CAIRO: Egypt's leading investment bank EFG-Hermes reported on Monday that profits more than tripled in the first quarter, the bank said in a statement. It added that the results were largely due to the sale of 28 percent of its stake in Lebanon's Bank Audi in January. According to local reports, EFG's board has also recommended a special dividend of two Egyptian pounds per share for the stake's sale. The net profit for the company increased to LE 483.6 million ($86 million), up from LE 140.1 million during the same period last year. Fees and commissions, which rose 57 percent to 267 million pounds, made up the biggest portion of revenue, the bank said. This was as “market activity began to improve and investor sentiment slowly recovered, allowing for the closure of several investment banking deals and increased brokerage activity,” EFG-Hermes said in its earnings report. EFG-Hermes, which currently has offices in Egypt, the UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Lebanon, said the share of its fee and commission revenue from outside Egypt “had risen to 40.4 percent from 37.9 percent a year earlier.” The bank added that expenses increased 39 percent to 205 million pounds, “partly due to a management incentive scheme and the reversal of earlier salary cuts.” BM
