Egypt shares up, Al Watany Bank soars 14 percent on merger talks

CAIRO: Egyptian stocks made slight gains on Sunday led by Al Watany Bank, whose shares surged 14.4 percent on reports that regional banks were seeking to acquire a majority stake, traders said. Shares in Watany ended the session at LE 43.90 after the Egyptian bank said an unspecified number of regional banks, whom it did not identify, were seeking a controlling stake in the bank. Watany significantly outperformed the benchmark Hermes index, which was up 0.4 percent at 63,297.20 points. The widely-watched Case 30 index was up 0.8 percent at 7,219.85 points while the broader CIBC index closed 1.8 percent higher at 301.98 points. Al Watany Bank gained 15 percent after they announced one of the regional banks was interested in acquiring this bank, said Ahmed El-Hifnauy of EFG-Hermes brokerage. It sends a good signal that Egypt is still interesting for Western or regional banks. The banks are getting healthier and healthier, he added. In other moves, shares in Paint and Chemical Industries (Pachin) continued to rise on last week s news that Egypt s Middle East for Paint had offered to buy all 20 million shares in the firm for LE 1.06 billion, or 53 pounds per share. Pachin shares ended 4.9 percent higher at LE 54.99, slightly above the offer price. The firm said it would accept a minimum stake of 50 percent plus one additional share. Meanwhile, shares in market giant Orascom Telecom gained 1.5 percent to end at LE 394.95 ahead of the release of the firm s full-year results, due later on Sunday. Shares in Telecom Egypt, whose results are expected on Monday, dipped 0.8 percent to LE 15.90.