Sembcorp Marine wins $220 million rig order in Egypt Sembcorp Marine Ltd., the world s second-largest maker of oil rigs, won a $220 million contract from A.P. Moeller-Maersk s Egyptian venture to build a jack- up rig to produce oil, according to Bloomberg. Sembcorp Marine s PPL Shipyard unit will deliver the rig in mid-2010, according to a statement from the Singapore-based company today. Producers in the Persian Gulf and Africa, including Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, are ramping up drilling efforts to slow or reverse declining output from reservoirs first tapped in the 1930s and 1940s. Ministry of Investment to revise subsidies According to Al Mal newspaper, the Ministry of Investment is considering redefining the low income group eligible for the subsidy provided by the mortgage subsidy and guarantee fund, due to rising inflation and construction costs. The ministry might raise the ceiling on the income level of those benefiting from the mortgage subsidies to LE 30,000 for married individuals and LE 21,000 for single beneficiaries. The subsidy provided to beneficiaries might itself be raised from LE 10,000 to LE 15,000. Such amendments, according to Beltone Financial, aim at expanding the base of beneficiaries from the mortgage system in Egypt, which has recently grown to reach LE 2 billion worth of mortgages in March 2008. The mortgage finance law, Beltone explained, was issued earlier in the decade and started operating after 2004 when issues related to high registration fees and bureaucratic procedures were resolved and, recently, a number of local and foreign mortgage finance companies were established. Egypt to issue mining licenses this year The Egyptian Geological Survey and Mining Authority (EGSMA) will issue a number of mining licenses before the end of the year, including eight licenses for gold and two for silver, reported Al Mal newspaper. A number of new excavation contracts with the private sector will also be amended, following criticism from the foreign partners currently excavating for gold, as part of the legislative amendments of the mining industry, Beltone Financial said. The government is conducting negotiations with the World Bank to finance local and foreign partners applying for mining following the conclusion of a finance agreement with the International Finance Corporation. According to Beltone, this is expected to raise Egypt s production of gold to 30 million ounces by the end of 2009. The general rise in international energy and commodities prices means that the excavation of minerals in Egypt is once again economically viable, especially in the Sinai and desert areas. An Australian gold exploration and development company, Centamin Egypt, announced the appointment on Monday of former Australian ambassador to Egypt Rob Bowker as an independent non-executive director, effective immediately, Mining Weekly reported. Bowker, an expert of the Middle East and Arabic speaker who served as Australia s ambassador to Egypt, is expected to guide Centamin through the implementation of its Sukari gold project in Egypt. The company was targeting first production from the mine by the end of this year. Egypt, which stopped gold production in 1958, would produce 8 t of the metal from mines in the eastern desert in 2009, Reuters said last week, citing the chairperson of the Egyptian Geological Survey and Mining Authority. We have been producing gold since last December and one of the mines that started production has a reserve of 13-million ounces of gold, Hussein Hammouda said. Once this mine is fully operational, it won t be only one of the biggest in Africa, but rather one of the biggest worldwide. Treasury bills fall The average yield on Egyptian 91-day treasury bills fell to 9.862 percent at an auction on Sunday from 10.102 percent at last week s auction, according to Reuters. The central bank said it accepted bids for bills worth LE1 billion, the same amount it was seeking. It accepted bids at rates between 9.291 and 10.032 percent, compared to a range of 9.888 to 10.150 percent at the previous auction. According to Beltone Financial, the bills are for issue on July 22 and they mature on Oct. 21. China Agritech Delivers Fertilizer Shipment to Egypt China Agritech Inc., a leading liquid organic fertilizer manufacturer in China, announced the successful shipping of 10,000 liters of its Green Vitality liquid fertilizer product to Egypt on July 18, 2008 in accordance with its contract with Al-Waha Khdraa Co., a subsidiary of AL Ezz Group, a distributor of agricultural and fertilizer products to the Middle East and Africa, reports Xinhua PR Newswire. The shipment, worth $75,000, marks the first international transaction for China Agritech. It is due to arrive at the Alexander port in Egypt in 60 days and will be settled in Cost, Insurance and Freight ("CIF ) terms, which means that the associated risk in shipping has been entirely transferred to the insurance company. Eye on the Market Remco for Touristic Villages Construction has stated that the subscription in uncovered portion of capital increase by 2,845,823 shares has been closed and recovered 5.5 times, reported the Egypt Stock Exchange website. In response to Stock Exchange inquiries, El Nasr For Manufacturing Agricultural Crops released a statement denying news reports concerning studying issuing stock dividends. A Tender Offer on Rowad Misr Tourism Investment (RMTV.CA) was made on 21/7/2008 at the value of LE 414, the Stock Exchange said.
