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Egypt’s EFG-Hermes purchased Nigerian brokerage and research house Primera Africa Securities Limited in July this year as part of its strategy to scale operations in Asian and African frontier markets. This will be the second operation EFG-Hermes has opened in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The investment bank received a stockbroking license to operate in Kenya last year, increasing its operations to 12 countries including Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.
Since 2017, the company has opened its doors in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam. The firm also recently obtained approval to operate in the UK.
“We have managed to grow substantially in frontier markets in a very short space of time. We are already doing a lot of work in Vietnam and will be looking at Latin America over the longer term,” Khalpey stated.
Scaling to West Africa
According to the chief executive of the frontier market Ali Khalpey, the expansion to Nigeria offers the company an opportunity to scale to the rest of West Africa. The firm plans on increasing its investment banking business on the continent where there are “very strong inflows.”
EFG-Hermes will make Primera into one of the top three brokerages in the country. The acquisition saw the brokerage rebranded to EFG-Hermes while Primera’s employees were retained. Khalpey did not disclose the value of the acquisition.
“Upon completion of the acquisition, we will look to expand the company’s research and investment-banking platforms further. We see significant investment banking advisory opportunities in Nigeria and our local presence will allow us to better serve the corporate sectors,” Khalpey said then.
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