UPDATE 1-Kuwait Invest sells brokerage stake to EFG-Hermes
August 18th, 2008 | by admin |(Adds details from EFG-Hermes statement, quotes, background,changes dateline to Cairo)
CAIRO, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Kuwait Invest Holding Co (KTIN.KW: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)said on Monday it sold a 50 percent stake in a brokerage unit toEFG-Hermes HRHO.CA (HRHOq.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Egypt’s largest investment bankby market value, for 33.4 million dinars ($124.4 million).
EFG-Hermes said in a statement the unit, Offset Holding KSC,owns 90 percent of Gulf Financial Brokerage Company, which has a26 percent market share in Kuwait.
Under the agreement, EFG-Hermes will assume the managementand operation of Offset Holding and Gulf Financial, which willoperate under the brand name EFG-Hermes IFA, the statement said.
“With no new brokerage licences being offered for sale inKuwait on the Kuwaiti market and no foreseeable change to theregulatory environment, there is substantial scarcity value inacquiring interests in a Kuwaiti brokerage firm,” EFG-HermesChief Executive Officer Hassan Heikal said in a statement.
The firm said Gulf Financial Brokerage made a net profit of2.9 million Kuwaiti dinars in the first six months of 2008.
Kuwait Invest made a net profit of 16.1 million dinars fromthe sale, which will be booked in the third quarter, it said ina statement on the Kuwait bourse website.
EFG-Hermes operates in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United ArabEmirates, Qatar, Lebanon Oman and now Kuwait. (Reporting by Rania El Gamal and Alaa Shahine; Editing by TobyChopra) ((rania.elgamal@reuters.com; +965 246 03 50; ReutersMessaging:rania.elgamal.reuters.com@reuters.net)) ($1=.2684 dinar)
