Qatar National Bank, the Middle East's biggest bank by market value, received approval from Egypt's central bank to start due diligence on the local unit of Societe Generale SA ahead of a potential acquisition. The Central Bank of Egypt granted the approval on Wednesday, Cairo-based National Societe Generale Bank, the country's second-biggest publicly traded lender, said on Thursday in an emailed statement. NSGB said August 30 that it had entered talks with QNB about a sale of Societe Generale's 77.2 per cent stake in the Egyptian lender, valued at 13.7 billion Egyptian pounds (Dh8.25 billion, $2.2 billion) based on yesterday's closing price. Qatar National Bank said in April it had a five-year plan to make itself an “icon" in the Middle East and Africa by expansion and “diversifying income sources." The possible deal marks a revival in acquisitions in Egypt, whose economy is struggling to recover from last year's uprising that led to the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak, investment bank EFG-Hermes Holding SAE said this week. NSGB's shares have surged 26 per cent since August 30, taking their gains this year to 116 per cent. Egypt's benchmark EGX 30 Index has gained 58 per cent this year. Amlak Negotiations between creditors of Dubai-based Amlak Finance PJSC and a special government committee overseeing its restructuring are ongoing and the entire process will hopefully be finalised by the end of the year, Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy said. “The issue of Amlak is still going on. We created a CoCom and started negotiations with creditors. We hope to finish by end of the year," Al Mansouri, who is also head of the Amlak restructuring committee, said late on Tuesday. The UAE government set up the committee last year to explore a potential merger and a restructuring of Amlak Finance. An anticipated merger with competitor Tamweel subsequently fell through. Earlier this year, the UAE government managed to slash the debt pile Amlak by Dh4 billion. Al Mansouri had said in March that it would “take sometime before Amlak's shares are back to being traded at the Dubai Financial Market." Kuwait Petroleum Corp State-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp, or KPC, has signed contracts worth $10 billion (Dh36.7 billion) to export four kinds of Kuwaiti oils to India over five years, Kuwait-based Al Rai daily reported on Thursday, citing an executive. The open and renewable annual contracts were signed with the two Indian companies Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp, Nasser Al Mudhaf, KPC's managing director for international marketing, told the paper. Under the contracts, KPC will export, the Khafji, Hout, and Eocene oils as well as the regular Kuwaiti oil for refining at India's new refinery at the rate of 50,000 barrels a day, the daily cited him as saying. Mudhaf also told Al Rai that his company recently signed three contracts to sell heavy crude oil to North America and East Asia as part of its global expansion strategy. Qatargas State-run Qatargas said on Wednesday it will supply Japan with an extra 11 million metric tonnes of liquefied natural gas over the short term, as the country continues to rely on imported energy after an earthquake early last year damaged nuclear power plants. The Qatari LNG firm said in a statement it has increased exports of the super-cooled fuel to Japan to 20 million tonnes over the short term, from 9 million tonnes last autumn. It didn't give further details about the timeframe of the short-term contracts. Qatar said it would continue to support the Asia-Pacific market, where demand for its LNG is highest, driven by economic expansion. Japan, the world's largest LNG importer, saw its energy imports soar after an earthquake and tsunami damaged nuclear reactors last spring. The new volumes are in addition to long-term LNG supply deals between Qatargas and Japanese companies over the last year, it said. In December last year Qatargas signed a contract to sell 1.2 million tonnes of LNG, or about 200,000 tonnes a year, to Chubu Electric Power Co. and Shizuokagas Co. PDO Petroleum Development Oman, or PDO, has signed a $240 million deal with Shaleem Petroleum Co., a local provider of engineering services to the oil and gas industry, Muscat-based Oman Daily reported Thursday. Under the contract, Shaleem will provide maintenance and overhaul services for oil wells in southern Oman for 10 years that could be extended for two additional years, the paper reported. The deal is part of PDO's policy to help enhance the domestic value added and the company will sign similar contracts with other local firms, Raoul Restucci, PDO's managing director, said, according to the daily. Gulfnews
