For six consecutive sessions ending Tuesday the market maintained an upward trend though the daily moves were narrow and hovered around 0.5 to one per cent. Positive news about the market's blue chips, including Orascom Telecom and Ghabbour Group, gave the EGX30 a tailwind. Meanwhile, the conclusion of the period given for companies to adapt to new stock exchange listing rules ended ambiguity surrounding some companies and attracted more investors. Egypt's state-run New Urban Communities Authority is planning to issue LE10 billion worth of bonds on three tranches the first of which will hit the bloc by the end of this month or early next month. Commercial International Bank and HSBC Bank are arranging the issue. Press reports said the bond issue is tax free and with a floating rate. The move comes as a part of a new scheme aiming at revitalising the sovereign bonds market through encouraging economic authorities to resort to bonds as a means of finance and attracting more investors by shortening the duration of the bonds issues. The scheme is seen by analysts as a way to develop the currently inactive bonds market. The Urban Communities Authority is supervised by Egypt's Housing Ministry. It allocates land to develop residential towns. EGYPTIAN FINANCIAL GROUP (EFG- HERMES): The largest publicly traded investment bank in the Arab world sold its stake in Lebanese Audi Bank for $913 million. The sold stake represents 28 per cent of the Beirut- based bank and includes 7.55 million common shares and 2.48 million global depository receipts valued at $91 per share. The move came despite the fact that EFG- Hermes announced several times it was considering increasing its stake in the bank. "After lengthy discussions with Bank Audi regarding a combination of the two businesses, it became evident after the events of 2008 that an amalgamation in the near future would be difficult," EFG-Hermes said in a statement sent to the local bourse. The statement noted that the group realised a capital gain of $260 million. None of the two parties said who bought the stake, but Bloomberg News Agency said that M1 Group, a Lebanese holding company whose investments include real estate in the US, Europe and the Middle East, is buying part of the stake. "We are going to have part of the total amount of the outstanding shares in the hands of EFG- Hermes," former Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who runs M1 Group, told Bloomberg. According to the news agency, Mikati -- whose net worth is put at $2 billion by Forbes magazine -- and his brother Taha in 1982 founded Investcom, a telecommunications company that operated in emerging markets. The company was bought by MTN Group Ltd, Africa's largest mobile phone company, in 2006 for $5.5 billion. CITADEL CAPITAL: The private equity group said it is planning to invest $400 million in East African countries, namely Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, over the coming two years. On another front, TAQA Arabia, an energy company which is 32 per cent owned by the Egyptian private equity firm agreed to produce electricity for a cement factory in Sudan. The factory is a joint venture between ASEC Cement and the Sudanese Pension Fund. A Citadel Capital press release said the new venture, Berber for Electrical Power, will have a total installed capacity of 42 megawatts and will provide all the electricity needs for Takamol, ASEC Cement's 1.6 million ton per annum green field cement plant in Sudan. Takamol is located 14 kilometres west of Fahalb on the west bank of the River Nile. The new venture will be in operation next month. TAQA Arabia is Citadel Capital's platform company for investment in the energy distribution sector across the Middle East and Africa, with a focus on gas and electricity distribution as well as the storage and distribution of refined products. ORASCOM TELECOM: The Canadian arm of the global telecom giant Globalive Communications said it is in talks with banks to raise "several hundred" million dollars to finance expansion. The company, according to one senior official interviewed by Reuters earlier this week, is considering bonds and syndicated loans, which may be used to repay debts as well as fund expansion of the network in Western Canada and Ontario. Starting operations less than a month ago, Globalive operates the wireless Wind Mobile service and is expected to face fierce competition from BCE, Telus and Rogers Communications that account for 95 per cent of the Canadian wireless market. The new carrier has signed up more than 10,000 subscribers since opening its first stores in Toronto and Calgary last month. The company is targeting 1.5 million subscribers over three years, compared with more than eight million for Toronto-based Rogers, Canada's largest mobile phone company. EGYPTIAN COMPANY FOR MOBILE SERVICES (MOBINIL): The company said it paid LE750 million to the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA) as part of a payment for its 3G licence. The sum represents the third instalment and was paid despite the fact that the company did not pay the second instalment. Payment of the second instalment is linked to the company's receiving the 2.5 megahertz frequency spectrum to broadcast its 3G services. Mobinil has not so far obtained the frequency from the NTRA. The company got the licence in late 2007 for LE3.4 billion to be paid in instalments. GHABBOUR AUTO: Egypt's largest listed car assembler signed an exclusive agreement to import and sell Japanese Mazda cars in Egypt, a move the company said would increase its share of the local market from its current 27 per cent to 30 per cent. GB Auto manufactures, assembles, imports and distributes vehicles for Hyundai, Volvo, and Mitsubishi. It said in October it would form a subsidiary to help buyers purchase the Indian Bajaj vehicles -- including the three-wheeled Tuk-Tuk -- in a move that would help expand sales in lower income groups. Commenting on the news, CI Capital, the research arm affiliated to the local Investment Bank CI Capital Holding, said that the exclusive Mazda deal follows GB Auto's aggressive expansion plans that began in mid- 2009 and includes its joint venture with SENTRAX to distribute semi-trailers in the Algerian market and another joint venture with Marcopolo, the Brazil-based global bus manufacturing giant, for chassis composing project in Suez governorate. CI Capital also said the move aims to "enhance and protect GB's market share in the Egyptian market, especially after the application of Egypt's trade agreement with the European Union to reduce customs levied on autos with European origin by 10 per cent annually starting January 2010 until customs reach nil in 2019." GB Auto used to distribute Mazda cars until 2001 when it stopped due to an unfavourable customs regime. Compiled by Sherine Abdel-Razek
