OFH swaps Beltone for fintech: Orascom Financial Holding (OFH) is using the sale of its shares in Beltone Financial to expand its footprint in the tech space. The company is planning to establish a EGP 300-500 mn tech fund and invest in its fintech venture Klivvr using some of the proceeds from the Beltone sale, the company said in a disclosure (pdf) yesterday after Al Mal published an interview with its CEO Nils Bachtler. The sale will give OFH “more flexibility to search and employ new investment opportunities that are consistent with the company’s long-term vision and goals,” it said.

Not exactly a VC fund: “The tech-focused fund differs from a venture capital fund in that its business model differs from the ‘traditional’ VC players, but it will be active in the same space,” CEO Nils Bachtler told us yesterday.

The fund will focus on tech and is expected to launch by the end of the year, Bachtler added. “We are in the process of exploring regulations and setups, and we’re expecting to have everything up and running by the end of this year,” he said. The fund’s ticket sizes are still TBD, he added.

OFH’s fintech subsidiary Klivvr is preparing to launch its app and payment cards, having obtained an initial license from the central bank earlier this year. The company has signed agreements with Visa and AAIB to manage payment and issue cards, and was expected to launch the app earlier this year. OFH did not disclose how much of the Beltone proceeds it would invest in the fund and in Klivvr.

OFH is no longer a Beltone shareholder: OFH sold all 259.1 mn of its shares in the financial services company (c.56%) to Abu Dhabi-based investment firm Chimera Investments this month for EGP 1.485 each. It is set to receive around EGP 384 mn from the transaction, by our math.