Market report

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March is the month when the majority of listed companies report their full year results. Indeed a handful of market leaders released their results through last week. Most companies posted good full year results, thanks to the favourable investment climate through the first nine months of the year, before the outbreak of the financial crisis. This positive outcome was reflected in an increased appetite by local investors who ended up as net buyers through most trading sessions last week.

The value of transactions had a push to hover around an average of LE500 million compared to LE200 and LE250 million in January and February.

ORASCOM CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES: Egypt's largest listed builder said full-year net profit jumped by 230 per cent in 2008 to $719.8 million. The figure does not include profits posted through the sale of a 45 per cent stake in the Sokhna Port Development Company. The company's revenues in 2008 rose 56.2 per cent to $3.72 billion. OCI's CEO Nassef Sawiris told Reuters news agency that the company expected an increase of between 20 and 30 per cent in revenues from construction in 2009. In addition, he said the company was not considering any acquisitions over the next 20 months despite "carrying $1.5 billion of cash" on its balance sheet, and would instead focus on doubling its nitrogen fertiliser production capacity from the current level of two million tonnes.

OCI has been focussing on construction and fertilisers after it sold its cement unit to the French company Lafarge last year. The group said on Monday it had signed a deal with a unit of Brazil's Group Fertipar for the supply and import of granular urea fertilisers into Brazil. An initial shipment of 30,000 tonnes is being executed.

ORASCOM TELECOM HOLDING: OTH posted a 76 per cent decline in its net profits for 2008 to reach $431 million. However, the results look much better when exceptional profits realised at 2007 are excluded leading to a seven per cent increase in net profits for 2008 compared to 2007 levels.

A company's statement quoted OTH CEO Naguib Sawiris as saying, "In Pakistan the difficult political, economic and financial conditions combined with the dramatic devaluation of the Pakistani rupee have negatively impacted the strong performance of the rest of the group." The group's Pakistani operation Mobilink retreated in most key areas, including revenues, earnings, ARPU and number of subscribers.

However, Sawiris added that most of OTH's businesses, excluding the Pakistani operation, achieved growth and profit targets. The year witnessed an 11 per cent increase in the number of subscribers in networks that the company operates in seven countries. In all, OTH operates in Algeria, Pakistan, Tunisia, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, North Korea as well as Egypt. In 2007, the company sold its Indian subsidiary for $761 million in addition to a $920 million gain from Iraqna, its Iraqi mobile network.

The firm said average revenue per user declined in several markets as a result of increased competition.

On another front, Globalive Wireless, OTH's 65 per cent owned Canadian operation, was granted a spectrum licence for wireless Internet in Canada after paying $350.8 million for provisional spectrum in May last year.

TELECOM EGYPT: Egypt's fixed line monopoly realised a 10 per cent gain to LE2.79 billion while its fourth-quarter net profit fell by 28 per cent as the company was hit by the economic slowdown. TE Chairman Aqil Beshir commented on the news saying the company was hit by a slowdown in the broader economy caused by the global financial crisis noting that "these challenges are to continue in 2009." Beshir also explained that TE is facing fierce competition from mobile operators, a fact that is reflected in a decline in its voice call revenues. Revenues from voice services declined by five per cent to LE3.1 billion. On the other hand, TE's stake in Vodafone added LE1.31 billion to its bottom line.

According to Reuters, the firm expects to complete an undersea cable to Europe by the end of 2009. The cable, called TE North, travels from a site west of Alexandria to Marseilles in France, and connects with an existing line from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.

PALM HILLS: The real estate developer benefited from its tapping of the middle income housing market, pushing its net profits for 2008 to LE658 million. The company's sales more than doubled through the year to reach LE1.234 billion. Palm Hills said that after adding 11 million square metres to its land bank in 2008, both regionally and in Egypt, an independent revaluation put the market value of Palm Hills' properties at nearly $6 billion before adjusting for liabilities.

Compiled by Sherine Abdel-Razek