Egypt's largest lender the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) will be selling some of its non-core subsidiaries and sister companies, notably the Egyptian Life Takaful Company and the Arab Company for Special Steel (ARCOSTEEL). NBE's total portfolio of the divested-to-be non-core subsidiaries stands at 14 billion Egyptian pounds. Official sources near from the divestiture talks have told Amwal Al Ghad that the bank awaits the competent authorities' approval to shed non-core assets in favour of local and Arab investors. However, the sources declined to mention the value of selling NBE's stake in the two firms. NBE's stake in Egyptian Life Takaful Company and ARCOSTEEL amounts to 8% and 6.6%, respectively. Furthermore, the sources said NBE's divestiture step from Egyptian Life Takaful Company coincides with a strong desire by Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt and Arab Misr Insurance Group (GIG) to increase their stake in the insurance company. Faisal Bank and GIG Insurance have stake in the Egyptian Life Takaful Company amounting to 24.75% and 17%, respectively. In the same vein, NBE's board of directors had already approved earlier this month to exit its 6.6% stake in ARCOSTEEL in accordance with a debt settlement agreement between the two parties. ARCOSTEEL owes NBE 1.8 billion Egyptian pounds, signalling the biggest debts to the Egyptian lender.
