Two bidders are reportedly in preliminary talks with the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) in order to acquire United Bank of Egypt (UBE), after the CBE had expressed its willingness to dispose of its 99.9% stake in UBE. The two bidders are Kuwait Finance House (KFH) and Standard Chartered. One banking official said KFH has been in preliminary talks with the CBE for the past two weeks over the transaction, but has not made a formal bid yet, nor had it started the due diligence process. The source stated further that the CBE requested last Wednesday from the United Bank to speed up its transformation to a full-fledged Islamic bank and offer Shariah-compliant products exclusively. UBE currently provides Shariah-compliant products, but 60% of its product offering is still conventional, which will pose an issue for KFH as it is a pure Islamic bank. The banking source expects the official bidding process to start in December 2016, with bidders submitting their offers to the CBE and due diligence starting. (Al Borsa)   Kuwait Finance House: KWD0.47 as of 09 October 2016, Rating: Neutral, FV: KWD0.52 per share, MCap: USD8,124mn, KFIN KK / KFIN.KW