CAIRO: Egypt's Orascom Construction (OCI) said on Monday its net income for the third quarter of 2011 rose 24 percent, in line with expectations, and that business was expanding in both its construction and fertilizer units. "We continue to witness strong interest and demand for the group's services across our core regional markets," Chief Executive Officer Nassef Sawiris said in a statement. OCI is the biggest company in Egypt by market value and most of its business is outside the country. It said quarterly consolidated net income rose to $182.9 million from $147.5 million a year earlier. Consolidated revenue grew 8.9 percent to $1.36 billion, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) jumped 40 percent to $371.3 million. A Reuters poll of 15 analysts had on average forecast net income of $183.3 million, revenue of $1.34 billion and EBITDA of $357.8 million. OCI said its construction unit's consolidated backlog expanded 13.6 percent to $5.95 billion during the third quarter after it won new orders worth $1.42 billion. "At present, several key projects are entering negotiation phases and other high-potential projects are currently under bidding. We expect a continued improvement in our construction group backlog by year end," Sawiris said. The fertilizer business, which accounted for 70 percent of its EBITDA, was also expanding, he said, noting capacity additions were underway in Egypt, Algeria, the Netherlands and the United States. "Once these initiatives are complete by the end of the first quarter of 2012, the fertilizer group would have increased total production capacity by approximately 60 percent." OCI said it had agreed to buy out the minority interests of its Pandora Methanol subsidiary in the United States. Pandora's 250,000-tonne ammonia unit is scheduled to begin production next week and its 750,000-tonne methanol unit in the second quarter of 2012.
