Back to the complete issue
Wednesday, 15 February 2023

Ripplewood flips big part of its EFG Hermes stake to Chimera, others

EFG Hermes’ second-largest shareholder, Tim Collins’ Ripplewood, has sold two thirds of its position in a series of block transactions on the EGX on Monday, according to trading data out yesterday. Units of the US-based investment firm sold almost 92 mn shares at an average price of EGP 19.32 per share, taking home EGP 1.77 bn, EFG Hermes said in a disclosure (pdf). This reduced Ripplewood’s holdings from 11.7% to 3.9%.

Who’s Ripplewood? Collins and Ripplewood are long-time investors in Egypt and hold or have previously held shares in blue chip names including SOIDC, PHD, CIB and Edita alongside EFG Hermes.

The new shareholders #1: Chimera Investments. Abu Dhabi-based investment firm Chimera purchased a 2.62% stake in EFG Hermes via its newly-acquired local financial services firm, Beltone Financial. The firm purchased more than 30.5 mn shares for EGP 590.6 mn, Beltone said in an EGX disclosure (pdf).

The latest addition to Chimera’s growing Egypt portfolio: Chimera, part of Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed’s Royal Group, has made a string of investments in Egypt over the past 12 months, most recently investing USD 200 mn in local super-app MNT-Halan. It also acquired 45% of NBFS outfit GB Lease.

The new shareholders #2: JS Holding Ltd: The company purchased a 5.25% stake — or 61.3 mn shares — for nearly EGP 1.2 bn, according to an EGX disclosure (pdf). The transaction was executed by EFG Securities Brokerage Company.

EFG Hermes shares closed up 1% yesterday at EGP 20.00 apiece.

Enterprise is a daily publication of Enterprise Ventures LLC, an Egyptian limited liability company (commercial register 83594), and a subsidiary of Inktank Communications. Summaries are intended for guidance only and are provided on an as-is basis; kindly refer to the source article in its original language prior to undertaking any action. Neither Enterprise Ventures nor its staff assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, whether in the form of summaries or analysis. © 2022 Enterprise Ventures LLC.

Enterprise is available without charge thanks to the generous support of HSBC Egypt (tax ID: 204-901-715), the leading corporate and retail lender in Egypt; EFG Hermes (tax ID: 200-178-385), the leading financial services corporation in frontier emerging markets; SODIC (tax ID: 212-168-002), a leading Egyptian real estate developer; SomaBay (tax ID: 204-903-300), our Red Sea holiday partner; Infinity (tax ID: 474-939-359), the ultimate way to power cities, industries, and homes directly from nature right here in Egypt; CIRA (tax ID: 200-069-608), the leading providers of K-12 and higher level education in Egypt; Orascom Construction (tax ID: 229-988-806), the leading construction and engineering company building infrastructure in Egypt and abroad; Moharram & Partners (tax ID: 616-112-459), the leading public policy and government affairs partner; Palm Hills Developments (tax ID: 432-737-014), a leading developer of commercial and residential properties; Mashreq (tax ID: 204-898-862), the MENA region’s leading homegrown personal and digital bank; Industrial Development Group (IDG) (tax ID:266-965-253), the leading builder of industrial parks in Egypt; Hassan Allam Properties (tax ID:  553-096-567), one of Egypt’s most prominent and leading builders; and Saleh, Barsoum & Abdel Aziz (tax ID: 220-002-827), the leading audit, tax and accounting firm in Egypt.