Egypt court to rule soon in case over Intesa's local unit

An Egyptian court will rule shortly on a case centred on the 2006 sale of AlexBank to Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo, two source said, potentially paving the way for the cash-strapped government to sell its remaining 20% stake in the lender.

Egypt is seeking to raise cash after its financial markets suffered heavy foreign investment outflows in the wake of the Ukraine war, throwing the economy into crisis.

It recently announced the sale of government stakes in 32 companies, including three banks, Banque du Caire, United Bank of Egypt and Arab African International Bank.

It did not mention AlexBank, though a sale of its remaining stake to Intesa is a possibility, one of the sources said.

In a major privatisation deal, Egypt in 2006 sold 80% of AlexBank for $1.6 billion to Sanpaolo IMI, which the following year merged with Banca Intesa to create what is now Italy's largest banking group.

The sale was challenged in court by activist group, the Egyptian Centre for Transparency, local media reported. But Egypt in 2014 passed a law that prevented any party other than those involved in a transaction from challenging sales or investment contracts signed by the state.