Egyptian cement firm Misr Beni Suef Cement (MBSC) said yesterday it had broken off talks on a proposed stake sale to the construction company CRH.
The disclosure by MBSC follows almost a year of exclusive negotiations with CRH, which has for some time been trying to buy into the Egyptian market.
In a statement, MBSC - which controls about 5 per cent of the Egyptian cement market - said it had ended talks on a stake sale to CRH without reaching a deal.
"The administration of Misr Beni Suef Cement, from its side, announces the end of negotiations with Irish firm CRH," MBSC said.
The statement said MBSC ended the talks after CRH failed to respond to a one-week deadline issued by MBSC on April 2nd, and then extended to the end of the month, for CRH to buy a full 100 per cent of its shares.
MBSC said one of the reasons it had asked CRH to buy all instead of just 34 per cent of its shares was because of the devaluation of the pound by about one fifth since it was floated in January.
It had been reported earlier that CRH was seeking to buy 34 per cent of the firm in an effort to break into the Egyptian market.
MBSC had also asked CRH to inject 150 million Egyptian pounds (€22.4 million) to cut MBSC's debt with state-owned Banque Misr, the statement said.
A CRH spokesman would not comment yesterday when contacted by The Irish Times.
This is the third time that CRH has failed to buy into the Egyptian market in the past few years.
In June last year, it lost out to French group Ciment Francais for a 25 per cent stake in Suez Cement, which cost around 160 million Egyptian pounds.
It also expressed an interest in one of Egypt's biggest cement companies, Helwan Portland Cement, but faced competition from Portuguese company Secil and from a local firm, the Arab Swiss Engineering Company.
Meanwhile, shares in MBSC shrugged off the news yesterday and traded 5 per cent higher at 0.58 Egyptian pounds on rumours that another foreign player was interested in the firm.
Traders said rumours of other potential foreign investor interest in MBSC were helping the share price.
MBSC officials were not immediately available for comment on such speculation.
CRH is due to hold its annual general meeting tomorrow.
