Case denies tax rumors The Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange denied circulating rumors about taxing "capital revenues resulting from stock market trading. The Case, which published the announcement on its website late Thursday, didn't elaborate on the issue. Suez Canal Bank waits for Hours' reply In a statement sent to the Case, Suez Canal Bank confirmed that it has offered to sell its stake in National Company for Maize Products, which represents 1.7 percent of the company s capital, to Hours Direct Investment Fund but it has not received any reply from the fund yet. The bank had sent its clarifying statement to answer Case inquiries. Apache Reports Gas Discoveries in Egypt, Australia According to Bloomberg, Apache Corp., the American oil and natural-gas producer that made more than a dozen acquisitions this decade, reported gas discoveries in Egypt and Australia. The output of a test well in Egypt s Western Desert reached 41.6 million cubic feet of gas and 1,313 barrels of condensate per day, expanding the known geologic trend in the area by an additional 9 miles from a previous discovery in 2006, Houston-based Apache said in a statement today. More discoveries like this "could increase the long-term picture of growth out of Egypt, Ray Deacon, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets in Denver that rates Apache shares at "outperform and owns none, told Bloomberg. The discovery off the coast of Australia on the Northwest Shelf encountered 113 feet of net pay, Apache said. Apache has a 65 percent stake in that block as part of a joint venture with Kufpec Australia Pty. Apache rose $1.69, or 1.9 percent, to $93.02 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock has gained 32 percent in the past year. Oracle leads MENA's EAS market, says IDC According to leading research firm IDC, Oracle was the number one Enterprise Applications Software (EAS) vendor in the MENA region owing to a strong performance in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Other Gulf Cooperation Council (OGCC) markets. An Oracle press statement said these two territories together accounted for approximately 63 per cent of the vendor s EAS revenue in MENA in 2006. According to the IDC's Arab Middle East and Egypt North Africa Software Solutions 2007-2011 forecast and 2006 vendor shares report, Oracle generated license and maintenance (L&M) revenue of $92.88 million in 2006, to capture 32.4 percent share of the MENA EAS market. Year-on-year, Oracle's EAS revenue in the region was up 48.7 percent in 2006. The OGCC countries and the UAE are now the largest markets for Oracle in the region. Oasis Investment Company, Balubaid, The Central Bank of Egypt, and BMMI are a few of Oracle's key customer wins during 2006. In 2006, Oracle also maintained its leadership position on Egypt and held 46.9 percent of the country's EAS market share, while and 45.6 percent of the EAS market in Levant. Oracle came in third with EAS revenue of $3.13 million for 13.6 percent market share for the North African region. Oracle serves the Moroccan market with a direct office and covers Algeria directly from its MEA headquarters in Dubai. Oracle held 18.2 percent of Saudi Arabia's EAS market. In 2006, Oracle secured a number of projects with Saudi government bodies such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Saudi Post, and large retail giants like Abdul Latif Jameel. During 2006, we focused mainly on addressing new customers in the region and pushing forward the Oracle E-Business Suite offerings, said Hussam Dajani, Senior Vice President, Oracle Middle East and Africa. "While capitalizing on our large installed base of database software in the enterprise segments is key to our application business growth strategy, we are also continuing to release new versions of our existing ERP products. Oracle will continue to embed the best functionality from other Oracle brands. This long-term vision is our Oracle Fusion Applications strategy, and is what will be the single contributor to its success in the applications market. Egypt upbeat on export, investment outlook CAIRO: Reuters reported that Egypt expects another strong year for foreign direct investment, and forecasts exports will grow by one fifth despite a slowdown in key developed markets, Trade and Industry Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid said on Thursday. Rachid told Reuters that annual foreign direct investment into the Arab world s most populous country had grown from less than $1 billion a few years ago to $11 billion last year. We are again hopeful that this year we will exceed that number, he said in an interview during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos. Investment is coming in from Mediterranean countries such as Italy, Spain, France and Turkey, while Gulf states accounted for $6 billion last year. Rachid said the economy could absorb the investment without overheating, with the central bank pushing inflation down from double digits to around 7 percent at the end of last year. The United States and Europe account for some 60 percent of Egyptian exports, so the economic slowdown there was bound to have an impact, he said. Export growth would slow from last year s stellar 45 percent but still come in at over 20 percent, he said. The surge in exports last year showed the benefits of trade agreements with the EU and the United States allowing Egyptian goods in duty-free. Those trade agreements combined with economic reforms... have really helped us to be more aggressive and more capable in our export function, he said. The slowdown in export growth was unlikely to hurt overall economic growth as exports make up less than 12 percent of GDP. Rachid said he was confident economic growth would again exceed 7 percent, after reaching 7.1 percent in the latest fiscal year, its fastest rate in at least two decades. -Agencies
