Building materials group CRH has made a bid to buy a 25 per cent stake in Egypt's biggest cement company, Suez Cement. It faces competition from the French group Ciments Francais.

According to reports, CRH and Ciments Francais were the only companies to submit bids for the stake, which could cost the buyer in excess of €160 million (£126 million).

This is the second time in the space of two months that CRH has been linked with an investment in the Middle East. In April, the company confirmed that it was in discussions to buy a 25 per cent stake in the biggest Israeli cement producer, Nesher Israel Cement Enterprises. There have been no discussions since but 25 per cent of Nesher would cost CRH in the order of €225 million.

No CRH spokesman could be contacted for comment on the latest reported bid and no announcement is expected before the end of next week. The proposed investment would see either CRH or Ciments Francais inject money into Suez by buying 10.1 million new shares and a maximum of 5.9 million existing shares to take the stake to 25 per cent.

Reports from Cairo indicated that the 10.1 million new shares were likely to be sold at around 55 Egyptian pounds (€12) a share while the existing shares could be bought on the market where Suez Cement is currently trading at 35 Egyptian pounds (€7.64).

Suez Cement reported net profits of 290 million Egyptian pounds last year on sales of 658.7 million pounds. It has three modern cement plants producing four million tonnes a year, and employs 1,800 people.