The Egyptian arm of UAE real estate developer, Emaar Misr, has approved the independent financial advisor's recommendation, setting the fair price of shares at maximum EGP 4.7, the company announced Tuesday. The Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) is yet to study and approve the company's recommendation, an Emaar Misr official explained. Emaar Misr has outlined it aims to raise EGP 2.8bn through issuing 600m shares on the bourse. Trading on the company's shares is expected to begin by mid-June, the official added. In February 2015, the EGX announced that Emaar Misr formally requested listing its shares on the stock market. In early April, the company announced it was considering making amendments in the company's leadership. At a 20 April meeting, however, Chairman Mohamed Alabbar retained his position, as shareholders reselected him for the role. Emaar Properties registered $912m in profits in 2014, a 30% increase compared to the $699m profits recorded the year before. The company said that approximately 54% of its total revenues came from shopping malls, retail and hospitality businesses. In the first quarter (Q1) of 2015, a 462% increase in profits was registered, as the company recorded EGP 172.7m in Q1. These figures compared to EGP 30.7m in net profits in the corresponding quarter in 2014. Emaar Misr CEO Mohamed El-Dahan told Daily News Egypt in March that, over the past two years, the company has made significant progress in developing its master-plan communities. "Egypt is one of the first countries in the MENA region where we established a fully-owned subsidiary to develop integrated lifestyle communities," El-Dahan said. He added that Emaar Misr is deemed one of the largest foreign direct investors in the country, and one of the key contributors to Emaar Properties' international revenues. "Even during the challenging time that Egypt faced, we did not stop building our projects," he noted. Real estate developer and builder of world's tallest tower Burj Khalifa, Emaar Properties was founded in the UAE in 1997, and now has a current global presence in 30 countries. The Egyptian arm of the company is Emaar Misr that has an investment portfolio of EGP 5bn.
