* Shares fall for 2nd straight day
* Bank executive says CEO in good health
RABAT May 16 (Reuters) – BMCE Bank, Morocco’s third-biggest lender, said its octogenarian chief executive Othmane Benjelloun was in good health, after its shares hit their lowest level in more than three years on speculation that he was critically ill.
The bank’s shares closed down 5 percent on Wednesday at 171 dirhams ($19.7), in a slightly lower overall market, following a similar drop on Tuesday.
“The drop in BMCE shares is partly due to persistent rumours about the health condition of Othmane Benjelloun,” a Casablanca-based trader said. “His health is said to have deteriorated to such a scale that he had to travel to Europe for treatment,” the trader added.
A senior BMCE executive, who declined to be named, strongly denied the speculation.
“These are baseless and nasty rumours,” the executive told Reuters. “Benjelloun is still with us. He is in Europe, yes, but in good health condition”.
Benjelloun is BMCE’s biggest shareholder, indirectly controlling 37 percent of a bank whose market capitalisation stands at around 31 billion dirhams. France’s Banque Federative du Credit Mutuel has a 24.6 percent stake.
“BMCE is a one-man show and that man is Othmane Benjelloun,” another trader said.
In March, Forbes estimated Benjelloun’s wealth at $2.3 billion, making him Africa’s 11th richest man.
Born in 1931, Benjelloun has been at the helm of BMCE Bank since 1995 after he acquired a stake in the former state-controlled lender under a privatisation programme.
He engaged the bank in an aggressive expansion push both locally and internationally. In 2007, BMCE acquired a 35 percent stake in Bank of Africa, which it later raised to 60 percent.
Morocco’s all-share index closed down 1.4 percent on Wednesday.
($1 = 8.6707 Moroccan dirhams) (Reporting By Souhail Karam; Editing by Erica Billingham)
.
