WATANI International
28 June 2009
Nuclear plant
Australia’s WorleyParsons has signed a contract with the Egyptian Nuclear Power Plant Authority (NPPA) for a consultancy services contract to support the delivery of the first Egyptian nuclear power plant. The contract commences with site and technology selection studies and carries through to design, construction management, commissioning and start-up. The revenue from the project is expected to be around EGP900 million over the expected eight years of the project.
Third line
Egypt’s Orascom Construction Industries has said that it had won contracts worth $140 million for work on the second phase of Cairo’s third metro rail line. The contracts cover civil, electromechanical and railway works, the firm said. The new line is due for completion in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Banks for sale
Egypt’s central bank has announced that it aims to sell large stakes in two commercial banks by the end of 2011 partly on the Egyptian stock exchange. Bank governor Farouq al-Oqdah said the bank hoped to sell a large stake in United Bank which was formed in 2006 from the merger of a number of smaller banks and is today almost wholly owned by the central bank. Around 60 per cent of Arab African International Bank, held jointly with the Kuwait Investment Authority, will also be floated on the Egyptian and Kuwaiti bourses in the same year, Oqdah said. Egypt has been steadily divesting its stakes in Egyptian banks over the past five years as part of a push to consolidate the sector, and foreign banks have moved into the Egyptian banking sector in strength. Some $1.6 billion were raised from the sale of 80 per cent of Bank of Alexandria in 2006, part of a series of reforms that helped drive economic growth, but an auction for the sale of Banque du Caire last year was cancelled on grounds that bids were too low. The central bank refuses to issue new banking licences, so buying a bank is the only way into the Egyptian market.