OCI helps Egypt index rise for 3rd day Egypt s main index rebounded for a third session, pulled up by Orascom Construction Industries (OCI), which jumped after releasing its fourth-quarter results. The EGX30 fell as much as 6 percent earlier this week over concerns about President Hosni Mubarak s health, but has recouped over half those losses since Tuesday. I think the market s headed forward. It s about time. We ve had a very, very big pullback and hopefully things will start moving upwards, said Hashem Ghoneim of Pyramids Capital. Shares in OCI, Egypt s biggest listed firm by market capitalization, rose 4.4 percent after it said net profit jumped 42 percent compared to a year earlier, roughly in line with analyst expectations. Citadel Capital gained 4.4 percent. A flood of news about the private equity firm, including its 2009 results, has boosted interest in the stock, Ghoneim said. Citadel said on Tuesday it expects to raise $2.2 billion for an Egyptian refinery by the second quarter. Last week it said it was setting up a $150 million co-investment fund for Africa. The main index closed up 0.8 percent at 6,610 points. -Reuters Egyptian remittances drop 6.17 pct in Jul-Dec 2009 The amount of money sent home by Egyptians living abroad dropped 6.17 percent to $4.362 billion in the first half of fiscal year 2009/2010, the central bank said on its website on Thursday. Remittances from Egyptians living abroad were $4.649 billion in the same period a year ago. Remittances are an important source of foreign currency for Egypt, along with tourism, oil and gas exports and Suez Canal revenues. The fiscal year in Egypt starts in July. -Reuters Wind 2009 net profit drops 20 percent Italy-based mobile phone operator Wind Telecomunicazioni posted a 20 percent fall in 2009 net profit to ?308 million ($425 million) on Wednesday, citing higher taxes and interest expenses. The firm, owned by holding company Weather Investments which also owns Cairo-based Orascom Telecom, said its total indebtedness was ?8.541 billion by the end of 2009, compared to ?6.070 billion at end-2008. A Wind unit placed a ?2.7 billion bond in July. Wind had revenues of ?5.726 billion, a 4.7 percent increase on a year earlier. Its income tax bill more than doubled to ?273 million this year from ?132 million. The firm said it had 18.4 million mobile subscribers, 2.8 million fixed-line voice and 1.6 million broadband customers. -Reuters Egypt, Pakistan urged to enhance bilateral trade relations Ambassador of Egypt to Pakistan Magdy Amer stressed the need to enhance bilateral trade relations between Pakistan and Egypt to tap the existing potential. Exchanging views with business community at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the ambassador said that bilateral trade between the two countries was far below than the desired level. He said that both the countries have potential to improve trade relations, and measures should be taken to facilitate regular Business to Business interactions between entrepreneurs of the two countries. Egypt has good experience of utilizing alternative and renewable energy sources, he added, and Pakistan could get cooperation in this sector for overcoming its energy problems. The Egypt Businesswomen Association and Pakistani women entrepreneurs should enhance contacts to promote business relations. Amer said that Egypt has set up investment zones and Pakistani investors could promote duty free exports to Europe and USA by investing in these cones as Egypt has duty free access to these markets. The Egyptian Embassy provides a visa within 48 hours while Pakistan investors could get three-years residential visa to do business in Egypt. He pinpointed agriculture, food processing, textiles, engineering, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and building material as potential areas of cooperation between the two countries. -APP Lockheed gets $213 million for Egypt jets The US government has given Lockheed Martin Corp. an initial $213 million to build 20 F-16 jet fighters for Egypt. The decision caps an agreement last December in the which the US aerospace giant would sell 24 F-16 fighter aircraft to Egypt for more than $3.2 billion. The order, which was approved this month, includes 16 F16Cs and F-16Ds, which are expected to bolster Egypt s designs to replenish its aging fleet of jet fighters. The deliveries are set to run through 2013 and the $213 million contract fee concerns preliminary work for the production of the 20 advanced aircraft. It wasn t immediately clear whether the new jets for Egypt would have the advanced Sniper targeting system, The Orlando Sentinel reported. Billed by the plane manufacturer as the pod of choice in the international marketplace, Lockheed said it had provided relevant information to the US government about the use of Sniper on the batch of aircraft bound for Egypt. The advanced targeting system was included in a similar deal for F-16 jets ordered by Morocco late last year. Egypt was the first country in the Arab world to buy F-16s through a Foreign Military Sales program called Peace Vector. It received 42 F-16s in its first order 30 years ago and has since then placed five more orders for a total of 240 F-16 Fighting Falcons. John Larson, vice president of Lockheed Martin F-16 programs, said in a company statement that the latest deal with Egypt bore testament to the enduring partnership and commitment we have made to the government of Egypt. The sales were first announced in 2007 and included 10-year military assistance packages of $30 billion for Israel and $13 billion for Egypt as well as Foreign Military Sales estimated at about $20 billion and spread among Gulf Nations including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan and Qatar. -UPI
