Telecom Egypt injects fresh blood into the market, reports Sherine Abdel-Razek After three weeks of losing ground amid heavy selling as investors sought to free up cash to buy into Telecom Egypt the market is at last rallying. New-found liquidity is being sunk back into shares which had slipped to obviously tempting levels. The beginnings of a recovery were reflected in last week's market turnover which came in at LE2.05 billion. Telecom Egypt's public subscription, which ended yesterday, was predictably the focus of a great deal of attention and is rumoured to have been four times oversubscribed. The private placement appears to have been even more appealing with many market observers expecting it finish 10 times oversubscribed. Brokerage companies watched as crowds queued to invest in the market for the first time. It is estimated that the IPO may have attracted up to 210, 000 new investors. The private placement has been somewhat more controversial with brokers asked to deposit 100 per cent of the value of their subscription order with the book runners in advance. It is a condition many brokerages see as discriminatory, claiming it favours those involved in the book running process. The local book runners are EFG Hermes and CIB. EFG fared well on expectations of the success of the offering. It ranked first in terms of value of transactions, with LE415.8 million worth of its shares changing hands. It closed 5.8 per cent up at LE85.87. Suez Cement Company was also among the market leaders. As it completed the transfer of ownership to the French Ciments Français LE313.1 million worth of shares were traded. Yet Suez Cement ended the week 10.9 per cent lower at LE64.27. Orascom Telecom (OT) had a thin week with shares ending LE9 lower at LE587. OT is looking to acquire Turkey's second mobile phone operator Telsim, one of 15 bidders chasing the company which is valued at, at least, $2.8billion. Telsim is currently managed by Turkey's State Deposit Insurance Fund. Vodafone and France Telecom are among the bidders. National Société Generale Bank is strengthening its position in the sector. The bank's general assembly meeting gave the green light to an authorised capital increase to LE2.5 billion. This will make the bank the largest in the sector in terms of capitalisation, with the National Bank of Egypt's LE2.25 billion making it a close second. On a related note the general assembly of Misr International Bank approved its merger with NSGB. MIB appointed a new board of directors following the dismissal of the previous board after just 11 months. Orascom Construction Industries released its third quarter results ending on 30 September. The bottom line increased by 57.5 per cent to reach LE 1.3 billion. The improvement is a result of regional expansion and diversification during the current fiscal year. Around 70 per cent of the company's revenues come from regional activities. Oriental Weavers Holding Group revealed that it is investing in a new company that will produce 350,000 tonnes each of propylene and polypropylene each. The cost of the project is estimated at $420 million. Privatisation candidates are also attracting a great deal of attention. Misr Aluminium said it plans to increase production capacity from 250, 000 to 320,000 tonnes by 2013. The company has already updated two of its production lines while rehabilitation of the third started earlier this month. The state cigarette production monopoly, Eastern Tobacco, is also in the limelight amid rumours that there is fierce competition among international tobacco companies to acquire the 52.8 per cent stake the government still owns in the company. Eastern shares ended the week at LE 240, its highest ever level, compared to LE225 a week before. The Holding Company for Chemical Industries, Eastern's mother company, divested 14 per cent of its stake last July. The list of interested buyers includes Philip Morris and British American Tobacco.
