The Capital Quest | Abu Dhabi’s Chimera buys large stake in Egypt’s GB Lease

On Dec 23, 2022

Chimera Investments, an Abu Dhabi-based private investment firm managing a diversified portfolio of listed and unlisted equities on both local and regional markets, has inked a definitive agreement to acquire 45% of Egyptian company GB Lease for EGP 855 million ($35 million).

GB Auto’s unit GB Capital said it will retain the remaining 55% stake in the company, which the transaction values at EGP 1.9 billion ($77 million). The talks between the two had been going on since September.

This comes soon after the parent GB Auto sold a 7.5% stake in MNT Investments to Chimera last week for $60 million with an earnout component that could reach $71.3 million. This was part of a larger agreement that saw Chimera picking up a 21.7% stake in the Netherlands-based payments company. The remaining 14.2% was sold by other unnamed investors in MNT.

In June 2021, MNT Investments, a financial services subsidiary of Egypt’s GB Auto backed by Development Partners International (DPI), had said it was bringing super app Halan under its fold. MNT and Halan entered into a share-swap agreement, but didn’t share details of the transaction. This essentially meant that Halan shareholders received a stake in MNT.

Later, MNT-Halan raised $120 million from Apis Partners, DPI and Lorax Capital Partners. Venture capital investors Middle East Venture Partners, Endeavor Catalyst and DisruptTech also contributed.

Other existing investors of MNT-Halan include GB Capital, Algebra Ventures, Wamda, Nowaisi Capital, Unidelta, Egypt Ventures, Battery Road Digital Holdings, and Shaka VC.

Chimera had previously acquired a majority stake in another Egyptian financial service company Beltone.

Chimera Investments is part of Abu Dhabi’s Royal Group, a diversified conglomerate of companies comprising over 60 entities and employing 20,000 employees. The group is active in a breadth of industries including real estate, construction, fast-moving consumer goods, food and beverage, hospitality, aviation, healthcare and general investments.