The Emirati "Aldar" is considering buying a majority stake in the Egyptian "Nasr City” | Zilla Capital

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16 Jun 2022

The Emirati “Aldar” is considering buying a majority stake in the Egyptian “Nasr City”

So firstly, let’s begin with our EGX and companies talks, the Emirati “Aldar” is considering buying a majority stake in the Egyptian “Nasr City”. Discussions are in the early stages, and an offer may not be forthcoming. The Egyptian government owns a 15% stake in the Nasr City Company, while Hisham Tawfik, the Egyptian Minister of Public Enterprise Sector, said that “(Al Dar) has expressed interest in the Cairo-based Madinat Nasr Company, but the offer has not yet materialized’. Al-Dar” bought a majority stake in another Egyptian real estate development company, “Sixth of October Development and Investment (SODIC)” last year. In 2018, SODIC made an offer to acquire no less than 51% of the shares of Madinet Nasr Company, and although the proposal did not proceed; The deal could have led to the creation of the country’s largest developer. (Bloomberg Asharq)

Aldar, which operates primarily in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, is looking to expand outside the country, as it faces limited growth prospects in its home market.
The Emirati real estate developer is seeking to invest 5.6 billion AED in acquisitions this year, and is looking to increase its holdings from Real estate Income-generating, (one dollar equals 3.67 dirhams). The acquisition of a stake in Madinet Nasr Housing Company gives Al Dar an opportunity to gain access to a bank of vast land in East Cairo in order to develop it in an underserved market. Last April, Aldar Chief Financial Officer Greg Fewer said that Egypt and Saudi Arabia were the focus of the company, as it looked to invest abroad. Last February, Aldar and Apollo Global Management signed an agreement whereby Apollo, through its funds and clients, will invest a total of 1.4 billion USD in strategic capital to support Aldar's transformational growth initiatives, and Aldar also acquired a beach resort. In the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, it consists of 715 rooms, for 210 million USD. (Bloomberg Asharq)
Altus Strategies Plc, which is backed by billionaire Naguib Sawiris, has reached an agreement with Elemental Royalties Corp on the terms and conditions of a recommended share-for-share merger, according to a release published by the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on June 14th.
As per the terms of the merger, shareholders of Elemental will hold up to 52.9% of the total issued share capital of the New Elemental Altus Group, while the shareholders of Altus will own around 47.1% stake in the merged entity. New Elemental Altus Group will have a combined portfolio of 69 assets across 13 jurisdictions, including 11 in production, with a main focus on gold. The newly merged entity has an estimated combined revenue of 19.6 million USD in 2022 and 24.6 million USD in 2023. (Arab Finance)
The Canal Sugar Company will transform Egypt from an importer into an exporter in 2024. The company targets exports of 150 million USD within two years.
The Canal Sugar Company, the largest beet sugar factory in the world, will transform Egypt from an importer into an exporterfor sugar, when it reaches its maximum production capacity of 900,000 tons per year in 2024, according to CEO and Managing Director Kamel Al-Abdullah.
Arab Dairy Products Co. Arab Dairy’s (Panda) (ADPC) has reported a 48.91% year-on-year (YoY) decline in consolidated profits attributable to the parent company during the first quarter (Q1) of 2022.
The company’s consolidated profits excluding minority interest dropped to 3.296 million EGP in Q1 2022 from 6.452 million EGP in Q1 2021. Consolidated sales plummeted to 292.798 million EGP in the three-month period ended March 31st, from EGP 383.136 million in the same period a year earlier. As for standalone financials, Panda posted a net profit after tax of 3.424 million EGP in the January-March period from 4.563 million EGP in the year before. (EGX)
Canal Shipping Agencies (CSAG) is expecting to achieve a net profit after tax of 200 million EGP during the fiscal year 2022/2023.
The company is seeking to generate 69.5 million EGP in basic operating revenues in FY 2022/2023. It is worth noting that Canal Shipping Agencies has reported a 7% year-on-year (YoY) decline in net profits after tax during the first nine months of FY 2021/2022, recording 143.422 million EGP. Canal Shipping is a subsidiary of the Holding Company for Maritime and Land Transport that provides marine port services and shipping services to international commercial fleets. The company operates four agencies, namely Asswan Shipping Agency, Assuit Shipping Agency, El Menia Shipping Agency, and Damanhour Shipping Agency. (EGX)
And for our investments talks, the international company Webhelp has opened its headquarters in Egypt, setting up one of the company’s largest branches in the world with over 250 million EGP in investment.
The Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat has inaugurated the headquarter of Webhelp Egypt which spans approximately 20,000 square meters (sqm). The company plans to bring the total number of its employees to around 1,600 by the end of 2022 from 1,100 employees now, and to 3,600 employees in 2024. The opening of Webhelp’s headquarters in Egypt comes in line with the company’s plan to boost its investment and business volume in the outsourcing services fields. Talaat stressed that the government would raise investments in the telecom and IT sector by over 22% in fiscal year (FY) 2022/2023. (Arab Finance)
The ministry is keen on investing in human capital and bolstering competitiveness between Egyptian youth through the implementation of the technical training strategy, Talaat said, noting that the budget of this strategy increased to 1.1 billion EGP from 50 million EGP in three years.
In the same vein, the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) has signed a three-year term memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Webhelp for cooperation in outsourcing services. Under the signed MoU, Webhelp will expand its operations in Egypt and offer about 4,800 jobs directed to serve clients in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), Europe, and the US. Founded in 2000, Webhelp is a French company with a presence in more than 55 countries across the world. Webhelp Egypt has been established in 2020 with its headquarters located in El Tagamoa El Khamis. (Arab Finance)
Fawry for Banking Technology and Electronic Payment (FWRY) has launched cash-in and cash-out service for the first time in Egypt through point-of-sale (POS) machines in collaboration with Banque Misr and Egyptian Banks Company.
Fawry offers deposit and withdrawal services through the cash-in and cash-out to bank clients and holders of both debit and prepaid cards among clients of Meeza, Visa, and Mastercard. Fawry has a total of 268,000 POS machines in shopping malls, supermarkets, booths, grocery stores, and all branches of Fawry Plus. Cash-in and cash-out is a major revolution in the field of non-bank financial services (NBFS) in Egypt, the statement added. The service enables POS machines to offer ATM services for bank clients. (Arab Finance)
Fintech application Lucky Egypt has announced that it obtained an approval from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) for the launch of Lucky One card in partnership with Mashreq Bank, Meeza, and Masria Digital Payments (MDP).
As a part of the CBE’s financial inclusion plan, the new card is designed to offer cashback rewards, along with a variety of features including mobile bill payments, withdrawals, and deposits. The Lucky One card gives users access to several benefits including withdrawal, deposit, payment at any merchant, and receiving up to 5% cashback on every transaction. Users of the card can install their payments from their Lucky credit account through the application. Customers can also deposit on the card via ATM machines. (Arab Finance)
Finally, for our economy talks, the European-Egyptian-Israeli agreement to increase gas exports to Europe for 5 years, as part of its efforts to reduce dependence on Russian imports of gas and oil.
Israeli Energy Minister Karen Al-Harr said in a press statement that "the memorandum of understanding will allow Israel to export Israeli gas to Europe for the first time. The memorandum includes the European Union's encouragement for European companies to invest in natural gas exploration and production projects in Israel and Egypt, Israel, Egypt, and Cyprus They will be reliable supplier countries to supply Europe with energy, and a plan will be drawn up to examine the need to establish and develop new liquefaction facilities.” (Bloomberg Asharq)
Egypt's trade balance deficit drops 34% in the first quarter. Egyptian exports rise 40% to 13.6 billion USD during the first three months of 2022.
The value of the deficit in the country's trade balance during the first quarter of this year decreased to 7.4 billion USD, down 33.7% on an annual basis from 11.16 billion USD a year ago. The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics announced today, Wednesday, that Egypt’s trade balance deficit decreased 39.7% during the month of March to 2.26 billion USD, from 3.74 billion USD for the same month a year ago. It is worthy to mention that one of the most important reasons for the decline in the deficit is the increase in gas, fertilizer and petrochemical prices during the first quarter of this year. The current period is witnessing the dependence of a number of global markets on the Egyptian product, especially in light of the slowdown in the production process in a large number of countries due to the current geopolitical tensions and the repercussions of the Corona pandemic. (Bloomberg Asharq)