The market gained some ground in the last sessions of last week and early transactions of this week to end in the neighbourhood of 6,500 points once again. On the macro level, the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) has announced that the rate of unemployment has dropped to 9.12 per cent in the first three months of 2010, compared to 9.4 per cent in the last quarter of 2009. The size of Egypt's labour force currently stands at 26.186 million, up by 924,000 from last year, representing at 33.6 per cent of the total size of the population during the first quarter of 2010. On another front, the government said it will spend an additional LE32 billion on subsidies in the coming fiscal year, but the increase will not affect the overall budget deficit, Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali told Reuters. The minister said that when the government was drawing up the budget it had initially anticipated energy subsidies would cost more than LE30 billion, but that this figure later increased to over LE60 billion. The extra cost is booked as an accounting entry in the state-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Company, he said without explaining further. SIXTH OF OCTOBER FOR INVESTMENT AND DEVELOPMENT (SODIC): The real estate developer is a part of a consortium working to develop a $37 million mall and entertainment centre in Mansoura on the Nile Delta after winning a tender organised by the Ministry of Trade and Industry to lease 63,000 square metres of land in Mansoura for up to 50 years. The consortium includes SODIC with a 35 per cent stake, the local food industries company Juhayna, and a number of businessmen. The company plans to make this project the first of many in Egypt's different governorates. SODIC, which is mainly specialised in luxurious residential and commercial units on the outskirts of Cairo, said earlier this week that it expects an increase in revenues this year with the increase in housing unit deliveries in Allegria, its project on the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road. SODIC reported a loss of LE10.9 million for the first quarter of 2010 and LE112.5 million for 2009. EZZ STEEL REBARS: Algerian authorities are blocking a project of the group in Algeria, as revealed by Algerian Minister of Industry and Investment Hamid Temmar addressing his country's parliament late last week. Speaking in parliament, Temmar said his government had earlier asked Ezz Steel to bring the project into line with a 2009 law that caps foreign ownership of new Algerian businesses at 49 per cent. The minister said the government froze the 2007 deal with the group and was in talks with other investors to replace it. The minister also noted that the project has been affected by the financial crisis and problems linked to soccer, referring to a dispute between Egypt and Algeria over qualification for this year's World Cup. Meanwhile, the firm sent a statement to the local bourse alleging that it has not received any formal notification from the Algerian authorities regarding its $750 million Algeria project. On a separate note, the company has decided to lower its prices for June by LE250 per ton to LE3,550 for ex-factory and LE3,720 for customers. Other steel producers reduced their prices by around LE300 to LE3,600 per ton, compared to LE3,800 for ex-factory and LE3,950 for customers in May. ORASCOM CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES (OCI): Egypt's largest listed firm posted a 10.4 per cent increase in first quarter profits compared to the same period of the previous year, to reach $116.6 million thanks to better fertiliser sales and lower construction costs. OCI said in its results statement that it won new construction contracts worth $790 million during the quarter. Its consolidated backlog of unfinished construction as of 31 March dipped 2.3 per cent to $6.5 billion. "Despite a softening of prices during the second quarter of 2010, we continue to be optimistic that market conditions for nitrogen-based fertilisers will improve during the latter part of 2010," the statement said. ORASCOM TELECOM HOLDING (OTH): Egypt's largest mobile network operator took the market by surprise by announcing it would consider bidding for British Vodafone's 55 per cent stake in its Egyptian unit if it were put up for sale. "We will compete strongly for the deal to buy Vodafone, should it be seriously offered, to acquire a controlling stake in mobile services in Egypt," Orascom's Naguib Sawiris said in press reports. Telecom Egypt announced last week it was considering boosting its 45 per cent stake in Vodafone Egypt, the country's second mobile operator by subscriber base. Vodafone has not commented on its intentions. OTH owns a 34 per cent stake in the Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (Mobinil), which is Egypt's largest mobile operator by number of subscribers. On another front, Sawiris told Al-Arabiya Television channel that he would prefer to stay in Algeria, but has been obliged to enter talks to sell the OTH subsidiary unit Djezzy to the Algerian government. "We did not want to leave. Until this moment, we are negotiating with the Algerian government. We may not reach an agreement, and the choice may be that we stay," he said. Algeria's trade minister said last week that it would not allow South African telecommunications giant MTN to buy Djezzy following a request made by South African officials during a visit to Algiers. Compiled by Sherine Abdel-Razek
