The marginal 0.5 per cent that the market lost in the week ending on 19 April did not raise any worries among market experts. The limited profit taking activity failed to offset the optimism created by a handful of positive macro economic news. Statements by Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali one week earlier in Washington DC, predicting that Egypt's fiscal deficit will fall to 5.5 per cent in 2007, is still buoying the market. After meeting with the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke, Ghali had announced plans to put out a $5 billion bond issue on international markets as part of the government's plans to stimulate secondary market trading of treasury bonds and reduce domestic debt. During the week, the government also revealed the details of its 2007/2008 fiscal budget, with expenditures expected to be LE241.6 billion and revenues at LE184.7 billion. This is compared to LE217.4 billion and LE163.9 forecast for the year 2006/2007. The week closed on a bad note with news that inflation rose to 12.8 per cent in March -- the highest in more than two years -- putting pressure on the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to raise its interest rates. The rate is up from 12.6 per cent in February. ORASCOM CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES (OCI), the regional construction and cement company, signed an LE760 million contract with the Cairo Electricity Production Company -- which is affiliated to the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity -- for the construction of a new thermal power plant located in El-Tebbin, 25 km south of Cairo. ORASCOM TELECOM HOLDING'S (OTH) ordinary General Assembly meeting on 19 April decided to distribute an LE0.75 per share as dividends on the profits for 2006. Meanwhile, its extraordinary General Assembly meeting on Saturday approved cancelling 10 million shares of the company's treasury stock, bringing down the overall number of company shares from 1.1 billion to 1.09 billion. SIXTH OF OCTOBER FOR DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT (SODIC) announced that it is implementing 10 new projects over the next five years, in addition to seeking chances for regional expansion in Libya, Algeria or Lebanon. Moreover, SODIC acquired 100 per cent of the local Sixth of October for Development and Projects for LE518.1 million. The acquired company owns 250 feddans in Qattameya, 850,000 square metres of which are allocated for projects with Lebanon's Solidaire. SODIC is to also slated to develop another 1.2 million square metres of land in Sheikh Zayed City with Solidaire. Meanwhile, SODIC sources stressed that it is not considering a new capital increase for the time being. National Bank For DEVELOPMENT, the consortium including Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Emirates International Investment Co, started negotiations with the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to acquire a 52.8 per cent stake in the National Bank for Development (NBD) at LE11 per share. This percentage represents the stakes of private institutions and the employees' fund; the Minister of Investment, however, refused to sell the public sector's 17 per cent stake in NBD. The consortium is also expected to offer to buy the private sector's 30 per cent share in the bank to increase the group's stake to 82.8 per cent. After acquisition, NBD's capital must be increased to LE500 million to comply with the Bank Law. This step would decrease the public stake in NBD even more. NATIONALE SOCIETE GENERALE BANK (NSGB) shareholders subscribed in the uncovered portion of its rights issue of LE2.97 million at LE10, which is the stock's par value. The subscription lasted for three days and ended on 23 April; the total capital increase would amount to LE450.7 million. Emaar Misr is not planning to be listed in CASE currently, according to its Chairman Mohamed El-Abaar. Talking at a new conference last week, El-Abaar revealed plans to start two construction projects in Egypt with combined investments of $1.7 billion. This brings the overall investments of Emaar in Egypt to $5.5 billion. The first, is a housing complex on an area of 3.8 million square metres at the Fifth District in New Cairo City costing $1 billion in investments. The second project is a housing and commercial compound on an area of 670,000 square metres costing $700 million investments, located at the beginning of the Cairo-Alexandria road. Emaar Misr has completed a feasibility study on construction of an industrial zone and is in talks with the government to develop low and middle-cost housing compounds. Etisalat Misr, Egypt's third mobile operator, will start operations before mid-May after finishing all needed procedures to launch its services, except for a few details related to national roaming and interconnections with MobiNil and Vodafone. The company plans to apply for an international gateway licence and has already begun negotiations with the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA). The company finalised an agreement with a consortium of seven banks to provide it with an LE1.85 billion loan. The consortium includes the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) as loan arranger, CIB, Banque Misr, Credit Agricole, NSGB, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi and United Bank. Compiled by Sherine Abdel-Razek
