CAIRO: Major shareholders in El Sewedy Cables raised LE 1.29 billion ($224 million) through a private placing carried out through the Egyptian stock exchange, a company statement said on Wednesday. The shareholders, many of them members of the Sewedy family, sold 30 million shares, or half the company s stock, at LE 43 a share, the statement said. Under a related rights issue the sellers have given an undertaking to use LE 600 million of the proceeds to immediately double the capital of the company from LE 600 million to LE 1.2 billion. Each share has a nominal value of LE 10. The placing was managed by EFG-Hermes and trading in the shares will start on May 28. El Sewedy Cables Company makes power and special cables and cable accessories in the Middle East and Africa. It owns 11 production facilities, of which seven are in Egypt, two in Sudan, one in each of Syria and Ghana. In 2005 the Company had revenues of LE 3.17 billion, gross profit of LE 466 million and net income of LE 330 million. Reuters
