Founded in 1980, the NBD finances small- and medium-sized enterprises and development projects through its 67 branches. In 2005, the National Development Bank received an acquisition offer from Commercial International Bank (bt100 number 15), but talks subsequently broke down.

Following announcements that the state would not permit the sale of a majority stake in NDB, the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank acquired 49% of NBD’s shares in April 2007, having pulled back from an earlier offer of 52.8%. The Central Bank is requiring that the NDB increase its capital to LE 2 billion by 2010.

Abu Dhabi Islamic, the Gulf’s sixth-largest Islamic lender, edged out Saudi’s National Commercial Bank, the GCC’s largest bank, in the sale.

BELTONE ANALYSIS: NDB has been a target for the biggest regional and local banks due to its Islamic banking license and successful microfinance business model, despite the poor quality of its loan portfolio. Cleaning up its loan portfolio will be a challenge going forward.

MANAGEMENT: Ali Ismail Shaker (chairman and managing director) Sherif Farouk (general manager) Ahmed Adel (public relations director) Mohi Mokhtar (investor relations)

Established in 1985, the Export Development Bank of Egypt has a wide ownership base, with the National Investment Bank holding the largest share at 40%. The National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr and Banque du Caire each hold 11.45%, the Bank of Alexandria holds 10.11% and 24.85% of the bank’s shares are free floating.

EDBE focuses on financing external trade and support for export-oriented projects. The bank is forming partnerships to funnel capital to small- and medium-size exporters in Egypt and has signed up with the IFC, the private-sector arm of the World Bank, under a program aimed at promoting private enterprise in the MENA region.

BELTONE ANALYSIS: The bank has successfully completed its portfolio clean-up which started in 2002. The bank suffers from a high utilization rate (110%), which provides narrow room for future growth.

MANAGEMENT: Hisham Hassan (chairman) Ola Abdel Aziz Gadallah (vice chairman) Ahmed Ramzy El-Badry (CFO)

The Egyptian Saudi Finance Bank was established in 1980 as a national Shariah-compliant banking institution. The bank offers a diverse set of both financing and investment services, and now boasts 15 branches: 12 in Cairo, Alex and Mansoura and three soon to be inaugurated. It also finances projects and shares in syndicated arrangements with leading banks.

At its AGM held on July 9, 2006, the bank doubled its authorized capital to LE 1 billion.

Saudi parent company Dalaat Al-Baraka, holds a 75% stake in SAUD and intends to buy the remaining 25% stake. Negotiations to buy the state-owned stake are ongoing, with the National Bank of Egypt as the public-stake representative.

ESFB has posted solid growth for the past five years, but their figures indicate LE 62 million in uncovered non-performing loans that should be fully covered by 2008 under the bank’s new provisioning strategy.

SAUD’s 1Q07 financial results ended March 31, 2007, revealed an impressive 52.3% growth in bottom-line profits to LE 20.9 million as opposed to LE 13.7 million in the IQ06.

BELTONE ANALYSIS: Despite being one of the very few Islamic banks in Egypt, the bank has been suffering from low profitability for the past few years. However, with its low utilization rate, there is still potential for a lending growth and a turnaround for the bank, if management were to take a keener focus on operations and strategy.

MANAGEMENT: El-Sheikh Mahmoud Gamil Hassouba (chairman) Adnan Ahmed Youssef (vice chairman) Aly Ismail (CEO)

Delta International Bank (DIB) was an Egyptian joint-stock company established in 1978. Its 17 branches provided a wide range of commercial banking services in project, trade and corporate financing; private and retail banking; treasury and custodian trustee services; small and medium-sized enterprise finance; DIB Visa Smart Card and Delta Cash Card.

The bank also provided services related to foreign trade activities and had a large network of overseas correspondents.

A consortium of GCC investors led by Bahrain’s Ahli United Bank entered into negotiations with DIB in August 2006, eventually acquiring 89.3% of DIB at a cost of LE 1.6 billion, representing LE 37 per share.

Soon afterwards, in November 2006, DIB launched a rights issue with the aim of increasing its paid up capital by LE 100 million. The rights issue was over subscribed with the bulk of its new shares taken up by the International Finance Cooperation, the private-sector arm of the World Bank.

At an EGM held in November 2006, the bank’s name became Ahli United Bank (Egypt) SAE. The bank officially changed its name on May 29 2007 and now trades as Ahli United Bank.

MANAGEMENT: James Goold (CEO and managing director)

Established in 1981 by Egyptian and Arab businessmen with the creation of a LE 100-million mutual fund, Egyptian Gulf Bank’s 10 branches promote a range of commercial banking products including savings instruments, credit cards and internet-based services.

Egyptian Gulf Bank increased its issued capital to LE 537 million in June 2006, thus avoiding having to merge with another bank under the Central Bank of Egypt’s capital adequacy requirements. In March 2007, the issued and paid-in capital was raised by another LE 38.15 million.

The Egyptian Gulf Bank has increased its accounts in the CBE from LE 111.6 million to LE 171.1 million in compliance with CBE’s provisions requirements. The bank has also dramatically reduced its overnight deposits to LE 12 million from LE 175 million. The fixed assets account after depreciation has increased to LE 38.3 million.

The company is working to meet Basel II requirements for risk management, thus reducing the overall risk factor in all its upcoming projects. Also, the bank is planning to open six more branches in 2007.

Egyptian Gulf Bank has denied to bt rumors that it was negotiating to sell itself to the National Bank of Kuwait.

BELTONE ANALYSIS: With new management in place recently and a more ambitious and aggressive business strategy, the bank could now become vulnerable to takeover due to regional consolidation in the banking sector.

MANAGEMENT: Khaldoun Bakry Barakat (managing director) Hisham Ramiz (chairman) Mohamed Shalakamy (financial manager)

Piraeus Bank Egypt is the product of a 2005 acquisition of Egyptian Commercial Bank (ECB) by the Greek Piraeus Bank Group, with 95.35% owned by Piraeus and 4.65% owned by other stakeholders. One of the new foreign powerhouses on the Egyptian banking market, Piraeus is slated to focus on retail banking, an agenda it kicked off with a high-profile ad campaign shortly after the acquisition of ECB.

In 2006 Piraeus introduced a number of youth-oriented products, as well as a few “firsts” for Egypt including “cash back” on credit-card purchases, the highest monthly-interest yield on US dollar and Euro time deposits, and a Platinum Mastercard with a LE 100,000 limit — the highest in Egypt at the time.

So far, 2007 has seen an increase of 26% in total assets, reaching LE 5.6 billion, with loans increasing 56% to a total of LE 3.4 billion. Piraeus Egypt has acquired 90% of Phoenix Kato Asset Management, sold its share in the Sudanese Egyptian Bank (due to sanctions implemented by the European Union and the United States) and established three subsidiary companies (Piraeus Egypt Leasing, Piraeus Egypt Brokerage and Piraeus Insurance). The bank operates 39 branches.

In early 2007, new products El-Mostakbal, aimed at young adults to encourage long-term savings with an APR of 15%, and El-Motameyiza, a 3-year certificate with 9.5% APR, were added. Priorities for 2007 include expansion of the bank’s network to 55 branches and the introduction of Islamic banking products.

BELTONE ANALYSIS: Piraeus Bank Egypt entered the Egyptian banking sector after acquiring the Egyptian Commercial Bank in June 2005. The bank has been showing improved and promising financial results. Looking forward, this bank is expected to become more competitive as it possesses experience in retail banking and SME financing in its home Greek market. Moreover, its acquisition of an asset management company indicates how active the bank’s management is in attaining higher market share.

MANAGEMENT: Gamal Moharam (chairman and CEO) Sotirios Skandamis (deputy managing director and executive board member, credit and financials) Amr Bahaa (director, treasury and money markets, foreign relations and private banking) Ashraf Bebars (director, human resources) Murad Chawki (director, CIO) Ahmed El-Hady (director, management advisory) Adel Ezzat (director, corporate banking) Ashraf Fouad (director, financial controller) Hesham Guemeih (director, compliance, internal audit and inspection) Faisal Mansour (director, centralised operations) Omar Mourad (director, training center) Mohamed Tawfeek (director, credit) Omar Zein (director, branch network and project development) Scheherasad Siepa (assistant director, overseas liaison officer and media relations contact)