CAIRO: Egypt's El Sewedy Electric, the Arab world's biggest listed cable maker, said on Monday its Qatari unit had won a cable supply contract worth $440 million, helping to boost its presence in the Gulf nation. "This is a significant event for El Sewedy Electric as it further solidifies the company's presence in the Gulf," the firm said in a statement. Its Doha Cables unit was selected from a total of 12 other bidders for a tender to supply 42,000 tons of copper cables to the Qatari General Electricity and Water Corporation for a two year period. "We believe Qatar represents an important market for us, particularly after the government announced its enormous investment plan for infrastructure, which we believe that El Sewedy Electric will benefit from." Qatar said last month it planned to spend more than $125 billion in the next five years on construction and energy projects and the OPEC member's economy should continue powering ahead strongly. Sewedy on Wednesday said its fourth-quarter net profit rose 16 percent to LE 97.5 million ($16 million) on revenue of LE 3.69 billion. In March, the company cut its forecast for net profit growth in 2011 to 1 percent from 20 percent due to political turmoil in Egypt and Libya. Sewedy has production plants in Egypt and 10 other countries. Sewedy shares traded near flat at 0.02 percent higher at 0910 GMT, while the benchmark index slipped 0.1 percent.
