EZZ STEEL REBARS: The stock market authority froze trading on the company shares on Tuesday until its management responds to the stock market's inquiries regarding a report that a bank had stopped disbursing around $148 million for the local giant steel producer. Kamel Galal, investor relations manager at the company, was quoted in several news reports as denying the news pointing out that the company still receives its cash flows and loan instalments from the banks and that it was not informed about any freeze of the instalments. SIXTH OF OCTOBER DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT COMPANY (SODIC): The dispute case related to the company's Eastown project will be resubmitted by the General Authority for Investment to the Conflict Resolutions Committee (CRC), the committee formed by the government to fast-track investor disputes. This came after the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) took a decision earlier to cancel the allocation and annul the contract of Eastown's land plot. The CRC had previously said it rejected SODIC's petition against NUCA's decision to withdraw the land in June. However, the company announced it has not received any official notification from the authority to date. "If CRC this time accepts the company's petition, it would be very positive for SODIC as Eastown is the main value driver following the delivery of Westown," noted a commentary by Pharos Holdings, a leading investment bank. For its part, Beltone Financial said that the news is positive, but does not indicate that the final outcome will be in SODIC's favour as it will be a lengthy process. The Eastown project comprises a land plot of an area of 867,963 square metres and represents 0.14 per cent of SODIC's Egypt land bank. On another note, the company sent a press release to the local bourse stating that NUCA granted it an extension in the construction schedule of phases three and five in its Allegria project (located on 81 feddans) from three to five years. Habiba Hegab, a real estate sector analyst with Pharos, described the effect of the news as neutral as both phases are almost completed and are expected to be delivered in 2012. "We would only perceive the news as positive if similar extensions are granted to the company's remaining land bank, particularly in Westown," wrote Hegab in Pharos daily notes on the market. EFG-HERMES HOLDING: While the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA), the local market regulator, approved in form EFG-Hermes Holding's extraordinary general meeting (EGM), it refused it in terms of content, procedures and decisions. Accordingly, EFSA decided to suspend the Q-Invest deal to buy the investment bank until the latter provides the required information and reconvenes the EGM so that the deal can be completed. EFG-Hermes' shareholders approved the deal during the EGM that was scheduled on 2 June 2012. The news might negatively affect transactions on the stock. Many investors currently hold the stock for the sole purpose of receiving the LE4 per share cash dividend arising from the sale, which was expected to take place this quarter. "Delays in deal execution will create an overhang on the stock," commented Pharos investment bank. CITADEL CAPITAL (CCAP): Egypt's largest private equity group has terminated the deal concerning the sale of the National Petroleum Company (NPC), its upstream oil affiliate, to the Canadian Sea Dragon Energy. Both parties agreed to terminate the agreement on the back of ongoing economic turbulence and uncertainty regarding the date on which the acquisition could be completed. Back in March 2011, CCAP had agreed with Sea Dragon to purchase NPC for a total consideration of $147.5 million, split into $87.5 million in the form of Sea Dragon shares and $60 million in cash. The deadline for Sea Dragon to finalise the sale was set at 10 August 2012. Cancellation of the sale was expected by market observers given the absence of positive responses to the initial offer during the past two months. Citadel continues to talk to other probable buyers to complete the sale. Meanwhile, the group's net loss in the first quarter widened 43 per cent from a year earlier to $26.4 million. It said assets under management had risen 4.9 per cent to $4.4 billion in the 12 months to end-March 2012. "Setting aside the net effect of one-time fees related to Citadel Capital's refinanced debt and the Overseas Investment Corporation-backed facility, the firm would have recorded a nine per cent narrowing of its consolidated loss," the company said in an e-mailed statement. The company said that during the quarter it had drawn down $81.3 million from a $150 million facility it had received from US Overseas Investment Corporation. WEATHER INVESTMENTS: The global telecommunications company has acquired intY, the award winning cloud computing company. The intY management team will stay on in intY to drive the business in its next phase of global expansion with its intY CASCADE platform. CASCADE is a key enabling technology allowing service providers and resellers to bring together cloud computing applications from multiple vendors in an integrated solution, with one touch provisioning, billing and management of all services. THE EGYPTIAN COMPANY FOR MOBILE SERVICES (MOBINIL): The leading mobile operator reported a consolidated loss of LE46.987 million in the first half of 2012. This is compared to net losses of LE85.749 million for the same period a year earlier. It also denied, for the second time, signing a memo of understanding of a syndicated loan with a consortium of banks. The company added, in a release sent to the stock exchange, that it is periodically conducting talks with banks considering its finance, but no material steps were taken on this issue.
