Egypt's stock market is studying listing request from two firms, whose capitals worth more than 205 million Egyptian pounds (US$26.8 million). From his part, Mohamed Omran – Chairman of the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) – said the bourse "is racing against time to allow highest number of companies" to join and enjoy the stock market's financing benefits. Under the symbol OC, Orascom Construction has started trading on Wednesday on EGX, as the first foreign company to be dual listed on Egypt's equity market in almost twenty years. Earlier this month, the Listing Committee of Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) approved Emaar Properties PJSC and Orascom Construction (OC) listings in EGX, with capitals amounting to US$878 million and US$105 million, respectively. These are the biggest listing operations in EGX for almost five years. Omran assured in earlier statements that the capital listed during the first quarter of 2015 is roughly US$2 billion, which is equal to the capital listed during 2014 and 2013, and two-thirds of the capital listing volume between 2011 and 2014. He added that it is an important indication that the economy has started to head in the right direction, and with continuing economic reforms, it can get back to high growth rates allowing it to achieve economic and social development goals. In its 2013-2017 strategy, EGX relied on an intensive campaign aiming to attract strong companies in order to strengthen the market, which is done through intensive advertising campaigns targeted to convince powerful companies of the importance of listing in the Egyptian market, instead of companies waiting to be listed, which contributed to listing a lot of companies during the last 15 months.
