News of a number of mergers and acquisition deals stirred an overall positive sentiment in the market through the trading week ending 26 July. While the merger of the African International Bank with the Commercial International Bank formed a banking giant with a market share of eight per cent, tender offers to buy Alexandria Real Estate Investment and Al-Watany Bank of Egypt shed light on the real estate sector. Meanwhile, the cement sector also reaped a notable increase in cement prices. The CASE30 index rose 0.3 per cent to close at 8,477.05 points. ORASCOM TELECOM HOLDING (OTH)'s offer to buy 100 per cent of Raya Telecom in a LE684 million deal does not seem to attract Raya shareholders. Raya Holding, the mother company of Raya Telecom, announced that at a meeting on 24 July its board of directors decided the tender offer pricing the share at LE12 was too low. According to recent evaluations by local investment banks, the share value ranges between LE14-15.23; Raya Telecom asserted that these estimates do not take into account some recent positive developments in the company. At the same time, Raya announced that it will appoint an independent financial advisor to evaluate OTH's offer. Raya Chairman Medhat Khalil was quoted in the press as saying that shareholders with a controlling stake of 65 percent do not intend to sell their shares in Raya, even if OTH raised the bid. OTH had promised that if the deal went through it would not lay off any Raya employees, sell the company's stocks or de-list the shares from the stock market. ALEXANDRIA REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS (ARTI) attracted much attention when Talat Mustafa Holding Group (TMG) proposed to fully acquire ARTI at LE394 per share in an equity swap. The housing company will hold an extraordinary general meeting on 5 August to discuss the offer. ARTI is a partly-owned subsidiary of Talat Mustafa Group which is currently following an ambitious expansionary plan, since it is also considering acquiring Arabian Urban Development Projects, San Stefano Real Estate Investment and Alexandria Urban Projects, through share swaps. The group aims to form a holding company controlling all the companies in which TMG has stakes. The holding company is expected to have an overall capital of LE18 billion, which the group plans to increase to LE23 billion later through an IPO expected to take place during November-December, 2007. NATIONAL BANK FOR DEVELOPMENT (NBD) owners of 51.3 per cent of shares agreed to sell their holdings to Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Emirates International Investment Company, for LE159 per share. In June, the two UAE financial institutions offered to buy 100 per cent of the bank for LE310 million. NBD agreed to the June offer at LE11 per share, but it did not agree to sell the entire bank. NBD is one of Egypt's smaller banks and has been losing money in recent years; 18 of its branches operate under Islamic banking regulations. Compiled by Sherine Abdel-Razek
