Abu Dhabi’s investment and holding company, ADQ has announced a purchase of $1.85 billion shares in five publicly traded Egyptian companies.
The stock exchange said purchases for five companies were executed on Tuesday but did not say who the buyer was.
Egypt has been on the hunt for foreign exchange since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted investors to pull billions of dollars out of its treasury markets, leading the central bank to devalue the currency by 14% on March 21.
Ukraine and Russia are the main sources of Egypt’s wheat supplies and their tourists are a significant source of foreign exchange. Egypt has been negotiating with the International Monetary Fund for a financial support package.
It also received a $5 billion deposit in its central bank from Saudi Arabia last month along with a pledge from the Saudi state Public Investment Fund for additional funds designed to attract $10 billion in investments.
Egypt likewise secured a pledge from Qatar for $5 billion in new investment deals.
ADQ’s purchases on Tuesday included 340.1 million shares of Commercial International Bank (CIB), Egypt’s biggest private bank, for $911.5 million. State-owned National Bank Of Egypt on Tuesday said it had sold 181.8 million shares in CIB for $487.1 million, reducing its stake to 0.336% from 9.504%.
ADQ also bought 271.6 million shares of Abu Qir Fertilisers and Chemical Industries for $391.9 million, 45.8 million shares of Misr Fertilisers Production (Mopco) for $266.6 million, and 476.7 million shares of Alexandria Container And Cargo Handling for $159.1 million.
Thus, it also purchased 215.1 million shares in Fawry, an electronic payments provider for a total of $68.6 million as well as 201.6 million shares in rights issue for $54.9 million.
