CORRECTION: France hopes to get EADS deal

(Reuters) - PARIS/BERLIN - France hopes to be able to announce an agreement about a simplified management structure for European defense group EADS at a summit meeting on Monday, but Germany is in no hurry to strike a deal.




"We have not finished yet," an official at the Elysee presidential palace said on Sunday. "But we are rather optimistic about the outcome of our discussions with Daimler, Lagardere and the German state," he added.


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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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France hopes to get EADS deal

(Reuters) - "We have not finished yet," an official at the Elysee
presidential palace said on Sunday. "But we are rather
optimistic about the outcome of our discussions with Daimler,
Lagardere and the German state," he added.




Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy will
meet at the Toulouse headquarters of civil plane maker Airbus.


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Lehman Says Use Options to Bet on New Zealand Dollar Decline Versus Yen

(Bloomberg) -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. is
recommending the use of options to bet that the New Zealand
dollar will be among the biggest losers versus the Japanese yen
as investor aversion to risky assets increases.

Widening credit spreads suggest demand for higher yielding
investments, such as those in New Zealand, may wane, analysts at
Lehman Brothers, the fourth-biggest U.S. securities firm, said
in a strategy note on July 12.


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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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Zimbabwe to freeze prices indefinitely - report

(Reuters) - Zimbabwe's government will this week enforce an indefinite price freeze in a bid to rein in runaway inflation that has ravaged consumers and increased political tensions, official media reported on Sunday.

President Robert Mugabe's government has ordered a roll back of all prices to June 18 levels after accusing businesses of unjustified increases and has formed a crack team that includes the police and military, to enforce the directive.


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Sarkozy mulls Brazil visit to back IMF bid

(Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy may travel to Brazil to try to drum up support for his nominee for IMF chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, after emerging countries questioned Europe's monopoly of the top job.

"With Dominique Strauss-Kahn we may go to Brazil to support his candidacy," Sarkozy said on the sidelines of the annual garden party on Bastille Day at the presidential Elysee palace.


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