednesday announced that it has entered into exclusive discussions with Arab Banking Corporation (Bahrain) to potentially sell its operations in Egypt.

A brief statement said both parties will enter into negotiations in order to reach a final agreement although there is no certainty that any transaction will be completed.

Emirates NBD says 'no certainty' that deal will be completed for Egyptian operations of Lebanon's BLOM Bank

It added that further announcements will be made in due course.

The announcement comes a month after Dubai's biggest bank said it was carrying out due diligence on a possible acquisition of the Egyptian operations of Blom Bank.

In August, Emirates NBD said it had started preliminary talks to buy the Egyptian unit after the Beirut port explosion forced Blom Bank to review its strategy.

Blom Bank had previously said it was considering several strategic options, including a sale of its stake in Blom Bank Egypt in response to the depressed outlook for Lebanon's domestic banking industry.

Blom's Egypt unit has 42 branches and is active in retail and corporate banking, according to its website.

In October, Arabian Business reported that listed Lebanese banks, including Blom Bank, registered their worst financial losses in history, with a combined net