Mobinil Q1 net down, misses most forecasts Egyptian mobile firm Mobinil posted a 6 percent fall in net income for the first quarter of 2009 to LE 424 million ($75 million) on Wednesday, missing four out of five analyst forecasts. In a statement, the firm said imputed interest amounts relative to 3G installment payments charged during the first quarter amounted to LE 29 million and higher interest costs are the main driver for the decrease. Five analysts had forecast net profit figures of between LE 414 million and LE 551 million, with four of them expecting higher than LE 424 million. Blended ARPU (average revenue per user) also declined 16 percent on a year earlier to LE 39, also missing analyst expectations. Three analysts forecast ARPU of between LE 41 and LE 42. Net revenues rose 10 percent from a year earlier to LE 2.490 million, Mobinil said. Subscriber numbers were forecast at between 19.96 million to 21.096 million by analysts, which Mobinil beat with a 31 percent rise year-on-year in subscribers to 21.179 million. The firm reported EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of LE 1.215 billion. Mobinil has been at the center of dispute between mobile operator Orascom Telecom and France Telecom. Egypt s market regulator says France Telecom should tender to buy all shares in Mobinil as part of a court ruling that it purchase Orascom s stake in a holding company that owns 51 percent of Mobinil. Orascom Telecom said earlier in April that France Telecom had not met a deadline set by the Egyptian firm to complete a deal to buy its shares in Mobinil. France Telecom said it submitted all the details for the deal to go through. -Reuters EFG, partners eye European infrastructure fund Egypt s EFG-Hermes said on Thursday it would take part in a new fund targeting ?1 billion ($1.33 billion) to invest in infrastructure projects in eastern and southern Europe. The governing bodies of Caisse des Depots (France), Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (Italy), EFG Hermes (Egypt) and Caisse de Depot et de Gestion (Morocco) have approved a joint commitment of up to ?400 million for InfraMed (fund), EFG-Hermes said in a statement. The fund will be open to long-term investors in Europe, Middle East and North Africa and aimed to raise ?1 billion, the Egyptian investment bank said. The purpose of InfraMed is to be an equity investor in primarily greenfield projects to build urban, energy and transport infrastructure in the southern and eastern Mediterranean region, it said. -Reuters Average yields on Egypt T-bills The average yield on Egyptian 273-day treasury bills rose slightly to 10.522 percent at an auction on Thursday, compared with 10.509 percent at the last week s auction. The central bank said it accepted bids for bills worth LE 3 billion ($532.46 million), the same amount it was seeking. It accepted bids at rates between 10.3 and 10.67 percent, compared to a range of 10.29 to 10.64 percent at the previous auction. The bills are for issue on May 5 and they mature on Feb. 2, 2010. In related news, the average yield on Egyptian 364-day treasury bills was 10.500 percent at an auction on Thursday, compared to 10.569 percent at the last auction on April 2. The central bank said it accepted bids for bills worth LE 3 billion ($532.46 million), the same amount it was seeking. It accepted bids at rates between 10.3 and 10.609 percent, versus 10.4 to 10.66 percent at the previous auction, it added. The bills are for issue on May 5 and they mature on May 4, 2010. -Reuters Vodafone Qatar $929 mln IPO fully subscribed Vodafone s Qatari unit said on Thursday its 3.38 billion riyal ($928.6 million) initial public offering had been fully subscribed, making it the second-largest IPO ever in the Gulf Arab oil and gas exporter. Investors offered 3.35 billion riyals, after expenses, for shares in the offering, said Ray Maurer, managing director of QNB Capital, one of the lead managers of the IPO. Given the challenging times we are facing in the global financial markets, we consider it an enormous success to sell this issue, Maurer told Reuters. The company said in a statement the IPO was fully subscribed. Vodafone Qatar sold 338.1 million shares for 10 riyals each, representing a 40 percent stake, in an offering from April 12 to April 26. -Reuters Emaar Q1 slumps as Dubai property sales slow Dubai s Emaar Properties posted a 73.6 percent drop in first-quarter profit as a property slump hit sales and deliveries, but the bankruptcy of its US unit gave it a break from writedowns. Dubai s once-booming property sector is suffering a sharp slowdown, with real estate prices tumbling 41 percent in the first three months of 2009, according to property consultants Colliers. The slowdown has led to project cancellations worth billions of dollars. Emaar, which is building the world s tallest tower in Dubai where it still derives the bulk of its revenues, said net income in the first quarter fell to 237 million dirhams ($64.52 million), or 0.04 dirham per share. That was down from 896 million dirhams, or 0.05 dirham per share, in the year-earlier period. The revenues and profit for the first quarter 2009 are lower than the same period of 2008 due to lower deliveries and also lower sales of completed units, Emaar said in a statement. The company returned to profit after posting a 1.77 billion dirham loss in the fourth quarter as it was forced to take impairments and writedowns related to struggling US home builder John Laing Homes, which it took over in June 2006. Emaar took about 4 billion dirhams of losses related to that acquisition before John Laing in February sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a move analysts said would allow Emaar to concentrate on performance in its home market. The first-quarter results showed no impairment of good will and no writedowns. Revenues fell to 1.55 billion dirhams in the quarter from 2.52 billion dirhams a year earlier, Emaar said. -Reuters
