Oriental Weavers to buy 3 Belgian factories Egypt s Oriental Weavers plans to acquire three Belgian textile factories to benefit from their machinery and equipment, Al-Mal financial newspaper said on Sunday. Oriental Weavers, the world s biggest machine-woven carpet producer, will sign the acquisition contracts before the end of the year, the newspaper said. It added that Chief Executive Officer Mohamed Khamis did not disclose the acquisition cost. The purpose of the investment is to utilize the factories machinery and equipment, which Oriental Weavers will move to its Egyptian factories after signing the contracts, the newspaper said. Half of the venture will be financed through debt, while Oriental Weavers will cover the rest, Al-Mal quoted Khamis as saying. Oriental Weavers officials were not immediately available for comment. Oriental Weavers posted a 5 percent rise net income for the first half of 2009 with net income after minority interest of LE 162.7 million ($30 million), compared to LE 154.3 million in the same period of 2008. The company exports its carpets to over 100 countries. -Reuters Saudi Savola, Tate&Lyle seal deal on stakes sale London-based Tate and Lyle Plc s has agreed to sell its minority stakes in Egyptian and Saudi sugar units to its Saudi-based partner, Savola Group, which bets on soaring sales from the units this year. The value of the deal was not disclosed, but Dubai-based Shuaa Capital said it could be worth 240 million riyals ($64 million) as it expects it to add 20 million riyals to the full-year net profit of Savola, the Middle East s biggest sugar refiner. Savola said the agreement covered the purchase of the British sugar refiner and sweetener group s 3.58 percent stake in a sugar refinery in Egypt and a 9.68 percent stake in another refinery in Saudi Arabia. Savola already holds a 64.8 percent stake in the Saudi sugar refinery which has an annual production capacity of 1.2 million tons and a 53.5 percent stake in the Egyptian refinery which can produce up to 750,000 tons per year. Turnover from the two units is expected to rise 41.5 percent this year, Zouhair Eloudghiri, chief executive of Savola Foods, told Reuters. Savola Foods is 90 percent owned by Savola. This year, the two refineries should generate a turnover of 3.48 billion riyals ($928 million) up from 2.46 billion riyals in 2008, Eloudghiri said. Tate and Lyle wants to focus on sugar within Europe and on the production of starches, sweeteners and ethanol. Laurent-Patrick Gally of Shuaa Capital described the development as a minor positive given the recent pick-up in Savola s sugar operations profitability. Shares in Savola slid 0.33 percent after the announcement. Excluding financing costs implication, such a transaction could add 20 million riyals to Savola s bottom-line on a full-year basis, Gally said. This increase would represent 2.4 percent of Savola s forecast of a net profit of 846 million riyals for 2009 excluding any capital loss or gain, Gally said. Assuming a 12 times P/E multiple for the acquisition would also imply Savola would spend 240 million riyals on the combined stakes, he added. Savola has teamed up with Turkish and Saudi partners to bid for six sugar mills being sold by the Turkish government. -Reuters ODH ventures into Montenegro Orascom Development Holding (ODH) will acquire a 90 percent stake in Lustica Development AD Podgorica to develop a total area of 6.8 million square meters in Tivat, Montenegro. The project, an agreement with ODH and the government of Montenegro, will offer 2,350 residential units, several hotels, a town center, a marina on the Adriatic Sea, an 18 hole golf course, in addition to commercial and other facilities. This is ODH s third project in Europe after the Andermatt development in Switzerland and the recently announced Cornwall project in the UK. The first phase of the project includes a hotel, town centre, golf course, as well as the main mooring area, which are expected to be operational within five years, Beltone Financial said in its daily market report. OT to reduce paid-up capital Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH) said it will reduce the company s paid-up capital, according to a statement on the stock exchange website. After an extraordinary general assembly meeting on Oct. 22, OT said that the total number of fully paid-up shares reached 889.100 million, after writing off 10.303 million treasury shares. Raya to bid for triple-play license Raya Holding said it will bid for one of the two licenses offered by the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) to provide integrated telecommunications services in closed residential compounds, reported Bloomberg. The deadline for bidding for the new licenses was set for Jan. 12, with interested bidders being Orascom Telecom Holding (OT) and Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat). The minister of telecoms and IT declared previously that the NTRA would offer two triple play licenses for telecommunications companies to compete with Telecom Egypt in closed residential compounds, which include housing of up to 5,000 units, with investments of up to $1.0 billion in the next five years. The new licenses will be based on an annual revenue sharing of 8 percent (that would go to the government) and not on upfront payments. "Raya s initiative to bid for this license is positive, since this would add a new revenue stream to the company, which already has three lines of business, Beltone said. Expected recovery in fertilizer demand Egyptian fertilizers companies expect a recovery in the global demand for fertilizer products within the coming three months especially after the announcement of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh to import large amounts of fertilizers reaching 800,000 tons.-Al-Masry Al-Youm IDA to issue cement licenses Amr Assal, head of the Industrial Development Authority, said that the authority will issue licenses to establish cement factories given compliance with the required conditions, reported Al-Masry Al-Youm.
