Reuters – Egypt has settled a dispute with SODIC over the property developer's Eastown scheme after the firm agreed to pay EGP 900m ($129m) in installments over about seven years, the Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade said on Sunday. "The dispute is closed," Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour said of the legal dispute over the Eastown project in New Cairo, a development of offices, shops and homes twice the size of London's 97-acre Canary Wharf district. "They found a solution and it was approved by the council of ministers last Thursday," he told reporters. Abdel Nour said SODIC had revalued land bought from the state for the project and agreed to pay the difference over the sum it had initially paid. Asked to comment, SODIC said that it had not yet received any official correspondence from the ministry or the government. The government had sought to revoke SODIC's rights over the east Cairo tract because of delays in development. SODIC, won a court case last April and kept the land but some administrative procedures involving the government had remained outstanding. SODIC's revenues were up 69% in 2013 from the previous year. It invested around EGP 900m last year and said it aims to invest a similar amount this year if its dispute with the government is resolved.
