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CAIRO: Egypt’s central bank kept its key overnight interest rates unchanged on Thursday, its fifth pause since it stopped lowering rates in September, the central bank said on its website. The overnight lending rate was left at 9.75 percent and the deposit rate stayed at 8.25 percent, the website said. The discount rate was also …
CAIRO: Egypt’s Raya Technology and Communication will pay a cash dividend of 0.25 Egyptian pounds per share, the stock exchange said on Thursday, up from LE 0.21 the year before. The dividend will be paid on May 23 to investors holding the shares on May 18, the bourse said. Shares in Raya were trading up …
CAIRO: Egypt’s Communications Ministry said on Thursday it had launched the first Internet domain name using Arabic letters to try to boost e-services and the number of people online in the most populous Arab nation. "Introducing Arabic domain names is a milestone in Internet history," Communications Minister Tarek Kamel said in a statement. "This great …
TEHRAN: Iran raised 140 million euros on the first day of a 250 million euro bond offering to help finance development of the giant South Pars natural gas field, the official IRNA news agency reported on Wednesday. The issue is part of a 1 billion euro bond sale which got under way in March with …
BEIRUT: Yemen can no longer feed its people as its economy buckles under the strain of declining oil and water resources, corruption and violent conflicts. One in three of Yemen‘s 23 million people suffer chronic hunger and more than one in 10 Yemeni children are acutely malnourished, UN aid agencies said on Tuesday. Such bleak …
KUWAIT: Shareholders of Kuwait’s Global Investment House approved a 76-percent capital hike worth around $346 million on Wednesday. This will raise the capital of Global, one of the Gulf Arab state’s biggest investment firms, to 231.24 million dinars ($800 million) through issuing shares at a nominal value of 100 fils per share. There are 1,000 …
SINGAPORE: Qatar International Petroleum Marketing Co Ltd, or Tasweeq, will raise monthly exports of plant condensate, or light naphtha, from Ras Laffan by up to 70,000 tons to 220,000 tons from second-half 2010, as its No. 7 train comes on-stream, industry sources said on Wednesday. This is coming at a time when Abu Dhabi National …
CAIRO: National Societe Generale Bank (NSGB), Egypt’s second biggest bank by market capital, said on Wednesday that first quarter net profit edged up 1 percent year on year, beating analyst expectations. Net profit for the quarter was LE 353.3 million ($63 million) compared with a restated LE 348.6 million in the first quarter of 2009. …
TEHRAN: Iran said on Wednesday it had killed five members of a Kurdish guerilla group in the westerly Kermanshah province, semi-official Fars news agency reported. Ali Akbar Nouri, a commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, said the five, including two women, were members of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK). "Two other members …
CAIRO: The board of Egypt’s Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) approved the sale of LE 1.65 billion ($296.1 million) in 5-year bonds to finance acquisitions, the firm said on Wednesday. The funds would also be used to refinance its balance sheet, OCI said in a statement released by the stock exchange. The builder and fertilizer-maker, Egypt’s …
Egypt’s main index ended below 7,200 points for the first time since early April, hit by a sell-off on heavyweight Orascom Telecom (OT) and negative global sentiment. OT ended 7.3 percent lower as investors, believing a sale of assets is unlikely to proceed quickly, booked profits and exited leveraged positions, traders said. OT rose sharply …
TEHRAN: Iran announced new naval war games on Tuesday and revealed that one of its military aircraft had photographed a US aircraft carrier, a day after Washington said Tehran was challenging its sea power in the Middle East. The plane flew over the carrier in the Sea of Oman and took pictures of it, a …
DUBAI: The Saudi unit of Dubai-listed refrigeration and cooling company Tabreed has won a $480 million contract to build a central cooling station for Saudi Aramco, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. Saudi Tabreed — a Saudi private sector joint venture company with Tabreed, also known as the National Cooling Co — expects to complete the …
DUBAI: Qatar Airways increased its order for Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner to six from two and expects to take delivery by September next year, the carrier’s chief executive said on Tuesday. "At the moment, we will be receiving six 787s next year; initially it was two," Akbar al-Baker told reporters at a travel and tourism …
DUBAI: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) on Tuesday said that for the first time it assigned a rating to a sharia fund, in a bid to boost transparency in an industry that has come under fire after some recent defaults. S&P said it assigned a "AAf/S1+" fund credit and volatility rating to a Luxembourg-based, …
LONDON: US crude oil fell more than $1 to below $85 per barrel on Tuesday, retreating from 19-month highs ahead of an expected rise in US crude and fuel stocks and as the dollar strengthened. Data published later on Tuesday is likely to show US crude inventories rose last week as a discount for prompt …
CAIRO: The weighted average yield at a 7-day deposit auction was 8.278 percent, compared with 8.276 percent at last week’s auction, Egypt’s central bank said on Tuesday. The bank had asked for LE 40 billion ($7.2 billion) and received bids worth 47.495 billion pounds. It accepted the whole amount at rates between 8.265 percent and …
DUBAI: French hotel and services group Accor (ACCP.PA), which recently posted better-than-expected first-quarter results, said on Monday it saw room for further growth in certain "hot spots" in the Middle East and North Africa, China and India. Syria and Saudi Arabia were key areas where Accor, which has a pipeline of 20 hotels in the …
CAIRO: Egypt’s main index rose 0.3 percent, led by Egyptian Resorts and Commercial International Bank (CIB). Egyptian Resorts rose 3.6 percent after Samih Sawiris, the chairman of Swiss-based developer Orascom Development Holding (ODH), said he would join the firm’s board. "ODH being a part of Egyptian Resorts is going to push Egyptian Resorts higher. It’s …
CAIRO: Swiss-based developer Orascom Development Holding, which has lifted profits despite a world downturn, said on Monday it planned to expand home sales in major resort towns and build up its budget housing business. The firm has sold 20 million Swiss francs ($18.5 million) worth of units in its Switzerland resort town Andermatt and aims …
CAIRO: Egyptian cigarette monopoly Eastern Company said it planned to raise exports 3 percent to LE 62.1 million ($11.2 million) in its 2010-11 year. Eastern, whose trademark brands include Cleopatra cigarettes and tobacco, also said in a statement on Monday it planned to raise local sales 3 percent to LE 10.1 billion in 2010-2011. Eastern …
Egypt opened bidding for two cement production licenses on Monday but will not allow existing cement firms in Egypt to bid in an effort to boost competition and bring down prices, the industrial authority said. Egypt’s construction industry has grown even as it stalled elsewhere in the region due to the global economic downturn. Cement …
Egypt’s Housing and Development Bank said a rights issue had been 70.8 percent covered, the stock exchange reported on Monday. The rights issue was part of plans to raise the bank’s capital by LE 930 million ($168 million). The amount not raised by the rights issue was to come from selling shares to the public …
The average yield on Egyptian 266-day treasury bills rose to 10.413 percent at an auction on Monday, compared with 10.141 percent at the last auction on April 12. The central bank said it accepted bids for bills worth LE 3 billion ($540 million), the same amount it was seeking. It accepted bids at rates between …
Orascom Telecom has a week to disclose further detail on the Mobinil deal reached with co-owner France Telecom, Egypt’s market regulator said on Monday. The Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority said it wanted to know how the companies calculated a $300 million settlement fee being paid to Orasocm and an Orascom put option price. EFSA also …
Egypt’s main index rebounded from losses over the last three days, led by Mobinil, which rose steadily during the session. Mobinil ended 3.1 percent higher and the index 0.7 percent higher. Telecom firms had borne the brunt of uncertainty surrounding the possible sale of all or part of Orascom Telecom’s operations to South Africa’s MTN. …
DUBAI: Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc, which has 20 hotels in the pipeline for the Middle East region, is looking to add a similar pipeline in two to three years, a company executive said on Sunday. Roeland Vos, president for Europe, Africa and Middle East, told Reuters growth opportunities in the region were plenty. …
SINGAPORE: The focus of the Middle East spot crude market this week will be the release of official selling prices (OSPs), as refiners and traders calculate their requirements and gauge market sentiment for the front-month July trading. In the Asia-Pacific crude market, unsold June condensate cargoes are under pressure, as the market is gradually shifting …
DUBAI: Financial services group Shuaa Capital swung to a net profit in the first quarter, helped by its asset management business and lower expenses. Shuaa posted AED19.5 million ($5.3 million) first-quarter net profit on Monday, after a 202 million net loss in the 2009 period. Its asset management business made an AED8.3 million profit, compared …
TEHRAN: Iran is investing more than $5 billion in nine major petrochemical projects which will be completed during the 2010-11 year, a senior official said in remarks published on Monday. Abdolhossein Bayat, head of the National Petrochemical Company (NPC), said the facilities would boost output capacity by 10.5 million tons and create 3,000 new jobs, …
