The economic status quo in the cabinet reshuffle was good news. Sherine Abdel-Razek reports The market breathed a sigh of relief when it became apparent that in last week's cabinet reshuffle, the ministers of finance, investment foreign trade and industry were staying. The three ministers had together succeeded in adopting an investment-friendly attitude reflected in increasing FDIs and portfolio investments, together with energising the privatisation programme. The overall week's turnover came at LE5.889 billion compared to LE173.83 million worth of bonds transactions. The textile sector maintained its recent revival. Arab Cotton Ginning soared by 6.23 per cent to last week's price to settle at LE25.91 especially after the appointment of its chairman, Amin Abaza, as minister of agriculture in the new cabinet. With LE760.3 million worth of its shares changing hands, it ranked second in terms of value of transactions. Now that Telecom Egypt is in the process of being traded, the telecom sector has been making news. The nation's telecom giant, TE, cornered LE500 million worth of transactions during the week. TE gained one per cent to close at LE19 after Chairman Akil Bashir cancelled plans to offer a further stake in the company. The sector's long crowned star, Orascom Telecom (OT), had good news for its shareholders. OT concluded a middle term financing loan contract offered by six Egyptian banks with a total of $310 million. The loan is targeted to capital expenditure financing as well as the company's further investments in the telecommunication industry. The National Bank of Egypt alone is contributing 22.58 per cent of the total loan. Meanwhile, OT and Newtel have been short-listed out of six telecommunication companies in the bidding process for the Nigerian Telecommunication Operator Nitel. OT's bid came highest at $256.5 million. However, the government has said this was far below their targeted price. The number of telephone subscribers in Nigeria has increased from 500,000 in 1999 to above 17 million at present according to Prime Securities. With a population of 140 million, Nigeria has the lowest telecom usage density in the world. Local mobile phone operators MobiNil and Vodafone Egypt might soon be competing for a licence for international call services. Senior officials from both companies stated their intention to apply for the licence. The National Telecom Regulatory Authority NTRA recently announced its intention to start receiving bids for the licence in early 2006. In the financial sector, EFG-Hermes was the most active not only among its peers but in the market as a whole with its shareholders recording LE1 billion worth of transactions. The lengthy bullish performance was supported this week by news that it had received a licence to conduct asset management and investment banking activities from Dubai International Financial Centre. It hiked by 15.72 per cent to settle at LE128.13. Al-Watany Bank of Egypt (WBE) has invited its shareholders to an extraordinary general assembly on 22 January to discuss raising the bank's authorised capital to LE1 billion after completing the bank's paid-in capital increase to the current authorised capital of LE750 million. WBE's current paid-in capital is LE500 million. The tourism sector's bellwether, Orascom Hotel and Development OHD, plans to call for subscription in a dollar capital increase equivalent to a minimum of LE400 million during the second half of this month. HSBC and EFG-Hermes have been chosen to promote and follow up with capital increase procedures. The latest plans announced by the outgoing cabinet are expected to be pursued by the current government. Among the plans announced during the year's end was related to the insurance sector which will allow 100 per cent foreign ownership in local insurers, licensing of insurance brokerage operations and tax cuts on insurance premiums.
