Dubai Group, a unit of Dubai Holding, is seeking to sell its 7% stake in Egypt-based investment bank EFG-Hermes Holding to Western investment funds for $91m, reported Bloomberg citing people familiar with the sale.
Reportedly, Dubai Financial, a unit of Dubai Group, which is one of seven subsidiaries of conglomerate Dubai Holdings, is offering about 19.1m shares at EGP25 to 26 each. The deal, which is being managed by Citigroup, will bring down Dubai Group’s stake in EFG Hermes to less than 18% from 25%.
Dubai Holding’s other units include Dubai International Capital (DIC), Dubai Properties, Jumeirah Group, Sama Dubai, Tatweer and TECOM Investments.
David Butter, regional director for Middle East and North Africa at Economist Intelligence Unit, said: “Dubai Holding is carrying quite a bit of debt about $13-14 billion and disposal to generate cash flow would not be unexpected. Refinancing for anything with Dubai’s name on it is now going to be very difficult. The crisis has exposed the difficulty Dubai authorities will have in trying to cordon off what they consider to be the real problem areas,” reported Reuters.