Malaysia's Proton says studying Egypt car assembly

(Reuters) - Malaysian state carmaker Proton Holdings is studying plans to assemble cars in Egypt to help expand export sales, managing director Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir said on Monday.

"So from Egypt -- we plan to use that as a base to enter the African continent and the Middle East," he said.


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Egypt's El Sewedy H1 net profit rises 32 pct

(Reuters) - Egypt's El Sewedy Cables posted a 32 percent rise in consolidated net profit to 337 million Egyptian pounds in the first half of 2007, the stock exchange said on Sunday.

Net profit in the year-ago period was 256 million pounds.


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Wheat Rises Near Record High as Rain Damages Crops in Europe, Egypt Buys

(Bloomberg) -- Wheat rose to a three-week high in
Chicago and Kansas City on speculation that heavy rains in
northern Europe will reduce global production, increasing demand
for U.S. supplies.

Egypt, the world's second-biggest importer of the grain,
today said it bought 175,000 metric tons of U.S. wheat after
prices for European supplies rose to a record. Part of northern
Europe will have above-normal rain the next 10 days, said John
Dee, president of Global Weather Monitoring in Mohawk, Michigan.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Egypt cancels seven-year bonds auction

(Reuters) - Egypt's central bank said on Tuesday it had cancelled an auction for seven-year bonds. It gave no reason for the decision.

The Finance Ministry had planned to reopen seven-year bonds worth two billion Egyptian pounds on July 30 after postponing it from July 22.


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Egyptian bourse edges down, but Raya and CIB shine

(Reuters) - Main Egyptian stock indexes dropped on Wednesday driven by market mainstay Orascom Telecom (OT), which shed 1.5 percent after offering to acquire technology and communications firm Raya.

But traders said the drop in the OT share price to 77.60 pounds was probably not related with the offer to buy Raya and may be attributed to profit-taking that has hit blue-chip stocks after a bullish run last week saw the market hit record closing highs.


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Egyptian indexes rebound, housing and EFG-Hermes up

(Reuters) - Egypt's main stock indexes rebounded on Sunday from last week's correction, carried by a strong rally in the housing sector and a rise in investment bank EFG-Hermes, traders said.

EFG-Hermes climbed 5 percent to reach a year closing high of 51 Egyptian pounds per share after renewed interest in the sector following the announcement last week that Egypt would privatise state-owned Banque du Caire within six to nine months.


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Egypt's Watany Bank H1 net profit jumps 169 pct

(Reuters) - Egypt's Al Watany Bank reported a 169 percent jump in net profit in the first half of 2007 to 146.7 million Egyptian pounds, the stock exchange said in a statement on Sunday.

The bank had reported net profit of 54.5 million pounds in the same period a year ago. The stock exchange gave no further details.


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Emerging markets flooded by local-currency global bonds

(Reuters) - Emerging debt investors were flooded this week by billions of dollars in local-currency global bonds offered by governments and companies, despite market concerns related to the U.S. subprime mortgage market.

A large chunk of the new issuance is denominated in the Brazilian real, which has gained more than 14 percent so far this year. But sovereign bonds are also being offered in other strengthening local currencies, such as the Colombian peso, the Peruvian sol and even the stable Egyptian pound.


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Egyptian shares edge down on profit taking

(Reuters) - Egypt's two main indexes dipped on Thursday for the second consecutive session as investors harvested the week's earlier gains in blue-chips led by Orascom Construction Industries, traders said.

"Investors were tempted to collect their money after the record highs witnessed by the market lately. On top of the list of this profit taking wave came Orascom Construction, which led the market up before and now took it down," said Mohamed Choukri of Trust Group for Securities.


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Wheat Rebounds on Demand From Japan, Egypt, Prospects for Global Shortfall

(Bloomberg) -- Wheat rose in Chicago on demand for
U.S. grain from Japan and Egypt amid forecasts for the lowest
global inventories in 26 years.

Japan plans to buy 40,000 metric tons of U.S. varieties.
Egypt said it purchased 60,000 tons. Advance sales of U.S.
supplies for delivery before May 31 are up 22 percent from a
year earlier, Department of Agriculture data showed. Global
stockpiles may fall to 112 million tons by May 31, the lowest
since 1982, the U.S. agency said on June 11.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Sawiris Might Sell Wind's Italian Telephone-Tower Unit for $2 Billion

(Bloomberg) -- Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris
may sell the Italian telephone towers held by his Wind
Telecomunicazioni SpA wireless business to help cut debt, said
three people with knowledge of his plans.

Sawiris's Weather Investments Srl contacted investment banks
and may name an adviser on the potential sale soon, said the
people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are
confidential. The towers are valued at 1 billion to 1.5 billion
euros ($2 billion) at a minimum, one of the people said.


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News

Egypt benchmark Hermes index hits all-time high

(Reuters) - Egypt's benchmark Hermes stock index hit an all-time closing high on Wednesday led by investment bank EFG-Hermes, which rallied to a one-year high after breaking a key technical price level.

Shares in EFG-Hermes, the most heavily traded stock by turnover, closed 5 percent up at 47.30 Egyptian pounds, the highest since May 21, 2006 according to Reuters data.


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Kuwaiti, Greek banks to examine Egypt's Al Watany

(Reuters) - Al Watany Bank of Egypt said on Wednesday the central bank had agreed to allow three banks, including two from Kuwait, to conduct due-diligence studies that could lead to potential offers for the bank.

A Watany Bank spokeswoman told Reuters the three banks were the National Bank of Kuwait, the Commercial Bank of Kuwait and Greek lender EFG Eurobank.


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Sawiris says Martin Marietta stake is investment

(Reuters) - On Tuesday, Sawiris, chief executive of Egyptian cement
maker Orascom Construction , said NNS owned
nearly 450,000 Martin Marietta shares. It also owns options for
an additional 3.7 million shares that mature within 60 days.




NNS said it "wishes to make clear that this investment in
Martin Marietta is not being made by OCI and is entirely
separate from the activities of that company".


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News