Increased foreigners buying orders gave the market a pat on the back during the week ending 31 January, amid a heavy profit taking selling orders by Arabs and locals. The CASE30 index gained 3.7 per cent during the week to close at 10,318 points. Foreigners have been supporting the market for a while since they were net buyers during the period between July 2004, and July 2007. Overall transactions during those three years, according to statements by head of the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange (CASE) Maged Shawqi, amounted to LE21 billion. Meanwhile, the CASE Listing Committee approved margin trading, short-selling and same-day trading on 47 stocks to be effective on 3 February. Figures released on the transactions in 2007 showed an increased appetite for bonds in the Egyptian market. Bond trading grew significantly in 2007 as investors traded about LE24 billion-worth of bonds, or double the value traded in 2006. Trading activities concentrated on government bonds accounting for 95 per cent of trading value. ORASCOM CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES (OCI)'s US subsidiary Contrack formed a consortium with the Spanish Construction Group OHL to build a medical centre in Qatar. The consortium will inject 1.6 billion euros in investments for the project, which is expected to be completed in May 2011. The consortium is 55 per cent owned by OHL, while Contrack will hold the remaining 45 per cent stake. ORASCOM TELECOM HOLDING (OT) won a licence to operate North Korea's first mobile network using third generation (3G) technology. OT received the licence through CHEO Technology Company, a 75 per cent-owned subsidiary of OTH. State-owned Korea Post and Telecommunications Corporation owns the remaining 25 per cent of CHEO. According to an OT news release, the licence is granted for 25 years and provides OT with an exclusivity period of four years. OT plans to cover most of the country's main cities in the first year of operation. North Korea is considered a market with vast potential, with 67 per cent of its population of 23 million between the ages of 15 and 64 years -- the main age group for using mobiles. THE EGYPTIAN COMPANY FOR MOBILE SERVICES (MOBINIL) posted a 19.5 per cent hike in its profits through fiscal year 2007 to reach LE1.82 billion. The increase was fed by a 63.1 per cent growth in subscribers to reach 15.1 million by the end of December 2007, compared to 9.3 million a year earlier. The breakdown of the subscriber base showed a shift towards more pre-paid customers, those buying charging cards, to represent 96.3 per cent of overall subscribers, compared to 92 per cent in 2006. The net income came less than HC Securities projections, which attributed the difference to the 2.7 per cent higher-than-expected operating expenses. These were incurred on the back of marketing expenses for promotional programmes to increase MobiNil's subscriber base. MobiNil was granted the licence to offer 3G services and is expected to activate it in May 2008. Meanwhile, the areas that will not be covered with 3G initially will be covered with 2.75G or Edge technology for the meantime. ORASCOM HOTELS AND DEVELOPMENT (OHD)'s extraordinary general assembly meeting last week approved a LE250 million capital increase, based on the average price of traded shares in the preceding three months. The capital increase aims at financing a share swap to finance its stake in Joud fund, a real estate fund, and the purchase of a 51 per cent stake in a five-star hotel at Sahl Hashish for $18 million. OHD's shareholders also approved another capital increase, including 4.7 million shares, to complete its acquisition of 51 per cent of Garana Group. According to EFG-Hermes, the first phase of the LE235 million acquisition -- which was first announced on 29 November 2006 -- was executed through a share swap (1.4 million of OHD shares) on May 2007. The remaining phase will be executed through a swap of the 4.7 million shares OHD plans to issue. Furthermore, shareholders approved the acquisition of five minority stakes owned by National Investment Bank in hotels at Taba Heights, in which OHD owns majority stakes. The transaction, worth LE95 million, will be financed by issuing new shares. TELECOM EGYPT (TE) signed a $125 million deal last week with Alcatel-Lucent to deploy TE's new submarine cable linking Sidi Kreir in Egypt to Marseille in France. The cable, called TE North, will be 3,100km long. This way Telecom Egypt will be able to meet the growing demand for broadband services for business and residential users at more affordable costs. BANQUE DU CAIRE, Egypt's second public sector bank to be considered for privatisation, is up for fierce competition over its purchase. Already, 12 regional and international banks have shown interest, including Deutsche Bank, Jordan's Arab Bank, and UAE's Mashreq bank, in addition to other banks from Kuwait, UAE and Greece. Press reports said that in case the financial offers are the same, the government will choose the bid asking for a lower stake. The minimum offered stake is 51 per cent and the maximum is 67 per cent. After studying the offers, the Central Bank of Egypt will shortlist banks eligible to perform due diligence. The bidding banks are expected to submit financial offers by May and complete the sale by June. EGYPTIAN ELECTRICAL CABLES drew much interest in its uncovered portion of capital increase offer. Subscription orders came 125 times the value of the shares offered, and investors submitted around LE6.3 billion-worth of subscription bids for the 50.6 million shares. Accordingly, the allocation rate came as low as 0.0008, which means that investors bidding for 1,000 shares will get only eight shares.
