Egypt sells off Alexandria Bank

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Italy's Sanpaolo has won the bidding for a majority stake in Egypt's Bank of Alexandria, the government has said.

The Egyptian government privatised the country's fourth biggest commercial bank in an auction on Tuesday.

Five Arab and European banks had been in the running, with an 80% stake in the bank up for grabs.

Egypt's Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieldin said the sale was the culmination of the current phase of reform to the nation's banking system.

Bank of Alexandria Established in 1957188 branchesAssets of $6.9bnHas 5% of Egyptian marketHolds 6% of Egyptian deposits

Candidates had included Sanpaolo, Egypt's Commercial International Bank, France's BNP Paribas, a joint venture of Jordan's Arab Bank and Saudi Arabia's Arab National Bank, and a Dubai-based partnership.

The revenues from the sale will be allocated to restructuring Banque Misr, Banque du Caire and the National Bank of Egypt.

Large Egyptian private banks have recently been bought by French banks, including MIBank by Societe Generale and Egyptian-American Bank by Calyon.

And the Egyptian government has spoken for years about privatising one of the big four state banks, a sale that is now going ahead.