CIB has scrapped plans to sell its subsidiary, CI Capital, to Beltone Financial, Reuters reported. The transaction, valued at EGP 924 mn and first announced in February, was nixed after failing to win regulatory approval. CIB cited the “prolonged period” it has taken Beltone owner Orascom Telecom & Media Technology (OTMT) to obtain a no objection certificate from Egypt’s market regulator, according to Bloomberg. The Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) had refused to issue an opinion on the acquisition citing a pending court case surrounding Beltone Financial’s parent OTMT’s ownership structure. However, EFSA head Sherif Samy stated on Thursday that the settlement with OTMT and the regulator had no bearing on its view of the CI-Beltone merger, Al Borsa reports.

Beltone Financial said it could make another run at CI Capital once “all the obstacles” are removed as it still believes in the “powerful entity” that its acquisition of CI Capital would create, Al Borsa says. “The two parties [to the agreement] are sure that governmental agencies insisted on not passing it, as well as refusing to extend the period of the acquisition,” Beltone Financial’s legal adviser, Ashraf El-Ibrachy, told Daily News Egypt on Saturday.

Other suitors in the wings? We’re not holding our breath for an immediate sale, but as a wise man has said: At the right price, everyone is a buyer — and everyone a seller. Arqaam, which acquired advisory house Akanar in March, was believed to have been seriously interested in CI Capital. Dubai’s Rasmala also made rumblings about bidding for CI at the time the Beltone pact was first announced, but eventually held back from making an offer. And don’t expect the National Bank of Egypt to make a bid: The interest it showed in making a counter-offer was clearly intended to play the role of spoiler for Beltone.