MENA investor eyes local brokerage house

KARACHI: A Cairo-based leading investment bank has expressed its intention to acquire the majority stakes in a Pakistan’s listed brokerage house, a bourse filing said on Friday. 

“We are submitting a copy of the public announcement of intention by EFG Hermes Holding Company to acquire up to 10,207,981 ordinary shares of Invest and Finance Securities Limited, constituting approximately 51 percent of its total issued shares,” Bank Alfalah, the EFG’s manager to the offer, said in a notice issued to the Pakistan Stock Exchange.

The deal will likely to fetch a tiny foreign investment of Rs348.19 million ($3.31 million) in the country, based on the IFSL Friday's closing share price of Rs34.11 at the Pakistan Stock Exchange.

The notice dissemination helped IFSL in closing at its upper limit of five percent in the session with a volume of 69,000 shares.

The prospective buyer, as per the existing laws, need to give offer to acquire shares from general public, which hold around 22 percent shares of IFSL.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Muzammil Aslam at Invest & Finance Securities Limited (IFSL) said the investment bank is yet to conduct due diligence of IFSL to determine the offer price.

“If the deal is materialised, EFG-Hermes Holding will become the first foreign brokerage house to have its footprints in Pakistan,” Aslam said. 

He said the deal will boost confidence of local investors. Moreover, it may also help Pakistan Stock Exchange to find a strategic partner, which it is searching for to divest its 40 percent stakes to become a demutualised stock exchange.