Beltone Financial Holding (BTFH.CA), a leading Egypt-based investment bank announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire 51% of Auerbach Grayson & Company, LLC, a New York based brokerage firm specializing in global trade execution and exclusive in-depth research on developed, frontier and emerging markets for U.S. institutional investors.

The acquisition will be submitted for regulatory approvals and is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks.

“We are delighted to be making this investment and look forward to working with Auerbach Grayson as we expand our global reach and product offerings to the U.S. market, in addition to boosting our expansion plans in frontier markets” said Dr. Sameh El-Torgoman, Chairman of Beltone Financial Holding.

“Our agreement with Beltone Financial will enable Auerbach Grayson to expand our overseas coverage in the European and Gulf markets, giving us broader reach in our core agency broking and capital markets distributions,” said David Grayson, Founder and CEO of Auerbach Grayson. “We are excited about the opportunities this partnership brings to the business, with Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris backing the investment and placing Auerbach Grayson at the core of Beltone Financial’s growth strategy.”

Auerbach Grayson built its global coverage network by establishing partnerships with local and regional brokers and banks in emerging, frontier and developed markets worldwide with analysts in every region. The firm provides U.S. institutional investors with trade execution and in-depth local equity research from its local partners. Auerbach Grayson recently expanded into U.S. block trading, global block trading and global program trading groups. Through its partnership with BFH, the firm will expand into asset management and investment banking.

Beltone Financial was advised by Beltone Investment Banking, Covington & Burling LLP in Washington DC, and Zaki Hashem & Partners in Cairo.

Auerbach Grayson was advised by Berkshire Capital in New York and Sullivan & Worcester LLP in Boston.

Disclaimer: The deal closing is contingent on securing various approvals.

About Auerbach Grayson (www.agco.com)

Founded in 1993 in New York City by Jonathan Auerbach and David Grayson, Auerbach Grayson offers a full range of global in-depth research, trade execution and settlement services in equities, derivatives and fixed-income instruments to U.S. institutional clients through its network of local broking partners in over 125 countries. In addition, the firm provides and implements hedging and arbitrage strategies. Morgan Stanley is a minority investor in Auerbach Grayson. Auerbach Grayson is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC).

About Beltone Financial Holding (www.beltonefinancial.com)

Beltone Financial is a publicly listed company traded on the Egyptian Exchange. It is the largest asset manager in Egypt with over EGP 30bn AUMs and a leading provider of independent equity research throughout the MENA region. The firm has also executed over EGP 100bn in M&A and capital markets transactions. In 2015, Beltone was acquired by Orascom Telecom Media & Technology (OTMT).