Emirates NBD is considering opening representative offices in China and a number of Asia Pacific countries and expanding its Islamic banking operations in the region, joining an increasing number of Middle Eastern lenders seeking a larger presence in some of the world's fastest-growing economies, a senior executive said. Emirates NBD already has a branch in Singapore where it offers wholesale banking, treasury and wealth management services to take advantage of increasing trade flows between South East Asia and the Middle East.
Galfar
Oman's Galfar Engineering and Contracting said it has been awarded a 14 million Omani riyal (Dh133 million) tender from the Public Authority for Electricity and Water to construct a pipeline to transport water from Wadi Adai to Al Amerat in Muscat. "The completion period is 545 days in addition to 60 days for mobilisation. We expect reasonable income from this project," Galfar said in a brief statement posted on the Muscat bourse website.
Orascom
Egypt's Orascom Construction (OCI) will bene-fit from stronger fertiliser pricing, Deutsche Bank said and raised its rating on the group, run by millionaire tycoon Nassef Sawiris, to "buy" from "hold" within a few weeks of the company posting robust quarterly results. The brokerage also raised its price target on Egypt's biggest company by market value to 270 Egyptian pounds (Dh165) from 250 pounds. Earlier in the month, OCI, which has interests in infrastructure, industrial facilities and buildings and fertilisers, announced its plans to get shareholder approval for a split into two independent companies with separate boards under a single holding company.
Ezz Dekheila
Egypt's Ezz Dekheila, a unit of Ezz Steel, reported yesterday a 6.5 per cent rise in net profit for the first half of 2011 to 554 million Egyptian pounds. It reported net profit of 520 million pounds in the first half of 2010. The firm reported sales of 5.9 billion pounds in the first half, compared to 4.4 billion pounds in the same period a year earlier. The company said the figures were unaudited.
Telecom Egypt
Telecom Egypt said yesterday it was owed 128 million Egyptian pounds by telecommunications companies providing pre-paid card services. Telecom Egypt issued a statement after some news reports put the figure at 2.5 billion pounds. It has filed a complaint to the telecommunications regulatory authority concerning the matter, the statement said.
Petkim Petrokimya
Petkim Petrokimya Holding of Turkey will sell its air separation unit for $39 million (Dh143 million) to Air Liquide's Turkish unit by tomorrow to improve productivity. Petkim will also lease the land on which the air separation unit stands to Air Liquide after final agreements are signed, it said in a statement to the Istanbul Stock Exchange after the market closed yesterday. Petkim and Air Liquide Gaz Sanayii and Ticaret signed a goodwill agreement in December for production and supply of industrial gases and building a new air separation unit.
Akbank TAS
Akbank TAS, a Turkish bank partly owned by Citigroup Inc, asked the top administrative court to suspend and cancel an antitrust ruling that said seven banks agreed between themselves to handle business customers' salary payments. Akbank made the announcement in a statement to the Istanbul Stock Exchange after the market closed on Tuesday. Turkey's competition board fined seven banks a total of 72.3 million liras (Dh143.59 million) in March for breaching regulations. The banks paid 75 per cent of the fines earlier this month, reserving their rights for an appeal. Akbank paid 10.9 million liras, it said on September 21.
— Compiled from staff reports
