Snackfoods giant Edita won’t acquire Egyptian Belgian Company’s assets after talks collapse: Edita Food Industries’ bid to acquire assets belonging to Egyptian Belgian Company has fallen through after the two companies were unable to agree on a valuation. The EGX-listed company had expected to finalize an agreement with the Ole baked products manufacturer this month but said in a regulatory filing (pdf) yesterday that negotiations had been suspended after failing to reach an agreement. A senior Edita official told us that talks collapsed because the two companies couldn’t agree on a valuation following due diligence.

Background: Edita submitted a non-binding letter of intent in November to acquire the company’s real estate assets (including land plots and buildings), as well as machinery, equipment, and production lines. A senior exec told us at the time that the company viewed the acquisition as a “major milestone” that would have added “significant” production capacity to its baked goods segment.

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Creed Healthcare discloses size of Cleo stake sale to MCI Capital: Creed Healthcare sold an 8.9% stake, or almost 142 mn shares, in Cleopatra Hospitals Group (CHG) to MCI Capital Healthcare Partners for EGP 709.8 mn (EGP 5 per share) last week, the company said in a bourse disclosure (pdf). The sale reduced Creed’s stake in CHG from 37.9% to 29%.

The transaction was part of MCI Capital’s acquisition of 23% of CHG: MCI Capital, a subsidiary of state-owned CI Capital, last week bought a 23% stake in CHG for a total EGP 1.8 bn. Creed, which owns its stake in CHG through its subsidiary Care Healthcare, had agreed to sell an 8-12% stake in the company to MCI at the EGP 5-per-share offer price during its voluntary tender offer. The confirmation of its 8.9% stake sale to MCI Capital means that other CHG shareholders collectively sold around a 14.1% stake.

Creed remains CHG’s single-largest shareholder with its remaining 29% stake, while MCI Capital’s total holding in CHG now stands at around 26.8% following the acquisition, according to information previously provided to Enterprise by a source with knowledge of the transaction. Creed used to own more than two-thirds of CHG but divested a 31.5% stake in 2019.