Heikal leaves EFG-Hermes Hassan Heikal, co-chief executive officer of one of the region's largest investment houses, EFG-Hermes Holding, has announced that he will be leaving the company where he has spent the last 18 years. “With my responsibilities at the firm drawing to an end, I would like to take this opportunity to focus on public service, among other commitments, by offering ideas and launching new initiatives that offer long-term solutions to Egypt's fiscal challenges and economic development,” Heikal wrote in a note to the company's board of directors. Heikal's resignation is effective 31 October 2013. EFG-Hermes Holding will now be led by Yasser al-Mallawany as chief executive officer, while Karim Awad will serve as CEO of the investment banking arm. Both Heikal and al-Mallawany have been charged with insider trading, and they are among nine others, including the two sons of former president Hosni Mubarak, who are alleged to have made illegal profits of more than LE2 billion (US$331 million) through corrupt stock exchange transactions. Established in 1984, EFG-Hermes is the leading investment bank in the Arab world and specialises in securities brokerage, investment banking, asset management, private equity and research. It is listed on both the Egyptian and London stock exchanges. Italgen develops wind energy Italgen, a subsidiary of the Italian cement producer Italcementi, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Egyptian ministry of energy and electricity to produce renewable energy by developing a wind farm in Gulf al-Zeit, 80 km north of Hurghada, making it the first private investor allowed to connect a facility to Egypt's national grid. At an estimated investment of around 120-130 million euros, the capacity of the plant in its initial phase is 120 MW, and this will be used to power the Suez Cement plants, another Italcementi subsidiary, covering 40 per cent of their power needs. Talking to Egyptian reporters last week, Giuseppe De Beni, general director of Italgen, said the company would be the first private investor approved to generate electricity in Egypt and connecting to the national grid. The license the company had been given was the first awarded to the private sector, he said, authorising it to start work on the new plant immediately. The first phase of the wind farm would produce enough energy to light up the city of Alexandria, De Beni said. The second phase was expected to generate capacity of up to 400 MW. “Italgen has already received 10 offers from leading international companies for the supply of wind turbines for the project, and it is evaluating these. It will select three companies from among them and will announce the name of the final selection in early January 2014,” he said. The company signed a land agreement with the government for 25 years in 2012. After conducting an environmental assessment, the ministry of environmental affairs gave the go ahead for the wind plant to be built on an area of some 12 km. Fuel smart cards in 2014 Egypt might start selling fuel to drivers through the smart-card system at the start of 2014, according to petroleum minister Sherif Ismail. The first phase of the system, including distributing fuel to petrol stations by quotas to prevent smuggling, is already being enforced, and the finance ministry said in July that it planned to phase in the card system gradually in July, August and September this year. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have said that they will continue to supply Egypt with petroleum products into 2014. The three Gulf countries, which pledged to provide Egypt with US$12 billion in aid after the army ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi on 3 July, are already providing petroleum products until the end of December. The Gulf countries have been sending diesel, gasoline and fuel oil to Egypt since July. Nile Cotton Ginning back in state hands The Supreme Administrative Court issued a ruling annulling the sale of the Nile Cotton Ginning Company this week. The company was established as a state-owned company in 1965. It was privatised in 1997. In its ruling, the Court said that the privatisation of the Company had violated a number of regulations and that Company shares had been substantially undervalued at the time of the sale. The company was nationalised by presidential decree in 1963, and according to experts the decision to return it to private hands was illegal since the law prohibits the return of nationalised companies to private ownership. While the Court ruling is subject to appeal, Company shares have been suspended from trading on the Egyptian Stock Exchange pending further information. The Supreme Administrative Court has issued 11 rulings annulling privatisation deals carried out under the former Mubarak regime since the toppling of former president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.
