BNP Paribas will announce the winning bidder that will acquire its unit in Egypt before the end of December, sources said. Morocco's Attijariwafa Bank, Lebanon's Audi Saradar Group and Emirates NBD Bank had earlier submitted their financial offers to acquire the bank after conducting the due diligence process. Sources said Audi Saradar Group and Attijariwafa Bank are the most likely to acquire the French bank's unit in Egypt as the Moroccan bank insists to enter the Egyptian market as it had earlier conducted the due diligence process on Piraeus Bank Egypt and Bank Audi has set a plan to expand in Egypt. Sources expected the value of the deal to range between US$ 350 million and US$ 450 million. The only way to enter the Egyptian market is acquiring existing banks as the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) refuse to license new banks. Although some say that BNP Paribas will not exit the market, sources affirmed that the French bank will sell its unit in Egypt to shrink its investments overseas in order to focus on the parent bank after the global financial crisis that hit Europe. BNP Paribas Egypt achieved net profit of EGP 174.399 million at the end of last September, compared to EGP 145.920 million at the end of 2011, registering a growth rate of 19.5% (EGP 284 million).
