Bahrain's Bank ABC completed its purchase of the Egyptian subsidiary of Lebanon's Blom Bank for $480 million on Thursday, two banking sources said. The transaction included all Blom Bank Egypt's physical and non-physical assets as well as customer accounts, the sources said. Lebanon's Blom Bank, which owns 99.42% of the issued share capital of Blom Bank Egypt, said it had entered exclusive talks with Bahrain's ABC in December. Lebanon has been in the throes of a financial crisis that has paralysed its banks, sunk the currency and fuelled poverty and unemployment. Libya's central bank owns a 59.37% stake in Bank ABC, according to Bank ABC's website. The Bahrain-based bank has an Egyptian subsidiary, Bank ABC Egypt, in which it owns a 93% stake. Blom Bank Egypt listed assets of 45.06 billion Egyptian pounds ($2.88 billion) as of Sept. 30, 2020. It reported a net profit of 205.6 million Egyptian pounds in the three months ending Sept. 30 last year, down from 229.5 million a year earlier.
