Banque Misr green bond issuance in the works? Banque Misr could soon be following the likes of CIB and the Finance Ministry by issuing its very own green bonds to investors, according to Al Mal. The state-owned bank is exploring the possibility of selling the climate-focused securities, Vice Chairman Akef El Maghraby told the newspaper, without revealing further details about the bank’s plans.

2020-2021: The year of the green bond. Last year year saw the maiden issuances of Egyptian sovereign and corporate bonds. CIB was the first to take a corporate issuance to market this past June, selling USD 100 mn of five-year, fixed-rate bonds to the International Finance Corporation, while the Finance Ministry held its first green bond sale last September, issuing USD 750 mn bonds in an issuance that was almost 5x oversubscribed.

CI Capital-Misr Capital integration coming? Banque Misr is considering merging some of CI Capital and Misr Capital’s activities, El Maghraby said, without disclosing further information. The vice chairman said earlier this year that the bank could move to integrate some of the firms’ activities such as asset management, but said that a merger is “unlikely.” This would create an asset manager with assets under management worth EGP 35 bn. Banque Misr acquired a 90% stake in CI Capital earlier this year, and is in the process of acquiring CI’s entire 98% stake in its consumer finance subsidiary, Souhoola.

ALSO FROM BANQUE MISR- The state-run bank is on the verge of setting up an EGP 500 mn real estate investment fund, with the participation of Banque du Caire (BdC) and Suez Canal Bank, unnamed sources in the know told Al Shorouk, without specifying an estimated timeframe. An unnamed subsidiary of Banque Misr will take over the management of the fund, which will invest in commercial and administrative assets nationwide in a way that guarantees constant and recurring income from rental returns, the sources said.