CAIRO: The Egyptian-Kuwaiti Development and Investment Company plans to list on the Egyptian Stock Exchange in April 2011, officials said at a conference Tuesday. Officials of the joint shareholding company also set out to dispel controversy surrounding its 26,000 feddan project in Al-Ayyat, Giza, after being subjected to what they described as a “fierce media campaign against the project.” Uncertainty surrounding the price at which the land was sold to the company and a recent decision to shift the project's activity from an agricultural to a residential development sparked debate in the media and among MPs in parliament. In an attempt to clear the air, the panel of speakers comprised Farouq Al-Tellawi, chairman of the board; Khaled Al-Jaser, managing director of Kuwait's MENA Holding Company; Faisal Al-Khaled, chairman of the International Holding Projects Group (IHPG); and Omar El-Shawadfy, director the National Center for Planning State Land Uses (NCPSLU), who presented the governments' position. Kuwait's ambassador to Egypt Rashid Al-Hamad and several Egyptian officials and MPs were also present to discuss opportunities and impediments facing Kuwaiti investment in Egypt. Al-Tellawi, said that the unjustified media attacks on the company not only threaten Kuwaiti investments in Egypt, but Arab investments in general. He explained that the MENA Holding Company has a 71 percent stake in the capital of the company, which has invested in several successful projects in Egypt. "One of our highly promising projects is Al-Ayyat project, located in the Sixth of October governorate, which amounts to 26,000 feddans,” he said. Al-Tellawi then attempted to affirm the soundness of the legal position of his company regarding the acquisition of the land, and the decision to turn it into a residential development, alluding to government inefficiency and bureaucracy as obstacles the company faced along the way. Al-Tellawi said that the Egyptian-Kuwaiti Company has owned the land since 1998 after signing an acquisition contract with the Egyptian government. "The agriculture committee of the Egyptian People's Assembly concluded, after probing the project, that the acquisition deal was legally sound based on the Egyptian law No. 8 on protection and promotion of investment issued in 1997 and Presidential Decree No. 14 for 2004 on treating Arab investors on equal footing with their Egyptian peers," he said. Al-Tellawi added that the Egyptian-Kuwaiti Company expected the Egyptian government to honor its commitments and provide the project, which was initially meant to be an agricultural project, with utilities such as water supplies. “The most important point I want to make is that the government sold us this land at the current prices for land purchased with the intent of cultivation,” he said. It then took three years to obtain the necessary permits and utilities, whereby they invested a large portion of the companies' money in installing water infrastructure for the surrounding area. The company finally obtained the needed permits from the military as well as the environment and antiquities authorities, he said. “The government however has not provided us with sufficient water utilities until now,” Al-Tellawi said. After three years of investing in the area, amounting to 3,000 feddans of irrigation and 10,000 feddans of infrastructure development, the National Center for Planning State Land Uses (NCPSLU) unveiled the outcome of extensive research showing that irrigating these areas threatened antiquities. The company was ordered to halt agricultural expansion and shift to residential development. El-Shawadfy, head of the NCPSLU, said, “The decision, which was later approved by the Prime Minister, to change the project from farming activity into an urban development and launching an urban community on the land was in the country's best interest as research showed that the runoff water used for irrigation could greatly harm an antiquities site in close proximity to the land.” The reason for the delay in the decision was that more research had to be conducted on the land to justify the shift, he explained, adding that the new cost of land for the project would earn the government LE 21 billion with 30 percent of the company's land allocated for roads and 50 percent to construction. Al-Tellawi concluded by saying that the company had no choice but to comply with the government's plans adding that the company showed promising potential for both sides. IHPG Chairman Faisal Al-Khaled talked about the importance of Kuwaiti investment in the country. “There are 550 Kuwaiti companies investing in Egypt and this is expected to grow as we are looking for more investment opportunities.”
