Pioneers, Beltone ink $128 million merger

Cairo, March 13, 2010

Egypt's financial services firm Pioneers Holding have inked in principle its all-share deal worth EGP700 million ($127.9 million) to acquire Egyptian investment bank Beltone Financial, the daily al-Alam al-Youm reported on Saturday.

'The initial agreement between Pioneers and Beltone says the former will acquire 100 percent of the latter,' al-Alam al-Youm said, adding Pioneers would issue 100 million new shares to buy Beltone.

Officials from Pioneers and Beltone were not immediately available for comment. The two companies have been in talks since November regarding the acquisition.

The paper quoted Pioneers Holding board member Khaled El Tayeb as saying that restructuring of the Pioneers board would take place once the acquisition is completed to include representatives from Beltone and Pioneers.

Pioneers specialises in brokerage services and also offers market research and investment banking for retail and institutional clients.

Beltone oversees some $5 billion in assets and has offices in New York, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Emirates. – Reuters

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