Qalaa Holdings, an African leader in infrastructure and industry, has appointed CI Capital to study strategic options for the full exit of Tanmeyah for Microfinance Services, a non-core subsidiary in which Qalaa holds a 70 per cent stake.

Tanmeyah is the largest private microfinance provider in Egypt.

“Qalaa Holdings is on track in divesting non-core holdings. Our ongoing divesture of those non-core businesses will allow us to de-risk, deleverage and to invest in growth opportunities for our core subsidiaries,” said Ahmed Heikal, Qalaa Holdings’ chairman and founder.

“The exit from Tanmeyah, if concluded, would provide us with liquidity that exceeds the needs of both our current deleveraging program and our financing needs, and permits share buybacks by Qalaa Holdings on an opportunistic basis.”

“Management and the Board of Directors are firmly convinced that Qalaa’s shares trade at a steep discount to their fair market value and that the acquisition of treasury shares thus represents an exceptionally compelling path to the creation of shareholder value,” said Qalaa Holdings co-founder and managing director Hisham El-Khazindar.

“Qalaa may explore additional exits to permit further share buybacks for so long as management sees the company’s share trading at a steep discount to its fair market value,” concluded Heikal.

Exit of non-core businesses will permit de-risking, deleveraging and the capture of growth opportunities at core subsidiaries, a company statement said, noting that additional liquidity from the exit of Tanmeyah will be used to finance share buybacks by Qalaa Holdings.

In 2014 and early 2015, Qalaa Holdings completed exits of non-core assets including Sudanese Egyptian Bank, Sphinx Glass and foundries AAC and AMC as well as Pharos Holding. – TradeArabia News Service