July 3rd, 2008

Akil Beshir, the CEO of Telecom Egypt, expects the recently announced tariff rebalancing scheme to increase the company's monthly revenues by EGP50 million, or EGP4.5 per bill per month. (Al Mal)

OCI announced that BESIX, which is 50% owned by OCI, has been awarded a USD400 million contract to design and build Al Safooh Transit System in Dubai, UAE, in a consortium with Alstom. BESIX’s share of the contract is approximately USD175 million. The contract value represents Phase I of the USD1.2 billion transit system project from the Dubai government’s Roads & Transport Authority (RTA).  (Company's Press Release)

Naeem Holding will distribute a 1:3 stock dividend to increase paid-in capital from USD240 million to USD320 million for shareholders until July 15th, 2008, to be distributed on July 16th, 2008. (Al Ahram)

Maridive and Oil Services will list its capital increase from USD90.8 million over 227 million shares to USD102.4 million over 256 million shares on July 7th, 2008. The capital increase took place at USD3.3 per share, and was solely subscribed to by the founding shareholders using the offering proceeds. The capital increase shares have a lock-up period of six months starting from May 5th, 2008. (MIST) 

UAE's Mashreq Bank's CEO announced that his bank is still interested in buying Banque du Caire as part of its expansion in Egypt. The bank is waiting for the authorities to come back with a new asking price. (Reuters)

Sameh Fahmy, Minister of Petroleum, announced that there will be no more increases in polyethylene prices in an attempt to end the ongoing debate between plastic producers and Sidi Kreir Petrochemicals Company. (Al Ahram)

El Ezz Porcelain will issue 14.6 million new shares through a rights issue at EGP5 per share to increase share capital from 36,461,048 shares to 51,045,467 shares for shareholders until July 22nd, 2008. Subscription begins on July 27th, 2008 and ends on August 26th, 2008. (EGX)

Misr Cement Qena's period for selling treasury shares has ended. The company sold 53,429 shares at a price range of EGP68-73 per share. (EGX)

Steel producers began to increase retail rebar prices this month by a range of EGP500-700 per ton. (Al Mal)

The Capital Market Authority (CMA) approved the obligatory tender offer submitted by Sharm Dreams Holding for Tourism & Hotels to acquire 160,135 shares, which represents 10.68% of Rowad Misr Tourism Investments, at a price of EGP414 per share. Sharm Dreams already owns a 79.38% stake in Rowad Tourism. The offer is valid over the period from July 3rd – July 16th, 2008 and will be executed 5 working days after the offer's expiration. (EGX & Al Alam Al Yom)

Egyptian Saudi Finance Bank will participate in the establishment of El Tawfik Financial Holding with a 10% stake worth EGP3 million. (EGX)

Egyptians Abroad for Investment and Development will hold its EGAM on July 22nd, 2008 to approve increasing authorized capital increase to EGP750 million and a 1:4 stock split. (Al Ahram)

Canada's Agrium has agreed in principle to acquire MOPCO as a substitute to their suspended Agrium project in Ras El Bar. (Al Mal)