Al-Ahram Weekly | Economy

		24 - 30 October 2002 Issue No. 609 Economy	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Recommend this page

Market steps

A CONFERENCE aimed at raising investors' knowledge of the workings of the Egyptian Stock Market begins today at the Nasr City Fairgrounds. The four-day conference, "Step by Step," organised by Al-Ahram Organisation and to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, is also expected to tackle the obstacles standing in the way of public investment in the market.
During the first three days, which will be open to the public, discussions will revolve around the laws regulating stock market investments, the impact of data dissemination on stock prices and investment planning, among other things. The conference's fourth day will be attended by capital market officials and financial experts, in addition to the ministers of foreign trade, finance and the public enterprise sector.
Reducing the risk

THE NATIONAL Bank of Egypt has become the first state-owned bank to form a unit devoted solely to risk management. The unit will assess and manage risks related to changes in liquidity levels, foreign exchange and interest rates.This step is in line with reform plans for the banking sector, based on the new Banking Law draft the Ministry of Justice is currently working on. The draft law will be submitted to the People's Assembly in November.
The new law will impose penalties on banks which do not provide the Central Bank of Egypt with valid information on loan defaults. The law will also impose regulations which, it is hoped, will lower credit risk in the banking sector.
New EAB strategy?

THE MANAGEMENT of the Egyptian American Bank (EAB), one of the largest Egyptian joint-venture banks, has sent a letter to the bourse in denial of reports that it received an offer for its shares. Rumours of an impending deal had pushed EAB's share prices up at the start of the trading week. Shares were heavily traded, gaining 6.35 per cent on Sunday, closing at LE28.31. This is not the first time that EAB has attracted investors because of deal rumours. Over the last year, several investors have shown an interest in EAB, ever since its major shareholders, including Bank of Alexandria, announced that they would sell their stakes.
Last May, reports that the Kuwaiti Burgan Bank would buy a majority stake in EAB did not materialise into an actual deal. In 2001, the UK-based Standard Chartered Bank had expressed an interest in buying EAB. However, negotiations stalled because of differences over price. In April the bank's then chairman, Mahmoud Abdel-Salam Omar, announced that the Bank of Alexandria had decided to postpone selling off its 32.5 stake interest in EAB, awaiting a "more appropriate" time. At present, American Express Holdings now holds a 40.83 per cent stake in the bank, and the Bank of Alexandria 32.5 per cent. The rest of the shares are owned by the bank's employees and private individuals.
Accor bids for GHT

FRENCH hotel operator Accor has bid to buy Gezira Hotels and Tourism (GHT) for $162 per share.
However, Accor stated that it will not pursue the deal if it does not obtain, at the very least, a 57.75 per cent stake in GHT. Sell orders are to be presented to brokerage companies for one week, ending on Sunday 27 October. It is hoped that the deal will be concluded within two weeks.
A bourse statement confirmed that 372,193 shares will be offered (100 per cent of the company). This will make the maximum bid price approximately $60.3 million.
Eco pledge

THE ENVIRONMENTAL Sector Programme (ESP) funded by Denmark's International Development Assistance (DANIDA) will provide interest free loans to Egyptian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to help them improve their environmental conditions.
The six-year programme has a total budget of 367 million Danish Krone (approximately $48 million) and was initiated in 2001 as a grant to the Egyptian government. As part of its activities, ESP will support an Environmental Information Monitoring Programme and extend technical assistance to the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation as well as the Shore Protection Agency.
ESP will also support a Cleaner Production Technologies Programme in cooperation with the Federation of Egyptian Industries. This programme will help the owners of SMEs eliminate pollution and environmental waste. Assistance will also be extended to the Egyptian Company for Chemical Industries in Aswan (Kima), enabling it to comply with environmental regulations. FEI says that implementation of the programme's first phase began last week with the offering of interest free loans to 90 SMEs in the textiles, food-stuffs and engineering sectors.

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