CAIRO: Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) released their third quarter results Tuesday, reporting a 40 percent surge in net income to $491.8 million, up from $350.3 million last year. In a statement to the press, Chief Executive Officer Nassef Sawiris said that the group's consolidated revenue for the first nine months of 2007 grew 29 percent to $2.69 billion. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization rose 33 percent. OCI, a Cairo-based cement producer and construction contractor, owns and operates cement plants in Egypt, Algeria, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Pakistan, northern Iraq and Spain. With new investments in northern Iraq, Nigeria, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Syria, North Korea and South Africa, their combined annual production capacity is set to increase to 44 million tons, from its current 32 million tons. "The Cement Group has steadily achieved critical milestones across its various ongoing greenfield cement projects. To date, the white cement plant in Algeria has begun its production operations and our third grey cement production line in Algeria has started its early cement production and sales, said Sawiris. Emirates Cement fired its kiln last week, and has already recorded a daily market share of 8 percent. A new grey line in Northern Iraq will commence operations in December. "We believe we have excellent visibility across emerging markets where we operate, driven by strong local demand, said Sawiris in the statement. "[OCI] will continue to pursue new acquisitions and greenfield investments. "The Construction Group continues to demonstrate its leadership in key sectors such as power generation, emphasized by the award of two strategic power plant contracts in Egypt to-date, with a third contract for the new Sidi Kereir power plant valued at $102 million being finalized. Last week, a consortium of France s Alstom and OCI won a deal to build a combined-cycle power plant in the Ain Temouchent region of Algeria for $2.15 billion. "It is clear that infrastructure spending and investments in the Middle East and North Africa regions have begun to reflect the windfall of [increasing] oil prices during the last two years, notwithstanding 2007 price increases. OCI said it raised its stake in the National Steel Fabrication Company to 100 percent. The company also signed an agreement to sell 50 percent of its stake in Egyptian Container Handling Co. to Dubai port operator DP World for $372 million. Moreover, OCI has expanded their investments in natural gas industries with the acquisition of a 20 percent stake in Egyptian Fertilizer Company (EFC) for $150 million. "This investment compliments our strategic stake in the greenfield ammonia start-up in Egypt and our joint venture investment with the Algerian state-owned oil and gas company Sonatrach, said Sawiris. OCI s construction group had reported a backlog of $3.5 billion - driven by $1.7 billion in new awards during the third quarter - a record amount. It said construction revenues grew 18 percent this year
