CAIRO: Egypt's Madinet Nasr for Housing and Development (MNHD) has called off a planned merger with the Sixth of October Development and Investment Company (SODIC), according to a document seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

SODIC planned to acquire MNDH through a mandatory purchase offer in October that entailed the exchange of one of SODIC's shares for every two of MNHD's.

The document, a letter dated Jan 22 sent from MNHD to SODIC, listed several reasons for the decision.

One issue cited in the letter was SODIC's settlement worth 800 million Egyptian pounds ($45 million) paid to Egypt's illicit gains authority relating to a 1,400-acre plot west of Cairo. 

Neither SODIC nor MNHD were immediately available for comment outside normal working hours. ($1 = 17.8600 Egyptian pounds)

(Reporting by Nadine Awadalla; additional reporting by Ehab Farouk; editing by Gareth Jones and Sandra Maler) ((Nadine.Awadalla@thomsonreuters.com))