The beginning was with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Egypt, which hired Abou Ghaly Motors as a dealership for Alfa Romeo cars, in addition to the current dealer, Nile Engineering. Under the contract, Abou Ghaly Motors would offer integrated services to Alfa Romeo's customers in Egypt, including sales, aftersales services, maintenance, and spare parts. The agreement, signed in 2017, built on the relationship between Fiat Chrysler Automobile Egypt and Abou Ghaly Motors, through its agency of Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge. During the last few months of the year, Toyota Egypt has been working to obtain the Lexus dealership in Egypt, which finally happened early 2018. CEO of Toyota Egypt, Ahmed Monsef, following signing the Lexus dealership agreement, said that it will rearrange the market shares in Egypt. Moreover, by the end of 2017, Groupe PSA (Peugeot, Citroën, DS, Opel, and Vauxhall) has chosen the consortium of Mansour Group and Dubai-based Scope as its dealers in Egypt. Daily News Egypt had revealed in November that Mansour Group is close to seizing the dealership, after its shares rose following Groupe PSA acquiring Opel in March, for which Mansour has been a dealership for years. The French group, in May 2017, invited the companies to make their bids for an open contract to import and distribute Peugeot cars in Egypt. The Cairo for Development and Cars Manufacturing, a former Peugeot agent, had received a notice from the French company last year to increase the presence of Peugeot in the Egyptian car market, and increase the quantities of imported cars and expand in service centres. Geyushi Motors also acquired FAW Group, which is the largest state-owned Chinese auto company. FAW Group is one of the world's largest companies and has an annual production capacity of more than 3m vehicles. Under the cooperation, Geyushi Motors will become the sole agent of FAW in Egypt, and will assemble the Chinese company's brands locally and export them to Africa and the Middle East, according to Mohy El-Din Geyushi, chairperson of Geyushi Motors. Moreover, Skoda terminated its agreement with ARTOC Auto and moved the dealership to Kayan Egypt. Under the contract, Kayan Egypt became a non-exclusive importer of Skoda cars and spare parts. It also became a verified service provider. The year saw strong competition between Kayan Egypt and ARTOC Auto on Skoda's agency rights, ending with the latter filing a lawsuit at the Cairo Court of Urgent Matters, which ruled, on 27 April 2017, of not having jurisdiction over the lawsuit filed by ARTOC, in which it asked to ban imports of Skoda cars and spare parts. The case was closed after Kayan Egypt signed the agreement with the parent company. In terms of transportation dealerships, Al-Futtaim FAMCO acquired the Iveco trucks dealership in Egypt after two years of negotiations. Al-Futtaim FAMCO had announced in 2015 its intention to obtain the agency rights of Iveco. FAMCO has yet to announce its future plans for further dealerships, including acquiring an Asian bus company dealership in Egypt, next to acquiring CNH Industrial's constructions and infrastructure vehicles, such as loaders and excavators. With regard to lubricants, Al Manar signed an agreement with Honeywell to offer Bendix in Egypt and North Africa. Ahmed Nawara, deputy chairperson of the company, said that Al-Manar Group invested EGP 50m, including the value of assets and the working capital, in the brake oil plant that was established in Sixth of October City. The plant's annual production stands at approximately 3,000 tonnes, of which 2,000 tonnes is brake fluid, with the remaining 1,000 tonnes being other fluid types. Al-Manar imports raw materials and mixes and packages them at the parent company that was established in 2000 in Sixth of October City.
