The week following the Bairam holidays was a positive one for the CASE30 index, as it maintained an upward trend by gaining two per cent and settling at 10,469 points. It witnessed the lifting of price limits on a further 50 companies, making the number of companies moving up and down with no ceiling on their price changes to 152 companies. Meanwhile, four Egyptian technology companies belonging to the Technology Development Fund are preparing to list their shares in the new Nile Stock Exchange for small and mid- size enterprises (SMEs). Developments on the macro-economic scene through the week were also upbeat. Industrial production, according to Minister of Economic Development Othman Mohamed Othman, grew by 7.5 per cent during the first quarter of 2007/2008, to reach LE74.4 billion compared to LE69.2 billion one year earlier. Another positive indicator was Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) figures showing a 12.7 per cent increase in exports during the month of September 2007 to reach $1.5 billion. ORASCOM CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES (OCI)'s extraordinary general assembly meeting authorised the sale of Orascom Building Materials Holding -- the company which owns all cement-related subsidiaries -- to the French Lafarge. OCI decided to redeem all of its outstanding third issue bonds, with a total value of LE1.156 billion, on 3 February 2008, the date of the sixth coupon on the bonds. The move comes within the framework of a plan to clean up OCI's debt portfolio. Moreover, the meeting approved the Sawiris family's holding of an 11 per cent in Lafarge through a capital increase. On another front, the company's US subsidiary OCI-Contrak was chosen by Emaar Misr as the contractor for the first group of villas, townhouses and the world-class beach club at Marassi on the Sidi Abdel-Rahman Bay. OCI-Contrak won the contract after a competitive bid among six Egyptian contracting companies. COMMERCIAL INTERNATIONAL BANK, the leading commercial bank, sent a release to the stock exchange clarifying that press reports about a joint venture with the Sawiris family is related to its subsidiary Commercial International Bank-Algeria. CIB's Algerian subsidiary will start operating in 2008 and will be 60 per cent owned by CIB, and 40 per cent by the Sawiris family. The main objective of the venture is to offer credit facilities and trade financing services to Egyptian investors in Algeria. EXPORT DEVELOPMENT BANK OF EGYPT (EDBE)'s planned capital increase of LE200 million was approved by the Capital Market Authority, pushing its paid-in capital to LE1 billion. The new shares will be issued at LE10.25 each and will be closed to existing shareholders until 14 January, while public subscription begins on 22 January and ends on 20 February. RAYA HOLDING, the local telecommunication giant, is planning to tap the mortgage finance market. Medhat Khalil, the company's chairman, was quoted by Reuters last week as saying that Raya will establish a mortgage finance services company with a paid-in capital of LE5 million. The company will be a vehicle for financing Raya's partnership with the government to develop a new 70-acre call centre park in Maadi. The capital of the new company might increase to more than LE200 million when it begins operating Raya's new call centres. In another development, the Kuwaiti Watheqa Holding Company sold 2.5 million shares of its stake in Raya Holding, decreasing its stake in the company to 5.6 per cent from a previous 9.9 per cent. Neither Watheqa nor Raya gave reasons for the move. NAEEM HOLDING COMPANY, following a managerial overhaul, appointed Hani Tawfik as its new CEO. Tawfik stressed last week that the company plans to fully acquire the Saudi investment bank Naeem Saudi Arabia, which has no connection to Naeem Holding except for having shareholders in common. The acquisition is planned to be finalised by the end of this month. At the same time, Naeem Holding has obtained the necessary approvals to change 11 million of its shares to Global Depository Receipts to be traded on the London Stock Exchange. The company also established a real estate development fund with a capital of LE1 billion. The bank was listed on the CASE in November 2006. ETISALAT EGYPT's 10 per cent shareholder, the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), is not planing to sell its stake in Egypt's third mobile operator. NBE also said that it has not received any offer to acquire all or part of its share. Other shareholders in the company are UAE's Etisalat (67 per cent), the Post Office (20 per cent), CIB and others (three per cent). Etisalat acquired a licence to offer international calls last month and is planning to bid on Egypt's second fixed line licence, to be offered in the first quarter of 2008. The second fixed-line operator will be allowed to deploy WiMax technology, a type of wireless broadband network which enables operators to provide voice communication in under-serviced areas, without introducing costly traditional copper infrastructure. Compiled by Sherine Abdel-Razek
