The slight gains the market achieved at the end of 2008 and early 2009 stirred a limited wave of profit- taking which neither pushed the CASE30 index southward too hard nor caused heavy losses.
The CASE30 index edged up and down in a 0.5 to one per cent range starting Tuesday 6 January through Monday, which saw the index close at 4,600 points.
Last week was eventful on the macroeconomic level. Urban inflation fell to 18.3 per cent in December from 20.3 per cent in November, on the back of the drop in global commodity prices.
Meanwhile, Egypt's net international reserves (NIR) dropped, for the second consecutive month, to reach $34.1 billion in December. NIR had been rising steadily since August 2004, when it registered $14.6 billion.
Palm Hills Developments (PHD): Rumours spread in the market that the local developer may buy the UAE-based Damac Properties Land bank in Egypt. PHD officials have recently hinted that they are open to any strategic investment that would strengthen its land bank. Meanwhile, Mahmoud Mohieldin, Egypt's minister of investment, confirmed earlier this week that there would be no delays in real estate projects undertaken by Emirati companies in Egypt since these companies have the liquidity required to complete the projects in time.
Talaat Mustafa Group (TMG): Talaat Mustafa for Real Estate and Tourism Investment the main shareholder in TMG with 49 per cent ownership made an early payment for an instalment due 30 June 2009 of its LE560 million loan. TMG is considering bidding for the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Cairo.
EFG-Hermer: The company will allocate the 3.8 million GDRs it bought recently as treasury shares to its employee stock ownership plan. According to the plan, employees are not allowed to sell the shares before five years, a condition that will help company shares to hedge against the market's steep declines.
ORASCOM Telecom Holding (OTH): Company Chairman Naguib Sawiris announced that his company's 100 per cent owned subsidiary Telecel Globe is considering expansion into Mali and Guinea, adding to its existing presence in Burundi, the Central African Republic, Namibia and Zimbabwe. On another note Sawiris stressed that he has no intention to sell his company's stake in Mobinil due to the current dispute with the other major shareholder, France Telecom, over Mobinil, saying that in the worst of cases OTH will buy France Telecom's stake in Mobinil and not the opposite.
RAYA Holding for Technology and Communications: The global financial crisis weakened the company's sales as a result of the weakened purchasing power, according to Medhat Khalil, the company's chairman. Khalil said that Raya is currently studying to expand its operations in unconventional markets, such as Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa and Saudi Arabia. Raya has distribution and maintenance operations in Algeria where it owns four outlets in addition to 25 shop-in-shop with Wataneya mobile operator. It also offers maintenance service in South Africa. Further-more, the company offers its IT services in the Gulf especially Saudi Arabia.
NASR City Housing and Urbanization: The company's CEO said in press reports that it might acquire loans if its current projects need more liquidity than the currently LE500 million available in its investment portfolio and its LE180 million cash at banks. He explained that the company is not facing problems of order cancellations since the company only sells completed units, not through order books and specialises in middle level housing on which the demand is still strong.
ARAFA Holding for Investments and Consultancies: The leading textiles and garments company said it has no plans to increase its stake in the Italian Forall Group before four years. Arafa Holding acquired a 35 per cent stake of Forall in December with the option to acquire the remaining 65 per cent in five years time through a call option. The acquisition took place through a Forall's capital increase that has been used to expand Forall's retail network in new markets, such as India and Japan.
ORASCOM Telecom Holding (OTH): The company refused to comment on press reports that it submitted bidding for a contract to operate the two mobile companies in Lebanon. The one-year contracts of Lebanon's two mobile operators, namely Alfa and MTC Touch, a subsidiary of Zain, already expired in December 2008. The contract's life is one year and is subject to renewal only once. Other bidders are France Telecom and Zain and they had submitted bidding. Commenting on the news, CI Capital said the initiative follows Orascom Telecom's overall expansion strategy in emerging telecoms markets. However, "the investment bank added "we do not foresee much added- value to the company or to its operations, owing to the relatively small Lebanese telecoms market of only 1.3 million subscribers as of 2008, in addition to the perceived political risks that might arise in the future."
By Sherine Abdel-Razek
© Al Ahram Weekly 2009
