FRA approves “ABC” offer to buy “Bloom Egypt” by LE 6.7B

CAIRO – 18 July 2021: The Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) agreed to publish the announcement of the compulsory purchase offer submitted by the Arab Banking Corporation (ABC) to 300 million shares, representing up to 100% of the capital of BLOM Bank Egypt, in accordance with the provisions of Chapter Twelve of the Executive Regulations of Law 95 of 1992.

The amount offered by ABC for the acquisition is estimated at LE 6.7 billion ($427 million).

FRA said in a statement to the Egyptian Stock Exchange, Sunday, that the bidder must commit to buying all the shares offered for sale in response to this purchase offer.

The authority stipulated that the target company be notified of the offer with the announcement of the purchase offer and the information memorandum after the approval by the authority to publish the announcement of the purchase offer.

According to the FRA’s statement, it must be notified of any information or data related to the purchase offer before its announcement or publication, unless it was disclosed in the purchase offer or in the information memorandum.

It is obligatory to publish an offer to purchase announcement within two days from the date of the Authority’s approval to publish the announcement of the purchase offer, with the obligation to make the information memorandum available to the broker of the transaction so that holders of the securities subject of the offer can view it.

The authority said in a statement last week that the draft compulsory purchase offer submitted by the Arab Banking Corporation “ABC” to buy 300 million shares in BLOM Bank Egypt had been deposited.

The percentage that Bahraini ABC offers to purchase represents 100% of the issued capital of BLOM Bank Egypt.

The authority added in a statement, that the offer set the price of one share at LE 22.33, to be paid in the equivalent in dollars according to the average dollar exchange rate announced by the Central Bank.

BLOM Egypt is affiliated with the BLOM BANK group and began operating in Egypt in 2005. The bank has 41 branches and a paid-up capital of two billion pounds, according to its website.

HSBC Bank Middle East has been appointed as the sole financial advisor to ABC Bank in this transaction, while Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Zulficar & Co. are acting as legal advisors, citing the January statement.

CI Capital was also appointed as an advisor to BLOM Bank Lebanon and Baker & McKenzie as a legal advisor.