EGX opens the candidacy door for companies registered in the main market and NILEX

The decision is in line with the president's amendment of the regulating controls of EGX: Omran

The EGX announced on Thursday that it plans to reopen the door for candidacy for the seats of companies registered in NILEX, and that the elections of its board of directors is set to take place on 22 June and will be limited to the seats of companies' representatives.
Mohamed Omran, the chairperson of EGX, said that the decision is part of the President's recently issued decision to amend some of the provisions of law No. 191 for year 2009, including controls regulating the EGX and its financial affairs.
He added that the EGX has addressed the head of the State Council's department of Fatwa and Legislation to ask for his opinion regarding these amendments and their impact on the EGX board of directors' elections.
The amendments stipulated that the EGX would have a chairperson and a vice chairperson hired through a decision from the prime minister for a term of four years, and the chairperson can only be elected for a second term.
The amendments stipulated that the EGX would have a board of directors headed by the chairperson, vice chairperson, a representative of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), and three representatives of companies working in the field of securities and chosen through elections, in addition to independent members with experience chosen by the prime minister for a term of four years.
This month, the EGX excluded the four candidates for the NILEX seat for different reasons, most prominently due to the condition of increasing capital to exceed EGP 25m—a condition which was excluded from the new amendments.
The excluded candidates include Ahmed Bahaa, managing director of MP Engineering, and Mansour El Barbary, who were both excluded due to the capital of their companies exceeding EGP 25m, in addition to Hussein Sadek from General Tours and Yehia Ashour from Port Said Agricultural Development and Construction.
Ahmed Bahaa said that he will submit his request to be a candidate for the EGX's board of directors once the door is open again.
He said that after the decision made by the country's president regarding the structure of the board of directors and allocating a seat for NILEX, MP Engineering is avoiding the obstacles that could hinder it from candidacy.
Awad El Tersawy, the legal advisor of the Egyptian Capital Market Association (ECMA), said that the decision made by the president has specified the structure of the EGX's board of directors and stipulated there must be a seat for NILEX, making it important for EGX to reopen the door for candidacy for the NILEX seat, especially after the four candidates were excluded.
El Tersawy predicted that elections will be postponed for two weeks.
The judicial committee, which is headed by representatives of the State Council, supervises the elections, and it announced last week that nine candidates were excluded from the elections of the EGX's board of directors, including Moustafa Wahdan, the managing director of a securities trade company. He was excluded because the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) has filed a lawsuit against him and the case is still pending in judiciary.
For his part, Khaled El Tayeb, chairperson of Pioneers Investments, said he intends to file a lawsuit against the committee supervising the EGX elections after being ruled out.
He told Daily News Egypt that he was excluded because of the educational qualification condition, adding that the committee did not comply with the decision of the Minister of Education regarding the educational certificates obtained in Arab countries being equal to those obtained in Egypt.
The elections of the EGX's board of directors will take place on the 22 June. According to the results, five members will be chosen from registered and operating companies, along with the stock exchange of small and medium enterprises. The EGX has accepted the paper of ten individuals out of 19 who applied.
Candidates compete for five seats on the board, including two for registered companies—one of them is in the main market and another in NILEX—in addition to three seats for companies working in the field of securities, with at least one of them representing brokerage companies and another representing companies working in the field of securities.
Receiving objections on the elections results or its procedures will start on 25 June for a period of three days.
According to the final lists, candidates for the seat of companies working in the field of securities are Ahmed Aboul Saad, chairperson of Rasmala Egypt Securities, and Yasser Omara from Eagle Financial Consultations.
Candidates for the seat of brokerage companies include Ehab Saeed, managing director of Osool ESB Securities Brokerage; Sameh El Azab from Watheeqa Securities Brokerage; Soliman Nazmy, chairperson of Al Ahram Securities Brokerage; Shawkat Al-Maraghi, managing director of HC Securities and Investment; and Mohamed Abdel Fattah from Ostoul Securities Brokerage.
For the seat of registered companies, Hashim El Sayed, the managing director of Egyptians for Housing and Development Company (EHDR), was accepted, in addition to Waleed Gamal El-dein, chairperson of Modern Company Insulation Bitumode.
The EGX excluded Khaled Mohamed Abou Heif, the CEO and managing director of Arab Moltaqa Investments Company (AMIC).
AMIC has submitted a petition to the committee specialised in examining the objections on the list of candidates for the EGX board of directors in order to look into the decision of ruling out the company's candidate even though he complies to the standards approved by EFSA according to article 3/5 from the ministerial decision No. 96 for year 2017. The decision was issued by Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr regarding making the company an active one according to the standards approved by the EFSA.