EFG-Hermes reject Planet IB bid

EFG-Hermes Holding rejected a bid from Planet IB that valued the biggest publicly-traded Arab investment bank at a 23 per cent premium to the closing price in favour of a joint-venture with Qatar’s QInvest.

Planet IB, a company backed by investors including Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, offered 13.5 Egyptian pounds a share for Cairo-based EFG-Hermes, Planet IB said in an e-mailed statement on Saturday. That values EFG at 6.46 billion pounds (Dh3.92 billion), according to Bloomberg calculations. The shares closed at 10.97 pounds in Cairo May 31. They dropped 9.9 per cent at the open in Cairo on Sunday as one trade was made before the shares were suspended after tumbling by the daily limit.

The offer didn’t provide a commitment that a bid will be presented after due diligence and lacked details on the “financing resources for the bid and information about the investors financing it,” EFG-Hermes said in a regulatory filing on Sunday. Shareholders instead approved an agreement that will give QInvest, a unit of Qatar Islamic Bank, 60 per cent in the joint venture, it said. The transaction requires regulatory approval.