CAIRO: Cairo-based brokerage EFG-Hermes has obtained a license to offer online trading of Egyptian stocks and will start a gradual launch to existing clients within two weeks, an official said on Monday. We re ready for an immediate soft launch and we will start in a week or two depending on the exchange, said Mamdouh El-Baz, who runs online business at EFG-Hermes. We will launch it for clients and then to the public, targeting the retail business, he added. EFG-Hermes runs a similar operation in Dubai and hopes to do the same in Saudi Arabia, he said. The online trading operation will be the second in Egypt, after one called Arabia Online, he added. In July, EFG-Hermes launched a campaign to sign up retail clients for its brokerage services, with a target of 10,000 customers within a year. Reuters
