The 6 October holiday shortened week did not slow down the market's one month old rally. The week ending 11 October saw the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange main index, CASE30, gaining 2.13 per cent to reach 8,957 points , another all time high record. The week which saw the countdown to the Lesser Bairam holiday offered investors many positive macro- economic news that put the bourse in a cheerful festival mood. Suez Canal revenues in September grew to $403 million, around $70.7 million higher than the corresponding period of 2006. Since the beginning of 2007, the canal earnings reached $1.212 billion which is the highest ever since the canal was built. The Suez Canal Authority said that revenues should reach $4.250 billion by the end of the current fiscal year. Another heart warming news was that of the government considering amending the anti-monopoly law so that companies proven to pursue a monopolistic practice will have to pay a fine representing a percentage of sales instead of the current law that levies a fine ranging between LE30,000 to LE10 million. EASTERN COMPANY: Egypt's sole cigarette producer posted a 37 per cent increase in its net profits during fiscal year 2006/2007 to reach LE695.9 million, up from LE508.1 million. The improvement came on the back of higher sales and a net interest income of LE19.7 million compared to a net interest expense of LE11.4 million in fiscal year 2005/2006. Sales figure showed a 3.6 per cent increase to LE3.6 billion marking a growth rate due to an increase in cigarette prices. Eastern increased the ex-factory price for its best selling brand Golden King, (which represents 54.8 per cent of local cigarette sales) by 9.9 per cent to LE0.92 per packet. EC is currently relocating the company's plants in Giza to the new complex on a total land area of 353 feddans. Total construction works reached LE981 million, representing 43 per cent of total estimated cost. HOUSING AND DEVELOPMENT BANK(HDB): The bank is inviting its shareholders to attend its Extraordinary General Assembly Meeting on 5 November, to discuss increasing the paid in capital from LE0.5 billion to LE1.15 billion in addition to tripling its authorised capital to LE3 billion. Moreover, the meeting will discuss cancelling pre-emptive rights, rights of existing shareholders to refuse to subscribe in the capital increase, for the first tranche representing 75 of the capital increase. This tranche includes 45 million shares and is to be offered at fair value. Shareholders attending the meeting will have also to approve issuing securitisations backed by up to LE400 million of the loan. WATANY BANK OF EGYPT(WBE): National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) submitted a tender offer to buy 100 per cent of the shares of WBE at LE77 per share. This puts the value of the bank at LE5.76 billion. NBK already owns 52.3 per cent of the bank. The offer is valid during the period from 11-28 October, 2007. ORASCOM CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES (OCI) announced that its construction subsidiary OCI Algeria (OCIA) has been awarded two new contracts from the Algerian Ministry of Housing to build educational facilities and a contract from Société des Tabacs Algéro-Emiratie (STAEM) to expand its tobacco factory. The three contacts have a total value of $89 million. The first two contracts are for building a new French international school and a new law school in the capital city Algiers. The third contract awarded by STAEM to expand their existing tobacco factory is located in Koleaa, 30km from Algiers, and is valued at $21 million. The project is expected to be completed during Q4 2008. The scope of work includes all the civil, mechanical and electrical work. OCIA has been operational for eight years and has a workforce of 5,000 Algerians and Egyptians and investments in ready-mix concrete, aggregates and steel fabrication. EXPORT DEVELOPMENT BANK OF EGYPT (EDBE) has revised its net profit for the year ending June 2007 from LE232 million to LE7.5 million. The move came after the Central Bank of Egypt required it to add to its loan loss provisions. The LE7.5 million net profits are compared to the previous year's net loss of LE158 million due to heavy provisions. According to EDBE release, the bank now has adequate coverage for its NPLs. ORASCOM TELECOM HOLDING (OTH): The plans of OTH's Chairman Naguib Sawiris to offer a minority stake in his wholly owned Italian company Weather to a private equity firm is to be put on ice for a while. According to The Financial Times, Alessandro Bendetti, director of Rome-based Boutique Investment Bank Capital, filed a claim in London's high court seeking a one-third stake in Weather Investments plus damages. Bendetti accuses Sawiris of breaching an agreement between them back 2003 to provide Bendetti with one-third of the company's shares in turn for arranging the acquisition of Wind. Sawiris planned to use receipts of the minority stake sale to lower the company's debt. Weather Investments owns Wind, Italy's second-largest fixed line operator, and holds a majority stake in OTH. TALAAT MUSTAFA GROUP (TMG): As part of a wide plan to create a holding company controlling all the entities it has stakes in, TMG has acquired a 71 per cent stake or 3.9 million shares of San Stefano Real Estate Investment. Earlier TMG offered to buy all San Stefano shares at LE201 per share, or swap one San Stefano share for 20 shares in Talaat Mustafa's capital increase. In early August, TMG also requested to acquire Alexandria Real Estate Investments, Arabian Urban Development Projects, San Stefano Real Estate Investment and Alexandria Urban Projects, through a share swap. Compiled by Sherine Abdel-Razek
