Bahrain-based International Investment Bank (IIB) has sold its stake in Tunisian automobile dealer Artes, selling it at an attractive price of TND7.1 ($3.55) per share through block sales on the Tunisian Stock Exchange.

In 2008 IIB and its investors acquired an 8.62 per cent stake in Artes, a leading automobile dealer in Tunisia and the exclusive distributor of Renault, Dacia, and Nissan automobiles and spare parts in Tunisia. Artes has a well-developed retail network of 26 branches across Tunisia and has historically posted an impressive operating performance. For the 2015 financial year, Artes posted a net income of TND27.4 million ($13.7 million).

“Artes was our first investment in Tunisia and in the automotive industry,” said IIB Chief Executive Officer Subhi Benkhadra. “Although a successful company, we felt that now was the right time to exit the deal in line with the bank’s new policy of selling its long-standing investments and shifting its attention towards more relevant current offerings that maximise value for investors and shareholders.”

An Islamic investment bank, IIB’s shareholders are high net worth individuals, business houses and institutions from the GCC states. The bank undertakes two core business activities - private equity and real estate – and aims to offer its clients an internationally diversified range of investments generated through its network of strategic partnerships, which it intensively manages on behalf of investors in order to maximise the yields at the time of exit. It has been involved in investments worth almost $3.5 billion since its inception in 2008.