CAIRO: EFG-Hermes, the Middle East’s largest investment bank, said yesterday that it had not received notification from Egypt’s financial regulator of clearance for its merger with QInvest of Qatar.
Shares in EFG jumped 6 percent after a newspaper reported that Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil had told Qatari businessmen during a visit to Doha last Wednesday that the deal would go through by the end of this week.
An EFG spokesman said: “EFG Hermes Holding has not been informed of any development and accordingly we have published a disclosure to the EGX (Cairo stock exchange) this morning confirming that we didn’t receive a ‘no objection’ response on the deal till date.”
A spokesman for the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority said he had no immediate comment. EFG told Reuters in an emailed statement later that, given it had not received regulatory approval to date, it may be difficult to implement the terms of the joint venture signed last May. A clause in the agreement signed with QInvest on May 4, 2012, states that the deal will lapse after 12 months if regulatory approval is not forthcoming. A spokesman for QInvest said it had no update on the status of the merger.
Mena oil-exporting economies to slow: IMF
DUBAI: Economic growth in Middle East and North Africa oil-exporting countries is expected to fall to 3.25 percent in 2013 due to a relatively weak crude demand, after expanding by almost 5.7 percent last year, the IMF said. Mena oil exporters include Saudi Arabia, and the other five Gulf Cooperation Council members, as well as Algeria, Libya, Iraq, Iran, and Yemen. The economy of Iran will continue to contract in 2013, shrinking 1.3 percent this year compared with 1.9 percent in 2012, the IMF said. Saudi Arabia’s economy will see a drop in growth from 6.8 percent in 2012 to 4.4 percent in 2013. The UAE economy will also see a slower rate of growth of 3.1 percent this year. Kuwait is forecast to see a sharp drop in growth from 5.1 percent in 2012 to 1.1 percent this year, and Qatar’s expansion will decrease from 6.6 percent in 2012 to 5.2 percent in 2013.
Saudi to import cement
DUBAI: The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has ordered the import of 10 million tonnes of cement to end a shortage in the country, the Saudi Press Agency reported yesterday. King Abdullah wants three to four cement plants to be built over the next three years and has granted SR3bn ($800m) towards the scheme, SPA reported.
Agencies
