We are pleased to announce that Matouk Bassiouny & Hennawy (“MBH”) acted as the lead legal counsel to Beltone Capital (“Beltone”) in connection with the signing of a joint venture agreement (“JVA”) and other related agreements with CRIF S.p.A (“CRIF”) to launch a credit ratings and business solutions company in Egypt.

The new venture will commence operations upon receiving the final approval from the Egyptian Financial Regulatory Authority (“FRA”) and will offer debt capital market instrument ratings, SME & corporate borrower ratings, NBFI portfolio ratings, ESG services, unsolicited ratings, and onboarding technology for lenders in accordance with the stipulations outlined in FRA’s Decision No. 151 of 2023.

We proudly note that the anticipated credit rating license will be the first license of this type in a relatively long time.

The MBH team advising on the matter was led by Mohamed Abdel Fattah (Partner and Head of Capital Markets), Muhammad Nassef Ali (Partner), Omar Adel (Counsel), and Khaled Abdel Wahab (Senior Associate).