CAIRO: A joint venture deal between Egypt's investment bank EFG-Hermes and Qatar's Q-Invest has been put on hold after an Egyptian financial regulator suspended the deal on Wednesday. Initially, the EFG-QInvest deal had been approved by shareholders on June 2. “The Authority approved the (shareholder) assembly in form but refused it in terms of content, procedures and decisions,” the head of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) Ashraf El-Sharkawy was quoted as saying by the state news agency MENA. EFSA rejected decisions made at EFG's annual meeting last month saying the firm did not clarify various points regarding the deal including the fate of minority rights after it is completed, MENA reported Sharkawy said. EFG must now “provide the required information and re-convene the shareholder meeting so that procedures for the deal can be completed,” MENA cited Sharkawy as saying. EFG had previously said this month that the hold-up between the bank and QInvest was “legally binding and could only be reversed through legal action.” EFG and QInvest sealed the deal in May to form a joint-venture, in which state-backed QInvest would hold 60 percent stake, Reuters news agency reported.
