The market maintained its bullish mood during the week ending 12 July. CASE30 ended the week at its highest ever level of 8,500 points, a 20 per cent increase since the beginning of the year. The surge is the result of several positive developments: Egypt became the first Arab and African country to join the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)'s Investment Committee, the government decided to sell a majority stake in Banque du Caire, and Egypt's budget deficit decreased by three per cent during fiscal year 2006-07. OLYMPIC GROUP (OG): The leading electrical appliances manufacturer and distributor sent a press release to CASE saying that it has signed a contract with Electrolux to be its exclusive distributor in Egypt for products with the brand name of A.E.G, Zanussi, and Electrolux. The contract will be effective starting 1 January 2008, soon after the current contract between Electrolux and the Al-Abd Group expires. OG is currently in negotiations with Electrolux and Al-Abd Group for the distribution of Electrolux products during the coming five months, before the expiry of Al-Abd contract. OG is also considering buying some of Al-Abd Group's assets. In another development, OG acquired refrigerator manufacturer Iberna for around LE13 million. ORASCOM TELECOM HOLDING (OTH): Weather Holding Company is injecting $3 billion in investments in OTH to upgrade the performance of the company and tap new markets. Weather holds a majority stake in OTH and is 97 per cent owned by the Sawiris family. OTH Chairman Naguib Sawiris is also competing with Commercial Bank of Kuwait, Pakistan's KASB Bank, and a consortium of Bank Muscat, ACTIS Capital of the UK, and Nomura Securities to acquire a majority stake in Pakistan's Saudi Pak Bank. The bank is Saudi-owned and is listed on Pakistan's stock exchange where its market capitalisation has reached $156 million. Sawiris stressed that he entered the bid in his personal capacity and not as the chairman of OTH. The deal is expected to be concluded within two or three weeks. MOBINIL: After almost a year of rejecting the idea and insisting that it is not economically feasible, MobiNil is applying for a third generation licence. The application includes a request to pay for the licence in instalments. The company's board of directors approved the move in principle based on the terms and conditions discussed at a meeting between Minister of Communications and Information Technology Tareq Kamel and MobiNil Chairman Naguib Sawiris. MobiNil also denied in a statement to the Egyptian bourse that OTH is seeking to increase its stake in the company. OTH owns 28.75 per cent of MobiNil Telecommunications, which owns a 51 per cent stake in MobiNil. AL-WATANY BANK OF EGYPT (AWB): The bank's net profit through the first half of 2007 soared 169 per cent compared to last year. The results for the first half of 2007 include externally managed equity funds that were non-existent last year. The bank increased its provisions for non-performing loans by 51 per cent to LE114 million and expects to be adequately covered by the end of 2007. Total assets were up by 11 per cent to LE11.2 billion. EFG Eurobank of Greece, National Bank of Kuwait and Commercial Bank of Kuwait are currently carrying out due diligence to bid for AWB and are expected to have finished by August. SIXTH OF OCTOBER DEVELOPMENT COMPANY (SODIC) agreed to sell 116,824 square metres of land on the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road to Bonyan Development and Trading Company for LE300 million. Bonyan, a subsidiary of Citadel Capital, a leading private equity group, will use the land to build and operate a mall with 12 showrooms and 86 retail shops. The mall has to be completed within a year. SODIC will realise a gross profit of LE238 million from the sale. ORASCOM HOTEL DEVELOPMENT (OHD): The company's planned low income housing project is expanding with its 60 per cent owned Orascom Housing Communities (OHC) signing a purchase agreement with the governorate of Fayoum for the construction of 2.1 million square metres of housing at a price of LE8 per square metre. The value of the land is payable over seven years with a grace period of three years. The company's initial plan was to develop more than 20,000 low-budget housing units in Fayoum. With this new addition, total land allocated for low budget housing is 11.3 million square metres (9.2 million square metres in 6th of October City on the outskirts of Cairo and 2.1 million square metres in Fayoum. Compiled by Sherine Abdel-Razek
