Morocco's BCP bank buys stake in OCP for $600 mln

RABAT, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Banques Populaires Group (BCP.CS), Morocco's biggest banking group, is to pay 5 billion dirhams ($600 million) for a 5.88 percent stake in the Office Cherifien de Phosphate (OCP), the world's leading phosphate exporter.

The deal is intended to help the state-owned OCP to expand its business during the global economic crisis, which was hitting phosphate prices, officials from the companies said.

"The BCP-OCP partnership gives us a new capacity to implement our strategy," OCP's Chairman Mostefa Terrab told a news conference.

Average phosphate prices jumped from $300 per tonne in 2007 to $1,200 last year, but have fallen about 40 percent so far this month, said Terrab.

The deal would strengthen OCP's borrowing capacity and market visibility as it improves its net debt/equity ratio by 50 percent, he added.

OCP has a 45.5 percent share of the global market for lime phosphate, 49 percent of the phosphoric acid market and 12 percent of fertilisers, according to the company's data.

BCP bank's Chief Executive Officer Mohamed Benchaboun said the deal offered a new window of external growth for the bank.

Under the accord, OCP would also take a 6.6 percent share in BCP for 1 billion dirhams.

Both stakes are in the form of a capital increase and part of a government strategy calling for partnership between state-owned firms to help them grow.