Egypt’s EFG Hermes is considering expansion into South-East Asia in 2019

The biggest listed investment bank in the North African country has expanded into Africa

EFG-Hermes has been expanding its footprint as it seeks to grow its various lines of business, which include investment banking, private equity, and securities brokerage among others.Dana Smillie for Show more

EFG Hermes, Egypt’s biggest listed investment bank, is considering expansion into South-East Asia this year to be closer to its investors in the region, the co-chief executive said.

The bank has been widening its reach as it seeks to grow its various lines of business, which include investment banking, private equity, and securities brokerage among others.

"We're very interested on the frontiers side to finish our frontier plan, so definitely we're working on South-East Asia and a couple more countries on the ground, so this would be for 2019," Mohamed Ebeid told The National on Sunday."It's still under study, but for us this continues our plan on the frontier side and it gives more access to our investors. I think this is something that might come up in the next three months."

Last year, EFG Hermes acquired Primera Africa in Lagos, a brokerage house in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, to tap business in the continent, particularly West Africa. It is currently present in 12 countries.

In the UK, the bank has a fully owned license to service a broad spectrum of frontier markets. It has offices in Kenya and Pakistan, and opened a representative office in Bangladesh in January last year.

EFG Hermes is also planning to expand its equity and debt markets business in its existing operations.

The bank is keen “on increasing our market share and rankings in the markets we’re already in and getting more ECM [equity capital markets] and DCM [debt capital markets] activity from those markets," he said.

The bank’s third-quarter net profit rose 18 per cent to 279 million Egyptian pounds (Dh58.6m), supported by strong fees and commissions revenue.