Market report

---

The market is witnessing a mixed performance, mainly led by alternative selling by local and foreign investors. While foreigners were mostly buyers over the past two weeks, this was reversed in the early transactions of this week. CASE30 ended Monday transactions at 9,351 points, its lowest value since the beginning of the year.

On the macroeconomic level, revenues from the Suez Canal reached a record of $5.113 billion in the fiscal year ending 30 June, marking a $945.6 million increase from the previous year. The number of vessels passing through the waterway rose to 21,080 ships from 19,479 the year before.

On the fiscal front, Egypt's subsidy bill during the period July, 2007-May 2008 reached LE76 billion, marking a 130 per cent increase on levels the previous year. Total expenditures to GDP grew by 4.6 per cent to reach LE233.5 billion versus LE162.6 billion.

According to the Ministry of Investment, a total of 133 companies were created last week, with a paid-in capital of LE918 million.

EGYPTIAN COMPANY FOR MOBILE SERVICES (MOBINIL) recently spent LE3 billion to upgrade its cellular phone network, but has not yet begun providing subscribers with 3G services.

ORASCOM DEVELOPMENT HOLDING (ODH) Chairman Samih Sawiris bought around 6,500 company shares traded through the Swiss Stock Exchange, at an average share price of 113 Swiss Franks this week.

ORASCOM TELECOM HOLDING (OTH) is heading to North America, it announced on Tuesday, as part of a consortium which won the bid to create a Canadian-owned and controlled wireless operator. According to the Dow Jones newswire, the new licence which cost 442 million Canadian dollars will be awarded pending regulatory approval by Industry Canada.

In compliance with Canadian ownership and control regulations, OTH will be taking a non-controlling interest in the new Canadian wireless operator. The new venture, set to provide coverage to a population of 26 million, with Canada's Globalive Communications Corp, the parent company of Yak Communications which offers dial-around, home phone, Internet and long distance services to more than one million customers across Canada.

On the local front, OTH transferred 1.798 million of its GDRs to 8.963 million shares. The GDRs were bought back by the company through a recent second tender offer to buy treasury shares. OTH will hold an extraordinary general assembly meeting next week to reduce the company's paid-in capital through the termination of those treasury shares.

ARAB POLVARA SPINNING AND WEAVING, the state-owned company, is evacuating two of its production facilities in Alexandria. Production at these locations is being merged with other existing ones, with the aim of reducing the number of production units to four, as part of the first stage of restructuring the Alexandria production facility.

Moreover, the company is currently studying the establishment of a new production line focussing on exports to be completed within two years.

TALAAT MUSTAFA GROUP (TMG)'s 50 per cent-owned management company Hill TMG was awarded nine project management assignments from the Talaat Mustafa Group. The assignments have a combined estimated value of $96 million.

The projects are the Madinaty Open Air Mall in Cairo; the Madinaty Four Seasons Golf Resort in Cairo; the Luxor Four Seasons Hotel in Luxor; the Madinaty 45-hole golf course in Cairo; the Sharm El-Sheikh Four Seasons Hotel expansion in Sharm El-Sheikh; the Nile Hotel in Cairo; the Marsa Alam Resort in Marsa Alam; the TMG Offices and Hotel in Cairo; and the Nessamat Al-Rihab residential development in Riyadh.

TMG Chairman Hesham Talaat Mustafa said the company's pre-sales (units that are not yet delivered) reached LE25 billion as of June 2008 with a net income of LE8 billion.

ORASCOM CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES (OCI), the regional construction conglomerate, formed a new joint venture in Abu Dhabi called Emirates Foundation. Other partners in the venture are Hydra Commercial Investments, Sorouh Real Estate and Capital Investment. OCI will have a 50 per cent stake in the new company.

Emirates Foundation will specialise in geotechnical engineering and foundation works. Its capital is expected to be around $80 million which will be financed through IPO and debt.

COMMERCIAL INTERNATIONAL BANK (CIB) will today distribute two free shares for each existing one as a dividend. Accordingly, the bank's paid-in capital will increase from LE1.9 billion to LE2.925 billion. The bank will finance the increase through its reserves.

Compiled by Sherine Abdel-Razek