DOHA: Egyptian investment bank Beltone Financial said its acquisition by Pioneers Holding was moving ahead and details on the merger would be announced within weeks. Financial services firm Pioneers said on Nov. 8 it would issue 100 million new shares to buy Beltone, at the time valuing Beltone at LE 706 million ($129 million). Based on Monday s close, the value of the all-share deal was down a quarter at LE 517 million. Beltone said at the time of the merger announcement the Pioneers share issue was expected to take place in six to eight weeks, once due diligence and other preparatory work was done, suggesting the deal would have been completed in January. We are in the process, we are proceeding with the plans, Beltone chief executive Aladdin Saba told Reuters in Doha when asked about the merger. He said an announcement would be made in a few days or weeks . Asked if there had been other interested parties in Beltone, he said: We have had interest expressed by a few other institutions. But he did not list any names. Pioneers, with a leading position in Egypt s retail market, and Beltone, with a focus on institutions, said they aimed to create a major regional investment bank. There is definitely a difference in culture between the two companies, but from our view, this is only a reflection of the differences in our business lines. Beltone is a much more institutional brokerage operation, Saba said. Saba had previously said the merger with Pioneers would allow Beltone to increase its product distribution, while Pioneers would benefit from having its pipeline filled. The firms have said the new company would have LE 29.2 billion under management and be Egypt s second-largest brokerage. Beltone has operations in Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Saba said Beltone planned to open in two new regional locations by the end of 2010, but did not say where. On regional markets, Saba said: Qatar and Egypt are the most exciting (markets) for us. Qatar is for us one of the bright spots in the GCC (six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council). It has managed to steer a very straight road in the midst of the crisis, he said. Egypt, which unlike most Gulf states is not a major energy exporter, saw growth rates fall but still managed to keep the economy expanding at nearly 5 percent during the crisis. We re extremely excited about the Egyptian market. Consumer loans are extremely low. The strength of the banking sector and lack of leverage of the many on the street has resulted in consumer demand coming back very quickly, and earnings per share growth coming back, Saba said. He also said the most promising regional sectors were financials, healthcare, agricultural and consumer durables and non-durables.
