OCI NV buyout nets over 97% of Egypt’s Orascom

OCI NV, the Dutch-listed parent of Egypt’s Orascom Construction Industries, said it would own more than 97 percent of its subsidiary’s shares by the close of a buyout offer, paving the way for the delisting of the Egyptian bourse’s biggest firm.

As of Sunday’s close of the tender, launched on June 27, OCI “expects to own 97.44 percent of OCI S.A.E.,” it said in a statement emailed to Reuters.

OCI NV has said Orascom will have greater access to international capital markets with its base in Amsterdam.

OCI NV (OCI.AS) had offered Dutch-listed shares or 255 Egyptian pounds ($36.4) in cash for each ordinary Egyptian share in the construction and fertilizer company.

Shareholders chose to convert 15.7 million shares, or 31.3 percent of the offer, into OCI N.V. shares while others holding 29.2 million shares, or 58.1 percent, chose to take cash, the statement said.

The original tender offer had been delayed because of a tax dispute that prompted the Egyptian government to place a travel ban on OCI’s chief executive Nassef Sawiris and his father Onsi Sawiris earlier this year. The Egyptian regulator also sought clarifications that held up the deal.

The tax dispute was settled in April when OCI agreed to pay 7.1 billion Egyptian pounds ($1 billion) to the government. The travel ban was then lifted.

The Sawiris family will own a controlling stake of almost 57 percent of the Dutch firm.

OCI’s share price on the Egyptian stock exchange fell 5.0 percent on Sunday to 238.50 Egyptian pounds as the tender offer came to a close.

The remaining shares of OCI S.A.E. comprise 0.47 percent in global depository receipts on the London Stock Exchange, 0.51 percent in American depository receipts on the New York Stock Exchange and 1.58 percent on the Egyptian exchange, OCI said.