Cairo: Egypt’s EFG Hermes, the country’s largest investment bank, posted a second-quarter net loss of 67.55 million Egyptian pounds ($7.6m) due to extraordinary tax charges linked to its sale of shares in Crédit Libanais.
EFG Hermes completed the sale of a 44.3 per cent stake worth $310m in the Lebanese bank in June. It sold to Arab and Lebanese investors at $33 per share and has said it would sell its remaining 19.5pc stake next year.
The second quarter loss was attributed by the bank to taxes incurred through the sale and compares to a net profit of 177.49m pounds during the same period last year.
“The taxes represent 118m pounds from the 525m pound sale,” Hanzada Nessim, head of investor relations, said.
The bank said in a statement that the earnings reflected a “one-off tax expense” from the quarter, but not
“the 525m pounds gain” from the sale.
However, Nessim said that the bank expects to distribute profits from the sale by the end of the year.
Revenues meanwhile jumped 10pc year-on-year to 288m pounds on the back of a 14pc rise in fees and
commissions, which totalled 271m pounds.