Banque du Caire to remain under state control after increasing its capital by 20% on EGX: chairperson

The bank will continue its role in serving the economy, even after the government's stake in it is reduce

The government will not lose control of Banque du Caire after increasing its capital by 20% by offering more shares of the bank on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX), said the bank's CEO and Chairperson Mounir El Zahid.
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) had announced earlier this year that it will offer a further 20% of Banque du Caire's shares on the EGX to stimulate the market and bring liquidity to the bank through an IPO.
According to El Zahid, the offering process aims to increase its capital rather than to sell 20% of its shares.
Banque du Caire held a press conference on Tuesday to announce its results for 2015.
During the conference, El Zahid said that the augmentation of the bank's capital on the EGX is in hands of the CBE deputy governor, noting that the bank's executive management is not involved in this file yet. The management is working to achieve results and expand in all activities. The bank's management will become involved when the responsible authorities begin to request information about the bank.
When asked about the date of that step, El Zahid said it may come at the end of this year or in early 2017.
He noted that there are no qualms about increasing shares through the EGX as it will not impact the state-owned bank's role in serving the national economy, and the government will not lose control of the bank.
El Zahid added that Banque du Caire has now become a very good card, as its market value has doubled several times in recent years. It may became eligible to hold an IPO at any time.
Banque du Caire was established in 1952 as an Egyptian joint stock company. It is one of the largest banks operating in the Egyptian market is in terms of business volume, number of branches, and customers.
The bank serves over 2.8 million clients through 234 branches spread across the republic, besides to 525 ATMs.
The bank was recently approved, by its general assembly, to increase its capital by EGP 650m by using part of its retained earnings from the past year to reach EGP 2.25bn versus a current size of EGP 1.6bn.
According to manager of the Financial Sector at the bank Ahmed Ismail, the management has started taking extraordinary decisions to carry out the move, expecting it to be completed before the end of this year.
Ismail pointed out that the bank has 400m shares, with a nominal value of EGP 4 per share. The increase will lift the number of shares to 562.5m shares.
Total equity, including reserves, capital and retained earnings, would climb to EGP 4bn after increasing the bank's capital, which will strengthen the bank's position in maintaining an adequacy of 10%, according to El Zahid.