The Commercial International Bank was established in 1975 as a joint venture between the National Bank of Egypt (51%) and the Chase Manhattan Bank (49%) under its original name "Chase National Bank of Egypt". Following Chase′s decision to divest its equity stake in 1987, National Bank of Egypt increased its shareholding to 99.9%, and the Bank changed its name to Commercial International Bank (Egypt) S.A.E.
During 1993, as part of its privatization strategy, CIB successfully launched a public share issue resulting in a decrease of the major shareholder′s stake to 43%, while CIB and NBE employees became the owners of 16% of the Bank′s capital in a parallel employee ownership plan. The remaining 41% was sold to over 14,000 Egyptian, Arab and multinational investors, including the International Finance Corporation.
In July 1996, National Bank of Egypt (NBE), CIB′s principal shareholder, sold an additional 20% equity stake in CIB′s capital through a Global Depository Receipts (GDR) offering listed on the London Stock Exchange. This was the first such offering by an Egyptian company and has proven to be a great success representing the highest level of subscription of any Middle East international equity offer to date, raising over $120 million.