Ramadan stirred a positive spirit in the market which is still capitalising on Telecom sector-led bullish activities seen in the previous week. Telecom Egypt's (TE) offer to buy 24 per cent of Vodafone Egypt (VFE) has given the market a pat on the back; TE appreciated by 22.66 per cent, whereas VFE's shares rose by 15 per cent. It did not stop there, as the sector pushed the whole market up with CASE 30 ending two per cent up in the week ending 28 September. HC Securities commented on the vigour following last week's rise in share prices, and the upside- break in the resistance level. Technical analysis predicted 10 per cent gains for Egyptian equities in the short term. While the gain so far revolves around 4.75 per cent, the blame partially lies, according to HC, with shortened two-hour trading sessions during Ramadan. ORASCOM TELECOM HOLDING (OTH): The company will not bid in the private placement to buy the Greek telecommunication company Tim Hillas. Tim Hillas is Greece's third largest mobile phone company and is offered at $5.13 billion through a tender, in which the Kuwaiti MTC is competing. Last February, OTH said it was studying the feasibility of buying the company when offered. Meanwhile, OTH increased its stake in MobiNil from 16.6 per cent to 17.8 per cent, through purchasing 190,000 shares of the latter. OTH also owns 28.75 per cent in MobiNil Holdings, which has a majority 51 per cent stake in MobiNil. TELECOM EGYPT (TE)'s Chairman Akil Beshir said the two-week period given by TE to Vodafone Egypt (VFE) shareholders which expired last week will not be extended. By Sunday, the last day of the period, TE received selling orders for around 23 per cent of VFE shares, equivalent to LE5.6 billion. A group of institutional and individual investors approved the deal, including Banque Du Caire's 3.4 per cent stake, the Egyptian Post Authority's 1.7 per cent holdings, and more significantly the six per cent stake owned by Alkan Group and the family of its chairman, Mohamed Nosseir. Nosseir surprised the market last week with a plan to form a consortium to offer a competing bid for TE, which he claimed undervalues VFE shares whose fair value rotates around LE120. However, a few days later Nosseir sold his and Alkan's stake at the offered buying price of LE200. In a related note, TE announced that the old agreement, whereby Vodafone International is entitled to 20 per cent of any additional stake of VFE, is no longer valid. CREDIT AGRICOLE EGYPT (CAE), the newly formed bank decided to reduce its paid- in capital from LE2.865 billion to LE1.148 billion. This will take place by trimming the par value of its shares from LE10 to only LE4. The move comes after a decision to write off the good will, a balance sheet item that it had to include when both Calyon Egypt and Egyptian American Bank last month merged to form CAE. The merger process involved a share swap between the two banks and entailed using a certain accounting method that stipulates including the good will among assets of both banks to get the share's fair value. SIX OF OCTOBER DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT (SODIC) is to discuss increasing its paid-in capital by LE100 million to LE259.8 million during its coming general assembly meeting in mid-October. The increase will take place through two phases; a private placement for nine million shares at LE100 per share and one million additional shares at LE100 per share as employee stock options. Moreover, the company announced that it bought two plots of land at a prime location in New Cairo with an overall area of 984,000 square metres at a total cost of LE590 million. Furthermore, SODIC signed a deal with a major real estate regional developer to participate in the establishment of a residential, commercial and services project on the newly acquired land. As a part of the agreement, SODIC will sell 250,000 square metres of the new land plot to the developer with a capital gain of LE225 per metre. ALEXANDRIA SPINNING AND WEAVING (SPINALEX) announced that the public entities owning its capital would increase their stake offered for sale. The offered shares will amount to 2,136,531 shares instead of 2,131,246. This adjustment is due to the Ministry of Finance's desire to sell its stake in the company which amounts to 5,285 shares with the same conditions of the sale offer. SPINALEX posted LE11.82 million in net profits compared to LE11.023 million for the same comparable period the year before. BANK OF ALEXANDRIA: The deadline for submitting financial bids for acquiring 70-75 per cent of the state- owned bank was extended until 16 October, after the six short-listed consortia interested in bidding for the bank asked for the extension to enable them to finish the due diligence process. The Central Bank of Egypt decided that bidding for the bank will be through auctioning, the same way used in selling the licence for the third mobile network. Compiled by Sherine Abdel-Razek
