CAIRO: Egypt’s Bank of Commerce and Development (Al-Tegaryoun) will merge with the state-owned National Bank of Egypt (NBE) with effect from Thursday, the stock exchange said in a statement on Monday.
The Bank of Commerce and Development is itself more than 97 percent state-owned but 2.8 percent of the shares are in the hands of the private sector and the bank is listed on the stock exchange.
The merger, based on a decision by the central bank, is part of a bank consolidation programme designed to reduce the number of banks and solve their bad debt problems.
According to the Kompass business directory, the Bank of Commerce and Development has capital of LE 147 million pounds ($25.6 million).
The bank made a loss of LE 24.0 million in the first nine months of 2005, compared with a loss of LE 23.0 million in the same period of 2004, the stock exchange said.
The stock exchange statement gave no financial terms for the merger and bank officials were unavailable for comment. Reuters
