Beltone Financial has until 3 August to come to a decision on Chimera Investments’ bid to acquire up to 90% of its shares, the EGX said (pdf) yesterday. The Abu Dhabi-based investment firm submitted a bid to acquire the shares for EGP 1.485 apiece in June, an offer that values the company at around EGP 690 mn. The offer was approved by the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) on Tuesday.

Majority shareholder OFH is mulilng the offer, which has received FRA approval, and plans to come to a decision in the coming days, CEO Nils Bachtler told Enterprise earlier this week. It’s not yet clear how big of a stake Orascom Financial Holding (OFH) could offer up, but Bachtler said that “all options are open” and that the decision will be made once the board concludes its discussions. OFH owns around 58% of the company with the rest in freefloat.

What now? Shareholders owning at least 51% of Beltone’s shares must agree to sell for the acquisition to go through. Chimera has the right to adjust its offer price throughout the process.

Advisors: Chimera has tapped Matouk Bassiouny & Hennawy as legal counsel to the Abu Dhabi-based fund.