Gabonese BGFI Bank and its Moroccan counterpart BMCE Bank are among the 10 candidates who have declared their intention to buyout Banque Franco-Tunisienne (BFT), the oldest credit establishment in Tunisia, the Tunisian stock market website Tustex reported on 18^th October.

The other 8 candidates to have shown interest in buying out this subsidiary of Société Tunisienne de Banque (STB, a public company) are Société de Fabrication des Boissons de Tunisie (SFBT), top Tunisian brewery founded by Hammadi Bousbiaa, an ex-Vice Governor of Banque Centrale de Tunisie who moved into the industry, the Tunisian industrial conglomerate Elloumi, Emirati groups Dubai Holding and Dubai Investment Group (DIG), Kuwaitis KIPCO and Global Investment House, Lebanese banking group AUDI et the public Libyan holding LAFICO (Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company).

The candidate list is not definitely set, according to Tustex who mentioned 12 potentials candidates for this operation.

All the candidates are much more interested by the authorisation held by BFT rather than the quality of the bank’s assets which market share is currently marginal.