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Egyptian billionaire, Nassef Sawiris, has hired Zaoui & Co to advise on the sale of OCI NV’s 50% stake in the Besix engineering and construction group, it has been announced.
The boutique investment bank is the sole advisor to the Netherlands based OCI. It is expected that a sale will be completed by the summer of 2014, Sawiris, the company’s chief executive officer, said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
Besix posted a 9% increase in 2013 revenue, amounting to $3.2 billion.
OCI has confirmed that it is in talks with potential bidders for the Besix stake, without identifying them.
The Belgian engineering and construction firm is active in 17 countries and operates in the construction of buildings, infrastructure and roads.
News of the sale comes as OCI says that it seeks to focus on its wholly-owned construction units, while its fertiliser and chemical arms expand in the US market.
Zaoui & Co was founded in 2013 by Michael and Yoel Zaoui, former merger and acquisition bankers at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. In April of this year, they worked with GlaxoSmithKline Plc on a $23 billion asset swap deal with Novartis AG, and with Lafarge SA on its $40 billion merger with Holcim Ltd.
Sawiris is a Lafarge shareholder, with a net worth of $8.3 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
He added that he was ‘excited’ about the prospects for the construction industry in Egypt, the Middle East and the US.
“The Weitz Co. used to do $2 billion of turnover prior to the crisis and the CEO of Weitz has come with growth plans to restore that scale within the coming three to four years,” he told Bloomberg.
OCI posted profit of $295.2 million for 2013.
The mean estimate of five analysts was for net income of $187.6 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.