Egyptian national bank sells shares to increase capital

The Egyptian national bank said on Tuesday that it will sell shares valued at 185 million Egyptian pounds with the aim of increasing its reserve capital.

The bank is in need of increasing the working capital to 500 million Egyptian pounds from 315 million Egyptian pounds before the fall of the mid of 2005. This will be under new conditions set by the central bank for new capital requirements for banks.

Layla Fahi, the assistant for the director general of the Egyptian national bank for foreign affairs said that the bank proposed five millions shares in the bank branches at a price of 10 Egyptian pounds per share and that the Bank's one share price on Monday closed at 10.41 Egyptian pound.

She added that the period the sale is 10 days and might be extended until February 24th if necessary.

In September, the central bank in Egypt said that the Islamic bank for development and the engineers bank are among the list of bank which will be merged with other banks in the framework of an operation to re- structure the banking sector in Egypt, led by the government. N.