Egyptian multimillionaire businesswoman Hend El-Sherbini, who earlier this year received an EGP331.97-million ($17.9 million) dividend from her shareholding in Integrated Diagnostics Holdings (IDH), has seen the market value of her stake in the leading diagnostic service provider fall by more than $15 million in the past 10 weeks.
IDH is one of the Middle East and Africa’s leading consumer healthcare groups, with operations in Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, and Nigeria. It operates through a branch network of 483 labs in four countries, making it Egypt’s largest diagnostic service provider, with more than 1,400 international-standard diagnostic tests.
The leading businesswoman, who was instrumental in the Egyptian consumer healthcare firm’s growth and transformation, owns a significant 25.5-percent stake in the company, which translates to 152,982,356 ordinary shares.
Shares in the group were worth EGP19.1 ($1.018) per share as of press time on June 21, unchanged from their opening price on the local bourse, as buying and selling pressures were evenly cleared out on the exchange.
According to data obtained by Billionaires.Africa, the market value of El-Sherbini’s 25.5-percent stake has dropped by EGP290.7 million ($15.5 million) since April 12, exactly 10 weeks ago, from EGP3.21 billion ($171.25 million) to EGP2.92 billion ($155.8 million), owing to a nine-percent drop in the company’s share price from EGP21 ($1.12) to EGP19.1 ($1.02).
The news comes as investors reduce their stakes in the diagnostics service provider as part of a move to preserve wealth and mitigate equity market volatility after the Central Bank of Egypt raised its policy rate to tame inflation, which has risen to record levels due to soaring energy prices and a looming food crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.
The drop in IDH shares can also be attributed to market participants’ reactions to an 8.74-percent drop in the group’s profit from EGP342 million ($18.25 million) in the first quarter of 2021 to EGP314 million ($16.75 million) in the first quarter of 2022, despite a five-percent increase in revenue from EGP1.13 billion ($60.3 million) to EGP1.18 billion ($63 million) during the period.
