This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.
Judges recommend Madinaty land deal be cancelled Panel of judges suggest court should cancel a prior ruling which ended the legal dispute over the Talaat Mostafa Group's flagship real estate project
A panel of Egyptian judges said a court should cancel a judicial ruling issued last year that settled a legal dispute over Talaat Moustafa Group's (TMG) flagship real estate project, state media reported. The court battle, over the sale of state land near Cairo for TMG's $3 billion Madinaty development, sparked a crisis in Egypt's real estate sector - a vital source of jobs and investment for the wider economy. The industry's problems deepened when president Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in a popular uprising in February last year. TMG shares lost more than two-thirds of their value in 2011 but have soared 60 per cent this year on optimism the company's worst problems are over. The dispute started in 2010 and supposedly ended in November 2011, when an administrative court ruling asserted the Madinaty deal was valid but a committee should revalue some of the land that had not been used since the company bought the site. TMG's original contract with the government for Madinaty was scrapped in 2010 but the Egyptian cabinet returned the land to the company under a new deal with the same terms. The cabinet relied on its authority to act in national interest. On Sunday, the panel of judicial experts recommended the amended contract be declared void and said the earlier court ruling that upheld the contract between TMG and Egypt's New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) should be cancelled. Recommendations by panels of judges are not legally binding, but courts often respect them. The state news agency, MENA, reports that the Higher Administrative Court adjourned a review of the case to 7 November.
