The US Federal Reserve intervention by cutting the interest rate 0.75 points and the announcement of a new package aimed at reforming the US economy helped lift the morale of international stock markets at the end of the week transactions. The Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange was no exception, with its main index, CASE30, recovering some earlier losses to close the week ending 24 January at 10,100.8. This is about 6.7 per cent lower than its level at the beginning of the week, but six per cent higher than its closing level on 22 January. CASE30 lost 12 per cent of its value during transactions 20-22 January amid a selling spree by foreigners who were worried by bleak expectations for US and global economies. The weekly turnover was supported by the execution of Lafarge's acquisition of Orascom Construction Industries' cement producing units. ORASCOM TELECOM HOLDING (OTH) Chairman Naguib Sawiris said he will sell a 10 per cent stake in Weather Investments, the holding company that owns Italy's third largest mobile operator Wind Telecomunicazioni, and 50 per cent of OTH to a private equity firm. Sawiris revealed that the deal will be finalised in February. In 2005, Weather bought 63 per cent of Wind from Enel for 3 billion euros and assumed about 7 billion euros of debt. In December 2006, Weather purchased the remaining stake for 1.96 billion euros. Weather also owns the Greek wireless company TIM Hellas Telecommunications. According to Bloomberg news agency, Sawiris began in August 2007 to explore the sale of a stake in Weather, shelving plans to hold an initial public offering because of the market's slump after the sub-prime turmoil and the situation in credit markets. SUEZ CANAL BANK sent a release to CASE announcing that it offered to sell its 1.7 per cent stake in the National Company for Maize products (NCMP) to Hours Investment Fund, which is managed by EFG- Hermes. The release also noted that the bank has not received a reply to its offer yet. The move comes as part of the bank's plan to concentrate on its strategic activities, and follows last week's decision to sell the 29.38 per cent share it has in the Suez Canal Company for Technology Settling which owns 6 October University. Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) sold its entire stake in Orascom Building Materials Holding to the French cement producer Lafarge on 23 January at a value of LE71.02 billion. The holding company gathers under its umbrella all OCI's cement producing units in Egypt, Algeria, Turkey and Pakistan, and is one of the largest 10 cement producers worldwide. Meanwhile , Lafarge's shareholders meeting -- convened last week to discuss the details of the acquisition -- voted by a 99 per cent majority in favour of a capital increase of 22.5 million shares, restricted to the founding shareholders of OCI, as part of the acquisition deal. The subscription price of the capital increase is 125 euros per share, which is 16 per cent higher than the price at which Lafarge shares were traded before announcing the deal on 10 December. The capital increase will provide Lafarge with 2.8 billion euros. The meeting also approved the appointment of OCI Chairman Nassef Sawiris in Lafarge's board of directors as a representative of the founding shareholders of Orascom Construction Industries. NATIONAL SOCIETE GENERALE BANK (NSGB)'s major shareholder Société Générale Bank was marginally affected by revelations that one of its traders cheated the bank out of $7.1 billion, in what is considered the largest ever fraud by a single trader in banking history. The bank discovered that a Paris-based trader speculated in different markets using the bank's money and applied his knowledge of the bank's control techniques to cover his misdoings, causing the bank multi-billions in losses. The news came to add to the woes of the bank which has already lost 2 billion euros in the US sub-prime market losses in the last six months. The head of NSGB stressed that this will not affect the local bank's revenues or future plans. Société Générale owns more than 90 per cent of NSGB. TMG HOLDINGS is looking for other sources of finance, less than two months after its giant IPO and private placement. TMG said it intends to issue bonds worth LE2-3 billion to securitise Al-Rehab and Madinaty accounts receivables, and the proceeds will be used in financing these projects. The issue will be undertaken on two tranches, the first tranch of the bonds is to be issued in June through Al-Rehab Securitisation Company. This is a newly established subsidiary of the group which is expected to be granted an operation licence next week. EGYPTIAN COMPANY FOR MOBILE SERVICES (MOBINIL) denied news that it agreed with a consortium of four banks -- led by Banque Misr -- to grant it a loan of LE2.2 billion to finance offering 3G services. MobiNil said that it is still negotiating with a number of banks to determine the loans it will be acquiring during the coming three years. Moreover, the company also denied rumours that it is merging with an international communications company. NASR CITY HOUSING AND DEVELOPMENT (NCHD)'s board of directors approved an offer by the owner of Kattameya Heights, the New Cairo Real Estate Investments, to build a project worth LE5 billion. The proposal entails establishing a similar project to Kattameya Heights on land owned by NCHD in south Cairo, to house a residential compound and a golf course over 400 feddans. Implementing the project will take place on two phases, with Kattameya Heights fully financing the project, while NCHD provides the land. Compiled by Sherine Abdel-Razek
