CAIRO: The government said on Wednesday it had short-listed six candidates to buy a 75-80 percent stake in the state-owned Bank of Alexandria, and will allow them to carry out due diligence checks on the business. The central bank said in a joint statement with the investment ministry that it would take final financial and technical offers from the bidders at the end of September. Eight institutions had initially submitted technical bids, their strategies for managing and developing the bank, out of 13 that had expressed an interest in buying the bank. The government plans to sell 75-80 percent of the bank. It will offer an additional 5 percent to bank employees, while 15-20 percent will be offered on the stock market. The short-listed consortia are: Jordan-based Arab Bank Group, the Arab National Bank of Saudi Arabia, Dubai-based Mashreq Bank, and Dubai Investment Group, Egypt s Commercial International Bank, French bank BNP Paribas, Italian bank Sanpaolo IMI and Greece s EFG Eurobank. Bank of Alexandria is one of four big state-owned Egyptian banks, with 8 percent of the banking sector market share. The CBE has been seeking to reduce government stakes in the country s banks and consolidate smaller banks. In addition to selling Bank of Alexandria, Egypt plans to merge two of the four main state-owned banks. Reuters
