DUBAI: Egypt has asked five Greek and Middle Eastern banks to conduct due diligence on Alwatany Bank of Egypt and offer to take over the lender, Dubai-based Al-Bayan daily said on Monday. National Bank of Kuwait, Dubai-based Mashreqbank, National Bank of Greece, Jordan s Arab Bank and EFG Eurobank are on the Egyptian central bank s shortlist of bidders, Al-Bayan quoted banking sources as saying. Officials at Alwatany bank declined to comment. Officials at National Bank of Kuwait were not immediately available for comment. The bank has been seeking a presence in Egypt, the most populous Arab country, and said in February it was in talks to buy into Egyptian Gulf Bank or another lender. A Mashreqbank spokeswoman said she could not comment immediately on the report. A Mashreqbank consortium made an unsuccessful bid for Egypt s state-owned Bank of Alexandria, which was privatized last year. Chief Executive Abdul Aziz Al-Ghurair said in March Mashreqbank was considering other targets in Egypt. Banque Saudi Fransi, Kuwait Finance House and Qatar Islamic Bank had also expressed interest in the Egyptian bank, Al-Bayan said. Egyptian financial newspaper Al-Alam Al-Youm said on May 21 five financial institutions had the central bank s permission to do due diligence on Alwatany. That report, which cited Alwatany Chairman Ayman Fathi Hussein, did not name the bidders. Alwatany had a market value of LE 3,466.5 million.
