By Sherine Nasr The market inched upwards last week with international markets showing a rebound after the Federal Reserve revealed a plan to buy $600 billion in government debt seen an effective way to curb deflation. Suez Canal revenues rose to $427.3 million in October from $398.9 million in the same month a year earlier. Revenue was $410.2 million in September. On another positive note, Egypt's net foreign reserves rose to $35.55 billion at the end of October, from $35.53 a month earlier. The Central Bank of Egypt kept its overnight lending rate steady at 9.75 per cent and the deposit rate at 8.25 per cent, its ninth pause since it stopped lowering rates in September 2009. The bank cited the limited non-food inflation and weakening global growth as the reasons for the decision. ORASCOM TELECOM HOLDING (OTH): The international mobile operator that might tie the knot with Russia's VimpelCom returned back to profit in the third quarter. A one-off gain involving the group's jointly-owned operator Mobinil boosted bottom line to $934 million. Excluding that, net profit from continuing operations was $112 million. However, Orascom said problems with the Algerian government were causing its local unit Djezzy -- OT's largest parent source of revenue -- to lose subscribers and market share. Djezzy's subscribers fell to 14.9 million at the end of September from 15.1 million at the end of June and its market share dipped from 59 per cent to about 58 per cent due to pressures from the government. On Monday, Reuters said it received a copy of a letter that OTH's Chairman Naguib Sawiris sent to Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia and three other senior officials, with "his last request to the Algerian government to stop pressuring Djezzy." He said the unit could not continue doing business unless there was an immediate resolution to the row which centres on tax claims and allegations of currency violations. "We are concerned that we will be left with no choice but to seek redress through international arbitration proceedings," said the letter dated 2 November. "The fact is that Djezzy will be unable to continue its business unless the government takes immediate action to resolve the above issues urgently," the letter said. Algiers has asked Djezzy for hundreds of millions of dollars in back-taxes and penalties, which Orascom disputes, and blocked an earlier plan to sell the unit to South Africa's MTN. It is now preparing to nationalise the unit, a move that is threatening the $6.6 billion deal between OT and VimpleCom to form the world's fifth largest mobile network in terms of number of subscribers. Sawiris told a Norwegian newspaper earlier this week that he believes the deal has at best only a 50 per cent chance of going through. GHABBOUR GROUP (GB AUTO): The local car assembler and distributor posted an 11.4 per cent increase in its third quarter profits compared to the same period of 2009 to reach LE71.4 million. As for the first nine months of the year, net income totalled LE217.8 million, a 95.3 per cent rise year- on-year. GB Auto Chief Executive Officer Raouf Ghabbour said in a company statement "the recovery of consumer and business sentiment in Egypt has proven durable, and our growth in Iraq, our exciting expansion market, has been limited only by supply constraints." The company plans for the introduction of new Hyundai models in both Egypt and Iraq in 2011. Ghabbour is the sole distributor of Hyundai and Mazda cars in Egypt. TALAAT MUSTAFA GROUP HOLDING: The real estate developer signed a new Madinaty contract with the Urban Communities Authority. The new contract has been prepared after cancellation of the previous one dating back to 2005 in compliance with a High Administrative Court ruling and cabinet decision at the end of September. The new contract maintained the same land price (seven per cent of total housing areas which the firm contracted to develop in the project). It also maintained the method of payment for the authority in fully furnished residential units according to the schedule of the project, provided that the selling value of such units are not less than LE9.979 billion. It is worth noting that the expected selling value of such units will exceed LE15 billion based on the current market price, and before the expected increase in prices takes place. ORASCOM DEVELOPMENT HOLDING (ODH): The Swiss listed real estate and hotels firm realised a nine per cent decline in its sales revenues in the nine months period ending in September to reach 380 million Swiss francs due to a fluctuating Swiss currency. ODH, famous for building luxury resorts, reported net profit of 76 million Swiss francs, up five per cent from 72 million francs in the same period of 2009. The drop was "mainly due to the impact of currency fluctuations and the appreciation in the Swiss Francs exchange rates in particular, which reduced the group's revenues by approximately four per cent," ODH said in a statement. ODH has projects in the Middle East and Europe in addition to its main base in Egypt.
