Al Qalaa Holding is targeting a 25% year on year increase in its annual revenues, the company's co-founder and managing director Hisham El-Khazindar told Daily News Egypt Tuesday. El-Khazindar added that the revenues from the company's exit from its non core industries during the next three years are expected to total $700m. Al-Khazindar said that there are currently in talks with investors seeking to purchase some of the company's noncore activities. "There is more than one but they are at too early stage of negotiation to be announced," he said. He added that the company will announce the updates of these negotiations as soon as they reach a higher level of seriousness. El-Khazindar added that prior to the end of the current year, Al Qalaa plans on announcing the details of a new exit. He, however, refused to clarify from which sector the next exit will be because there are "a few [negotiations]". The focus of the company's acquisitions and add-on investments are part of the firm's ongoing transformation from a hybrid private equity firm into an investment company that will hold majority stakes in five core industries. The five core industries are energy, transportation, agrifoods, mining and cement. An Al-Qalaa official said that the company's plans to make new purchases in the core industries is "likely to happen". In April, the company exited its full share in the SudaneseEgyptian Bank, selling its 66.12% to Islamic Solidarity Bank of Sudan for $22m. "The impact of the exit from Sphinx Glass will be positively reflected on the financial statements of the thirds quarter (Q3) of 2014," Al-Khizindar said. Al-Qalaa Holding's mining unit ASCOM Geology and Mining was chosen to complete dry sand excavation on a 1km-long, 0.4km wide section of the New Suez Canal. Al-Khazindar did not disclose the value of the contract, saying that the contract is not for "hundreds of millions of Egyptian pounds". On the progress of the project, the company official pointed out that the project is expected to take a year. He added that the company has already started with the mobilization process.
