CIB Heads for Highest in Two Weeks After Hiring Central Banker

Commercial International Bank Egypt SAE (COMI), the Arab country’s biggest publicly traded lender, headed for the highest close in two weeks after hiring a former central banker as vice chairman and managing director.

Shares of the Cairo-based bank, also known as CIB, rose 3.4 percent to 24.05 Egyptian pounds, their highest since the Nov. 16 close. That brought the stock’s advance this week to 12 percent. The benchmark EGX 30 Index (EGX30) climbed 0.9 percent.

Hisham Ramez, who ended his term this month as deputy governor of Egypt’s central bank, will head the institutional and consumer businesses at CIB, the lender said today. Hisham Ezz Al-Arab, chairman and managing director, will oversee the regulatory departments with special focus on strategic issues, CIB said.