CAIRO (Reuters) – Bahrain’s Bank ABC completed its purchase of the Egyptian subsidiary of Lebanon’s Blom Bank for $480 million on Thursday, two banking sources said.
The transaction included all Blom Bank Egypt’s physical and non-physical assets as well as customer accounts, the sources said.
Lebanon’s Blom Bank, which owns 99.42 percent of the issued share capital of Blom Bank Egypt, said it had entered exclusive talks with Bahrain’s ABC in December.
Lebanon has been in the throes of a financial crisis that has paralyzed its banks, sunk the currency and fueled poverty and unemployment.
Libya’s central bank owns a 59.37 percent stake in Bank ABC, according to Bank ABC’s website. The Bahrain-based bank has an Egyptian subsidiary, Bank ABC Egypt, in which it owns a 93 percent stake.
Blom Bank Egypt listed assets of 45.06 billion Egyptian pounds ($2.88 billion) as of September 30, 2020.
It reported a net profit of 205.6 million Egyptian pounds in the three months ending September 30 last year, down from 229.5 million a year earlier.
Reporting by Afaf Ammar and Patrick Werr; Writing by Aidan Lewis; editing by David Evans
