Telecom Egypt says could make $1 bln acquisition Egypt s fixed-line monopoly telephone operator Telecom Egypt could spend at least $1 billion on an acquisition in the Middle East or North Africa to capture growth outside its home market, its chairman said on Thursday. Our first priority in using our cash is for an acquisition, and one large one is better than several small ones, Akil Beshir told Reuters in an interview. We could spend more than $1 billion. Telecom Egypt faces saturation in its home market and competition for the first time, with Egypt due to sell a second fixed-line license in September. -Reuters Prime makes takeover bid for glass firm Egypt s Prime Industrial Holding made a formal bid for all 15 million shares in National Company for Glass and Crystal on Wednesday, at LE 14.50 ($2.72) a share, or a total of LE 217.5 million. Prime Industrial would also pay off LE 150 million of debt the glass company owes to National Bank for Development (NBD), it said in a statement. National Bank for Development, which owns 88.3 percent of the glass company, has already agreed to sell its shares to Prime Industrial at the same price of LE 14.50, it said. Including the debt, the bid price is equivalent to LE 24.5 a share. The shares closed on Tuesday at LE 16.78 and were trading on Wednesday between LE 15.75 and LE 17.50. Prime s bid is valid until Sept. 10. It said it would undertake to repay the debt to NBD within six months of acquiring the company. It would also double the glass company s issued capital to LE 300 million. -Reuters Egypt buys 155,000 T Russian/Ukrainian wheat The Egyptian government s main wheat buyer said on Friday he had bought 155,000 tons of Russian and Ukrainian wheat for shipment between Sept. 16 and 30. Said El-Hefny, vice chairman of the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), gave the following breakdown for the purchases (all prices C+F): 30,000 tons of Russian wheat from Silverstone at $305.85/ton, three 25,000-ton cargoes of Russian or Ukrainian wheat from Union at $305/ton, and two 25,000-ton cargoes of Ukrainian wheat from Wihda at $305/ton. GASC had asked for offers of US, French, Australian, German, Canadian, Argentine, Kazakhstan, Russian wheat, British, Syrian or Ukrainian wheat. Egypt is one of the world s leading wheat importers and has already bought 1.4825 million tons of wheat in the fiscal year that began on July 1, much of it of Russian or Ukrainian origin. GASC bought roughly 6.5 million tons of foreign wheat in the previous fiscal year, mostly from Russia, the United States and Kazakhstan with smaller quantities from France and Russia. -Reuters Saudi Arabia in Turkmen oil, gas plants talks Turkmenistan s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has invited Saudi Arabia to build oil and gas plants in the gas-rich Central Asian nation, Turkmen state television said on Friday. Berdymukhamedov met visiting Saudi Prince Saud bin Mishal bin Abd Al-Aziz Al Saud on Thursday to discuss economic ties. We are currently working on a large project ... to build oil and gas refineries, the prince told television reporters through an interpreter. Representatives of Saudi oil companies Aramco and Dhahran Global accompanied him on his visit. Turkmenistan sells most of the gas it produces to Russia s Gazprom, but plans to boost output significantly by developing new fields. -Reuters LNG price may gain 80 pct on plant delays, export cuts Liquefied natural gas prices in Asia may climb about 80 percent this year as new projects get delayed and countries from Indonesia to Egypt curb exports. Cargoes of LNG, which is gas chilled into liquid for transportation by tankers, may rise to as much as $25 per million British thermal units in the Northern Hemisphere winter, said John Harris, a director at Cambridge Energy Research Associates Inc. in Beijing. Japan, the world s biggest buyer, paid an average $14.10 in June in the spot market for immediate delivery, according to the finance ministry, while China paid a record $14.35, customs figures show. UK gas futures for winter are trading at about $18 per million Btu, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. A British thermal unit is equivalent to the heat generated by a lighted match. Supplies of the fuel, which pollutes less than oil-based alternatives, could be constrained because plants in Egypt, Nigeria and Norway operated at about 60 percent of capacity in the first half of 2008 after equipment failures and inadequate pipeline capacity, according to estimates compiled by Flower. Indonesia will divert fuel to fertilizer makers. The Bontang plant in the Kalimantan region will produce about 320 cargoes this year, lagging behind its contracted volume of 350, Daniel Purba, head of LNG market development at PT Pertamina, said in May. The plant can produce about 400 a year, he said. A cargo is typically 50,000 to 60,000 tons. Pertamina, Indonesia s state oil company, will cut supplies to a group in Japan by 75 percent after its contract expires in 2010, Vice President Iin Arifin Takhyan said in October. Egypt produced about 5.2 million tons in the first six months of 2008, compared with a potential 6.1 million, to meet domestic demand, Flower estimates. Nigeria supplied about 8 million, or about 72 percent of its first half capacity. -Bloomberg
