The International Finance Institution Corporation (IFC) announced, on Wednesday, that is has exited from the Bank of Alexandria (AlexBank).

“The IFC has exited AlexBank as our capacity as an equity investor to support the post-privatisation and facilitate the expansion of the bank is complete,” said Walid Labadi, IFC Country Manager in Egypt, “We invested in the bank back in 2009, and today it owns one of the most diversified private sector branch networks with a wide presence across Egypt.”

He added, “It is actively serving SMEs [small- and medium-sized enterprises], which is particularly important in times like the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) when many smaller companies are suffering from a liquidity crunch.”

Labadi added that IFC’s exit is designed to revolve the organisation’s capital, and to use it for similar investments which have a successful development impact.

“Promoting financial inclusion and supporting more jobs are among our key priorities in Egypt,” he said, “We will continue our strong support to Egypt’s banking sector and are ready to increase our investment in the sector this financial year.”

The IFC, which is the private-sector lending arm of the World Bank, owned a 9.75% stake in AlexBank, with Egypt’s Ministry of Finance owning a 20% stake, and 70.25% owned by Italy’s Intesa San Paolo Group. IFC sold its stake to Intesa San Paolo Group raising its stake to 80%.