CAIRO - Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG), Egypt's biggest developer by market value, reported a 16.7 per cent drop in 2010 full-year net profit, the firm said in financial daily Al Mal on Sunday. Talaat Moustafa's 2010 net profit was 1 billion Egyptian pounds, down from 1.2 billion pounds a year earlier, while its net revenues soared to 5.3 billion pounds from 4.8 billion pounds in 2009. TMG's fourth-quarter net profit fell to 136.4 million Egyptian pounds from 167 million pounds - an 18.3 per cent drop. TMG's $3 billion Madinaty project has been mired in a legal row since September when a court upheld a ruling that a sale of state land to TMG was illegal because there was no auction. Building has already started on the Madinaty project, meant to include shops, hotels, homes, schools and a golf course. The plot makes up about two thirds of TMG's land. The court's decision rattled investors and led to copycat challenges to other state land sales. The firm had said it signed the new contract to replace the scrapped deal last November. Analysts had previously expected the firm's sales to be held back in the fourth quarter as investors wait for new legislation to unify state land allocations, which the cabinet had vowed to push for and had already drafted.
