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Al-Ahram Weekly 23 - 29 September 1999 Issue No. 448 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 23 - 29 September 1999 Issue No. 448
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Comment Focus Special Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Reviving old splendour
By Gihan ShahineOn the night of 15 September, the area surrounding the Cairo Stock Exchange was the scene of an impressive ceremony, marking the completion of the first phase of the renovation of the bourse building and the revamping of the surrounding area. The area was bedecked to receive some 600 visitors, including cabinet ministers, ambassadors and other dignitaries. Also attending were members of the Egyptian and international business communities taking part in the Fourth Euromoney Conference, which had opened a day earlier.
The atmosphere seemed to echo the area's glamorous past. Artificial flowers were aesthetically laid out; laser lights flooded the facades of the restored buildings; wrought-iron chairs and tables were arranged at the sides of the streets; and classical music filled the air. Giant screens displayed documentary films featuring the history of the bourse and the progress of the renovation project. Visitors were treated to soft drinks, snacks and a leisurely walk before Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri stepped out of a limousine for the inauguration ceremony.
Renovation work, covering a 60,000-square-metre section of downtown Cairo, and the restoration of the bourse building's Italianate architecture were completed in a record six months. The project was the brainchild of Talaat Hammad, minister of state for cabinet affairs. But it was thanks to the generous donations of the private sector that it became reality. Funding, to the tune of LE6 million, was mainly provided by the Arab Contractors, a construction giant, and a number of businessmen.
Dar Al-Handassa, in cooperation with urban planner Ahmed Atta, donated the master plan. Yehia Zaki of Dar Al-Handassa is proud. "We started by renovating the bourse building, but then we realised that this would be meaningless without revamping its surroundings as well. The area is important, being the financial and commercial centre of the city and the destination of many foreign businessmen and brokers. Our objective was to give those businessmen a good impression of Egypt and present a model that, we hope, would be copied elsewhere. Indeed, restoring the former beauty of central Cairo has always been the dream of many city residents."
For Zaki, however, turning the dream into reality was "a major challenge." This section of downtown Cairo, extending northward from Sherif to Talaat Harb streets, and eastward from Sabri Abu-Alam to Qasr Al-Nil streets, had been marred by traffic chaos and sewage problems. "What you see today is a reminder of what Egyptians can do when they put their minds to it," boasted Bourse Chairman Sameh El-Turguman. "A few months ago, you would not have been able to walk on this street, let alone drive through it."
But now, shacks, street vendors and piles of refuse have been removed and the infrastructure upgraded. Motorised traffic has been banished from Al-Sherifein Street, where the stock exchange is located, as well as three other side-streets. Now, they are for pedestrians only. Other streets feature cobbled footpaths for pedestrians, with small lamp-posts separating them from the road proper, to be used by motorists heading to the stock exchange or delivering supplies to shops in the area.
All the streets are dotted with 19th-century-style lamp-posts and furnished with flower-beds, greenery and palm trees, as well as outdoor screens updating businessmen and agents on developments in world financial markets. A parking area can accommodate 75 cars.
"Restoration [of the area's buildings] was also a major part of the project," Zaki explained. In addition to the bourse edifice, the area is home to a number of architectural landmarks and century-old structures, featuring a blend of neo-classical, baroque, rococo and art nouveau styles. All these edifices were painted off-white to ensure architectural harmony. Old buildings with decaying facades, Zaki added, were subjected to "thorough restoration" and "renovated to their former beauty." Eyesores such as billboards and neon signs were removed and eclectic shop windows were redesigned to conform to the style of the area.
But what about maintenance? "In our master plan, we chose long-lasting paints and materials that are environment-friendly," Zaki asserted. "And, in response to our recommendations, a committee of businessmen, called Friends of the Exchange, has been formed to enforce building codes and follow up on maintenance and cleanliness at their own expense."
Younis Mohamed Younis, a businessman and member of Friends of the Exchange, is delighted with the outcome. "We're very happy to contribute to the upgrading of this area where I started my career 30 years ago," Younis said. "The stock exchange is a vital part of our economy and that's why its location must be befitting. The renovation is stunning, to say the least."
Mohamed Reda, a shop-owner who has lived in the area for more than 30 years, is equally enthusiastic. "What we have now is beyond imagination," Reda says zealously. "The change is so great and was achieved in no time. Now I am proud to live in one of the world's most beautiful and grandiose city centres. I only hope that inhabitants take good care of it."
photo: Khaled El-Fiqi 
photo: Aref Saadeddin
Back and to the future: A privately-funded renovation project is reviving the Cairo bourse and adjacent areas to their former splendour
Renovation has gone beyond the building and its surroundings. The bourse is introducing a new automated trading system that is likely to boost liquidity, efficiency and transparency. And a modern and robust technological infrastructure, as well as a state-of-the-art information system, are being installed.
In addition to establishing a company for disseminating financial and economic information inside and outside Egypt, the bourse will also be networked with other stock exchange markets outside Cairo.
"Such indoor and outdoor development of the Cairo Bourse will revive its former splendour and help it catch up with the latest technology, now that we're on the threshold of a new millennium," El-Turguman said.
Cairo's first bourse was established at the turn of the century, according to Samir Raafat, a chronicler of modern Egyptian history. Until 1903, traders and brokers had no headquarters where they could meet and make deals. The idea of building a stock exchange, akin to that of Alexandria, was first mooted by Moise Cattaoui, at the time Egypt's leading Jewish financier. The domestic market was growing then, with around 79 liability companies, with a total capital of LE29 million, involved in business activities. It was no longer appropriate for businessmen and brokers to run businesses from cafés, hotels, or side-streets, as they used to do.
On 21 May 1903, a committee of businessmen chose the old premises of the Ottoman Bank (which is now the Adli branch of Groppi) on Maghrabi Street as the temporary headquarters of the newly-incorporated Bourse and Banking Company of Egypt Limited (Bourse Khediviale du Caire). This company rented the premises for a six-month period, during which an international competition was announced for the design of a permanent bourse building. The location chosen for the bourse was at the centre of Cairo's European district of Ismailia, near the National Bank of Egypt (now the Central Bank). French architect Raoul Brandon, the designer of the Cairo Orosdi-Back (now Omar Effendi) department store, won a prize for the best design.
This was in 1907, when Egypt's stock market was booming. "The Cairo and Alexandria bourses were rated among the world's top-10 stock exchanges," Raafat wrote in an Internet article. "Egypt's economy was at an all-time high and the number of companies trading in the Cairo Bourse alone had reached 228 with a combined capital of LE91 million. Seventy-three brokers and intermediaries were on hand to take care of the spiralling share-trading. The modest premises on Maghrabi Street had most certainly outlived their usefulness."
Later in 1907, however, was a stock crash resulting in the liquidation of the Bourse and Banking Company of Egypt Limited.
Eighteen months later, the Corporation of Agents de Change commissioned the Cairo firm of Edward Matasek and Maurice J. Cattaoui to design and construct an exchange building, in collaboration with Ernest Jasper. "Adorned with Matasek's trademark accoutrements of Hermes masonic busts and ornate stucco, the resultant edifice was the handsomest building on the block," Raafat recounted. "At long last, Cairo had a real trading floor surrounded by a high gallery from where share-trading could be observed by the concerned public. Over the years, the building, which stands opposite the French Consulate, was occupied by Lloyds Bank, the British Chamber of Commerce, the National Bank of Egypt and now by the Watani Development Bank." The street where the new bourse was located was named Sharia Al-Boursa Al-Gedida, or New Bourse Street.
The new bourse launched into business on 30 April 1909, the same year that "Egypt's leading laissez-faire banker-industrialist Raphael Suares died," according to Raafat. The bourse closed for the rest of the day in mourning for Suares, for "it was thanks to his effort that Cairo had a bourse in the first place."
In 1928, the Cairo Bourse moved to its present location on Al-Sherifein Street. "The art nouveau building with its multiple neo-Doric colonnades was designed by French architect George Parcq, who was responsible for much of Cairo's elegant inter-war buildings, including Sednaoui's department store on Midan Khazindar," Raafat wrote. "Since he died in 1924, Monsieur Moise Cattaoui, the original promoter of the Cairo Bourse, had no way of knowing that four years after this the bourse would relocate to part of what had once been his Cairo palace."
Palais Cattaoui, Raafat added, extended from the National Bank of Egypt all the way to Midan Suleiman Pasha (now Talaat Harb) and was surrounded by a garden dotted with "fountains, a footpath and a grotto." Following Cattaoui's death, the premises of his elegant abode were divided and encroached upon by modern buildings. In commemoration of Cattaoui, however, one side-street near today's bourse is still named after Moussa (Moise) Cattaoui Pasha.
