Orascom Development Holding shareholders agreed on Tuesday to a 0.65 Swiss franc ($0.586) per share cash distribution that will reduce the nominal value of their shares, the company said. The cash distribution, which will reduce the par value of each share by 0.5 francs, is unrelated to a capital increase called off two weeks ago after Orascom detected irregular trading activity the day before, the company said. "The point is to pay something back to shareholders and show the markets we're on the right track," director of Investor Relations Mamdouh Abdel Wahab told Reuters. The Swiss-based company, whose main presence is in Egypt, had planned to sell shares representing 9.9 percent of its capital on April 27 and use the proceeds to speed up construction of hotels and other projects. Orascom mostly builds and manages mixed-use resorts, but it also owns land, hotels and budget housing in countries across the Middle East and Europe. The company, which uses the pre-sale of homes as a main source of finance, is not short on cash but is keen to keep its debt low as it builds new projects, Abdel Wahab said. Since the capital increase was canceled, its board has been studying various forms of raising more finance. "We're not cash-strapped or anything," he said.
