The market leveraged on the long-lived euphoria stirred by the Talaat Mustafa Group (TMG) offering, which resulted in heavy demand on traded shares in general and the construction sector in particular. Transactions on TMG alone on Wednesday and Thursday -- the first two days of trading -- added LE2.2 billion to the market turnover through the week ending 29 November, which saw overall transactions worth LE12.4 billion. CASE30 ended the week 0.6 per cent higher at 9,721 points. In the wake of a series of auctions to sell public land to private investors at a high price, the construction sector has been attracting much attention recently due to skyrocketing prices of land and housing units. Minister of Housing Ahmed El-Maghrabi denied these claims last week, stressing that the total area of land sold to investors through auctions amounted to only 4,800 feddans from a total of 30,000 feddans sold to the public at reasonable prices. El-Maghrabi noted that 55 per cent of the areas sold were allocated for the national project of low-cost housing, selling at LE290 per square metre, while lots sold in auctions to investors at higher prices were marked to finance national mega-projects. BANQUE DU CAIRE (BC), the third largest public bank in term of assets, is still up for sale despite reservations from the public. The government announced earlier this week that it is offering a 67 per cent stake in BC to a strategic investor. According to the sale advertisement, a further five per cent will be allocated to the bank's employees, while the remaining 28 per cent will be floated on the stock exchange through an IPO. The ad highlighted the fact that interested bidders, whether Egyptian, Arab or foreign, have to meet Central Bank of Egypt's (CBE) requirements, including being an established financial institution with a banking licence and sound track record. Bidders have to submit a letter of intent to JP Morgan, the advisor to the sale, by 17 December. The bank, which has 215 branches and around two million clients, has undergone a restructuring process, stated the ad. This involved exclusion of non-performing loans, which reduced its loans-to-deposits ratio to around 18 per cent at the end of June. It did not give comparable figures of previous years. TALAAT MUSTAFA GROUP (TMG) shares were listed and traded following the holding company's heavily oversubscribed private placement and IPO. TMG recently increased its capital through a primary issue, to reach LE20.3 billion by increasing the total number of shares by 215 million to become 2.03 billion shares. In a following secondary issue in late November, TMG sold 180 million shares divided in 115 million shares in a private placement, and 65 million shares in IPO. While the private placement was 17.7 times oversubscribed, its IPO was snatched to end at an oversubscription rate of 41.4. Trading on the company's shares is governed by certain conditions blocking trading on 500,000-700,000 shares in three of TMG's subsidiaries for two fiscal years. The group's turnover since its inception in January 2007, until the end of October came at LE1.4 billion. Net profits for the same period came at LE1.1 billion. ORASCOM HOTELS AND DEVELOPMENT (OHD) said that in the three days following the launching of two new projects in Oman on 22 November, it received reservations for several units worth $130 million. In a press release, OHD -- the owner and builder of the local Gouna and Taba Heights tourist projects -- noted that the first project, Jebel Sifah, is being built on 6.2 million square metres and will have more than 1,000 residential units and 2,000 hotel rooms. As for the Salalah Beach project, it will cover an area of 15 million square metres with 1,200 residential units and 1,200 hotel rooms. The selling price of residential units in Jabal Sifah and Salalah Beach is $2,500 and $2,000 per square metre, respectively. ORASCOM CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES (OCI), the cement and construction group, posted a 40 per cent leap in its profits for the first nine months of 2007 to reach $451.8 million. The strong growth was attributed to the new cement capacity additions, as well as a favourable pricing environment in core markets Egypt, Algeria and Iraq. During the nine-month period, OCI inaugurated the fifth production line of Egyptian Cement Company, raising its capacity to 10.2 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). In addition, the full operation of the Tasluja plant in Iraq and PCC in Pakistan has also contributed to the growth. Furthermore, OCI's construction group continued to capitalise on the construction boom in the GCC, as well as growing opportunities for infrastructure concessions in Egypt and Algeria. NASR CITY HOUSING AND DEVELOPMENT (NCHD) is the focus of the UAE- based real estate company ETA Star, which expressed interest in buying the 30.88 per cent stake that both Beltone Capital Holding Company for Financial Investments and Beltone Investment Limited Group have in NCHD. The boards of directors of the two companies are studying the offer which valued the company's share at LE70. Meanwhile, NCHD is in negotiations to acquire 43 feddans in 6 October City to construct the first phase of a budget housing project that is expected to cover an area of 175 feddans. AHLY UNITED BANK (AUB) realised a 23 per cent increase in its net income for the first nine months of 2007, reaching LE195 million. More significantly, the bank's assets increased by LE1.1 billion to reach LE5.1 billion, while its loans jumped by 87 per cent to exceed LE2 billion. AUB was first introduced to the market in July when Ahly United Bank of Bahrain decided to change the name of its 80.8 per cent-owned Delta International bank to AUB Egypt. The bank's new management worked on improving the bank's corporate governance and risk management, as well as introducing new products. Compiled by Sherine Abdel-Razek
