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Wednesday, 10 March 2021

NBE pushing into non-bank financial services

Al Ahly Capital has wrapped up its acquisition of a 75% stake in e-payments player Momken, National Bank of Egypt Chairman Hisham Okasha said at a press release (pdf). (NBE is parent company of Al Ahly.) The acquisition brings Momken under Tamkeen, a platform for a host of non-banking financial services companies that will operate as subsidiaries of a new holding company, Al Ahly Capital Holding Financial Services. Reports last week suggested Al Ahly was on board to pay EGP 100 mn for the stake, while Al Mal reports in its print edition this morning that the transaction was worth EGP 140 mn.

Advisors: On the buy-side, ALC Alieldean Weshahi & Partners acted as counsel for Al Ahly and PwC was financial advisor. Zilla Capital and Zaki Hashem & Partners, meanwhile, were the sell-side financial and counsel to Momken.

There’s more where that came from: State-owned NBE is looking to create one of the biggest NBFS players in Egypt and support the government’s bid to promote digitization and financial inclusion, Okasha said. There are more acquisitions in the pipeline, including potential stakes in several existing fintech and NBFS companies over the next three years and partnerships with startups in the field, NBE Vice Chairman Dalia El Baz said. While no potential targets were named, Al Ahly Capital was previously said to be in talks to acquire payments platform Sadad. The expansion plan also involves greenfield investments and setting up new companies, Al Ahly CEO Karim Saada said yesterday.

Beginning with microfinance: Al Ahly is aiming to set up 150 branches for microfinance clients over the next three years, all of which will rely on electronic services, NBE microfinance division head Magdy Moussa said. Some 50 branches will be added in the first year, with an eye to reach over 30k clients, starting with Upper Egyptian cities including Beni Suef, Luxor, Aswan, and Sohag, he added.

Further down the line: Tamkeen will be the umbrella for (and public face of) a full range of NBFS services — including consumer finance, leasing, micro-ins., and factoring, Moussa told us.

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