The Central Bank of Egypt's decision to lift its key overnight rates did not strip the capital market of investments of its luster. The market's benchmark index, CASE30, gained two per cent to wrap the week ending on 27 March at 11,117. The overall market turnover came as high as LE19 billion compared to LE10 billion in the previous week. The week was not the most active for foreigners whose transactions bent more to the selling side. On the regulatory front, the chairman of CASE's regulatory body, the Egyptian Capital Market Authority (CMA), Ahmed Saad approved new amendments on "short-selling". This will result in setting up a special fund for lending shares to investors, and will operate under the supervision of Misr Clearance and Settlement Company. Investors can now sell short 74 listed securities, including two securities denominated in US dollars. The CMA required brokerage firms authorised to conduct short-selling transactions to deposit LE5 million for securities denominated in local currency, and $700,000 for dollar- denominated shares to cover the risk of defaults. ORASCOM HOTELS AND DEVELOPMENT (OHD) Chairman Samih Sawiris announced the establishment of a new company, Orascom Development Holding (OD Holding) which will act as OHD's parent company with the aim of providing OHD access to international capital markets. OD Holding will have a primary listing on the Swiss Stock Exchange SWX, and a secondary listing on Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange (CASE). The new structure will not change the company's existing operations, but OHD would transfer its finance, treasury and investment control functions to its new corporate headquarters in Altdorf, Switzerland. OD Holding will do a public share exchange offer to shareholders of OHD, with 10 OHD shares exchanged for one OD Holding share. Shareholders not interested in the exchange can either keep their share, since OHD will remain listed on the local market, or sell it at LE78.4 per share. This is equivalent to the average of the share price on the local market over the past six months. Listing of OD Holding is expected around 7 May 2008. On another front, OHD recorded a 36 per cent increase in net profits for 2007 to reach LE401 million. The company's revenues almost doubled to LE1.9 billion. EGYPTIAN COMPANY FOR MOBILE SERVICES (MobiNil), Egypt's largest mobile network operator, will continue using the international gateway services of Telecom Egypt (TE) but is seeking discounted rates, according to a company senior official. MobiNil has been negotiating with TE over the leasing of the latter's infrastructure and tariffs on international calls passing through TE's gateway. MobiNil has agreed to a preliminary offer made by TE for fixed-to-mobile interconnections, but said it will not sign a final agreement until the two sides reach accord on international interconnection fees. The official asserted that if negotiations reach a dead end, MobiNil would purchase an international calls gateway licence from the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority. MobiNil's shareholders will be getting LE4.34 per share as a cash dividend for the profits realised in the fourth quarter of 2007. Throughout 2007, MobiNil distributed two interim dividends worth a combined total of LE1.235 billion. This third dividend brings the total cash dividend for 2007 to 16.69 per share. CAIRO HOUSING AND DEVELOPMENT COMPANY (CHDC) approved LE255 million worth of investments through 2008. According to the plan, CHDC will deliver units of the LE5.5 million Al-Yasmin project in July, 2008. Meanwhile, units in the Al-Narjis project will be delivered to buyers by mid- 2009. The company plans to apply for licences to build luxurious residential units on Al-Mokattam Heights which has been attracting a lot of attention recently after Emaar Egypt started its Up Town project there. CHDC's extraordinary general assembly approved a capital increase through a rights issue giving each existing shareholder the right to subscribe to four shares. The rights issue will be implemented at the stock's par value of LE5 per share, in addition to issuance fees of LE0.25 per share. ALKAN HOLDING will offer 25 per cent of its subsidiary Cairo Financial Centre (CFC) through a private placement this year. The value of the offering is expected to be around LE400 million. CFC is a fully integrated business and commercial complex accommodating financial, commercial and professional service activities, covering an area of 60,000 square metres near the Citadel. Alkan Holding is an Egyptian business conglomerate founded in 1974 with different lines of business, ranging between communication and information technology, real estate and manufacturing, as well as trade, distribution, tourism and aviation. Compiled by Sherine Abdel-Razek
