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SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates: The United Arab Emirates on Monday cut its growth forecast for this year, with Economy Minister Sultan bin Saeed Al-Mansouri saying the economy would expand by up to 2.5 percent. Last month the minister forecast 3.2 percent growth this year. The government revises its figures as often as every month and …
Bahrain’s Ahli United Bank said on Monday it will offer LE 37 Egyptian a share to buy out minority shareholders in its Egyptian subsidiary. In January, AUB raised its stake in Ahli United Bank Egypt to 79.6 percent from 35.5 percent for about $180 million. On Monday, the Bahraini lender said the offer to minority …
The Egyptian stock exchange has suspended trade on Orascom Telecom pending the firm’s planned Tuesday announcement of material information, three traders told Reuters on Monday. The Cairo-based firm told the exchange it would make its statement on Tuesday, without providing details. South Africa’s MTN Group has said it is in talks about a potential deal, …
CAIRO: Syria has given investment banking licenses to a Syrian unit that EFG-Hermes is setting up, the Cairo-based investment bank said on Monday. The licenses are for advisory and corporate finance, research, securities brokerage and asset management, the bank said in an emailed statement. They do not include underwriting. "EFG-Hermes is currently establishing EFG Hermes …
KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Gulf Bank fell to a net loss of 524,000 dinars ($1.82 million) in the first quarter of 2010 after a profit of 1.6 million dinars in the same period a year ago, the bank said on Sunday. A statement on the Kuwaiti bourse website on Sunday did not give a reason for the …
DUBAI: United Arab Emirates banks are likely to face the brunt of the Dubai World restructuring impact in the second quarter after the central bank told lenders they are not required to book provisions until there is more clarity. In a circular dated April 22, the central bank told local banks they "are not required …
LONDON: Oil fell to around $81 a barrel on Monday and touched a three-week low as the fraud charges filed against Goldman Sachs dampened risk appetite and European flying restrictions curbed jet fuel use. The drop extended the previous session s fall of 2.7 percent, the largest percentage loss since Feb. 5. European shares fell …
CAIRO: Egypt’s benchmark index ended 0.4 percent lower on Monday, pulled down by heavyweight telecoms operator Mobinil, which dropped 2.5 percent. It is Mobinil’s third day of declines since its main shareholders, Orascom Telecom and France Telecom, announced they had a broad to end a battle for control of the firm. Orascom inched up 0.1 …
CAIRO: Egypt’s main index inches down as investors switch to cash and close positions ahead of a four-day Easter weekend, traders say, though a handful of construction-related stocks eke out gains. "It’s too much of a risk to stay four days and not be able to take action if any news happens," said Mohamed Helmy …
Egyptian real estate developer Palm Hills Developments will raise its stake in Maccor for Securities Investment Company to 60 percent, the daily Al-Mal said on Tuesday. Palm Hills had bought 52 percent of Maccor, which has stakes in firms that own a total of 762 hotel rooms, for LE 141 million ($25.6 million) earlier in …
CAIRO: Swiss-based developer Orascom Development Holding’s fourth-quarter net profit jumped 50 percent after the company sold land in Oman and tourism began to recover from the financial crisis. Reuters calculated a quarterly profit of 44.7 million Swiss francs ($42 million) for the firm, which lists depositary receipts in Egypt, based on a stated full-year 2009 …
LUSAKA, Zambia: The Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa has approved a $90 million loan to Zambia to build a road that will link it to Angola and boost regional trade, the bank s CEO said on Friday. State ZANIS news agency reported that Abdelaziz Khelef, the bank s director-general, had met Zambian Vice-President …
CAIRO: Two consortiums filed bids for two licenses to supply cable, voice and Internet services to residential compounds by a Thursday deadline, Egypt’s telecom regulator said. “We have received two bids from consortiums and will study them technically and the NTRA board will make a decision sometime in May, Amr Badawi, the executive president of …
CAIRO: Orascom Telecom (OT) and France Telecom (FT) said they had a broad deal to end a battle for control over Egypt’s Mobinil and would finalize a new shareholder’s pact in weeks. Both sides met Egyptian regulators on Wednesday to present the plan that would resolve the bitter three-year spat, which played out in arbitration …
CAIRO: Egypt s finance minister said on Monday he was ready to consider a new cigarette tax to boost healthcare spending for low income groups, which is being discussed in parliament. Egypt is overhauling healthcare and insurance to improve services for its 78 million people, of which about 20 percent live on less than $1 …
DUBAI: The crowded Islamic insurance industry, which is expected to surpass $8.8 billion in premiums in 2010, will see more consolidations over the next three years as insurers are struggling to be profitable, a report said. Ernst & Young, said on Monday in its annual global report on the Islamic insurance industry, called takaful, many …
CAIRO: An Egyptian court has upheld a ruling barring a France Telecom buyout of Mobinil, Egypt s largest mobile operator by subscribers and the focus of a bitter dispute with co-owner Orascom Telecom. Judge Hamdi Yassan said minority shareholders would be disadvantaged by the French firm s offer at LE 245 ($44.40) per share, less …
CAIRO: Egypt is preparing three laws to regulate parts of its insurance industry and help insurers boost their meager market penetration, the insurance regulator said. The laws, governing microfinance, private pensions and private health insurance, follow reforms in the last few years that opened the industry to private firms, restructured state-owned insurers and regulated insurance …
CAIRO: Rowad Tourism has sold a roughly 5 percent stake in real estate firm Egyptian Resorts, giving Egyptian Resorts shares a boost. Rowad sold about 50 million shares in Egyptian Resorts for LE 2.28 ($0.41) each, Egyptian Resorts Investor Relations Manager Abu Bakr Makhlouf said. This implies a total value of LE 114 million, according …
CAIRO: Egypt s monopoly cigarette maker, Eastern Company, is considering supplying tobacco and manufacturing expertise to Sudanese firms in a step to expand in African markets, Egyptian media reported on Thursday. Eastern Company s share will range between 25 and 40 percent of net profits earned from the agreement, the daily Sharouk newspaper quoted Nabil …
CAIRO: As desertification dries up farmland across the Arab world, the region s governments cannot remedy concerns about food security solely by looking to Africa for agricultural production, a regional expert said. Desertification threatens 20 percent of the already dry Middle East and North Africa, pushing many states to invest in African farmland to feed …
CAIRO: Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieldin said on Tuesday Egyptian labor protests were focused on wages and contract demands at specific firms and did not pose a broader risk to local or foreign investment. Low wages, surging prices and privatization have been the major complaints in a rising number of industrial disputes involving public and private …
Housing and Development Bank, which is raising LE 930 million ($169 million) to finish housing projects and expand its retail operations, reported net profit more than doubled in 2009. HDB made a net profit of LE 567 million, up from 202 million in 2008, the stock exchange said on Wednesday. It launched the capital raising …
Egypt’s largest steelmaker Ezz Steel has raised its steel prices 25 percent to recoup soaring raw material costs, it said on Thursday. The firm set its April prices at LE 4,100 ($745) per ton, up from LE 3,280. The increase comes after an announcement by top global producers Vale and BHP Billiton of changes in …
Al Borg Laboratories has agreed to buy a 51 percent stake in Medical Genetics Centre, the country’s biggest genetics testing laboratory, it said in a statement on Thursday. Al Borg, which has a 25 percent share of Egypt’s private medical testing market, is controlled by Dubai-based private equity fund Abraaj Group. It did not say …
ALEXANDRIA: Arab states, likely to be among those hit hardest by climate change, are not doing enough to promote renewable energy, environmental experts said at a conference here. Carbon dioxide emissions in the region are increasing at one of the fastest rates in the world, nearly doubling in the period 1990-2003, a UN Arab Human …
CAIRO: Egyptian cigarette monopoly Eastern Company has officially opened the first phase of its new LE 5.5 billion ($1 billion) industrial complex in Egypt’s Sixth of October city. Eastern is supplying the finance for 51 percent of the project, with the rest from medium-term loans and financial leasing contracts, Eastern’s Chairman Nabil Abdel Aziz said …
CAIRO: Egypt’s Raya Technology and Communication is set to sell its call centers to focus on higher returns outside its traditional operations, its chief executive said on Wednesday. The firm, which sells mobile handsets, runs call centers and provides outsourced IT services, has also approved a cash and share dividend, pending shareholder approval, the company …
Egypt’s Orascom Telecom on Thursday confirmed that Algerian tax authorities had rejected an appeal filed by its Algerian unit Djezzy. The firm, the Arab world’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, said it had now exhausted the appeal process with the tax authorities and intended to challenge the rejection in Algeria’s administrative courts. Algeria’s tax authorities …
Beltone has downplayed its plans to expand into Algeria, saying it was in preliminary discussions and does not have a year-end deadline. Al-Mal newspaper had quoted director Aly El Tahry as saying Beltone was talking to two Algerian investors about setting up an Algerian bank with a full range of investment banking services …
