Egypt's Pioneers new share issue seen in 6-8 weeks

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Pioneers Holding is expected to issue new shares to buy investment bank Beltone Financial in six to eight weeks at a price still to be set but at a premium to the market, Beltone's chief executive said.

"We are going through a due diligence exercise, that will start promptly, and we expect that will take three to four weeks," Aladdin Saba told Reuters, adding that he expected the share issue to take place in a timeframe of "between six to eight weeks".

Asked about the value of the merger deal, he said: "You can see the shares now trading at a little bit over 7 (Egyptian pounds) but that is not what we expect to be the fair value of the stock". He said the issue would be at a premium to the current market share price, when asked.