Displaying items by tag: Egypt

Egypt: Qalaa Holdings' revenue in the quarter that ended on 30 June 2015 grew by 33.7% year-on-year to US$267m.

In the first six months of the year, revenue rose by 37.8% to EGP US$515m. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rise by 169% year-on-year to US$72.2m in the first half of 2015. Qalaa's net loss after tax and minority interest improved by 55% to US$10.8m in the second quarter of 2015. In the first half of 2015, its net loss after tax improved by 53% to US$25.1m. This improvement comes despite charges of US$13.1m in the first half of 2015 related to discontinued operations.

Revenue growth was driven by strong performance at TAQA Arabia's fuel marketing arm, which reported 72% top-line growth in the second quarter of 2015 and 73%in the first half of 2015. In the cement division, ASEC Cement's Sudan subsidiary Al-Takamol made a strong contribution to Qalaa's top-line growth. Its revenue grew by 96% in the second quarter of 2015 and by 121% in the first half of 2015. Combined, the energy and cement divisions contributed some 70% of total revenue in the second quarter of 2015.

The first six months of 2015 saw ASEC Holding's sale of its 27.5% stake in Misr Qena Cement, which resulted in a gain from sale of investment equivalent to US$8.56m booked in the second quarter of 2015. The exit from Misr Qena Cement is one of several developments taking place during 2015 that play into Qalaa's risk reduction strategy and its ongoing deleveraging programme. Qalaa's ongoing restructuring efforts continue to reflect positively on its financial performance, with significant improvements at the EBITDA level and a continued narrowing of its bottom-line losses, which improved by 53% year-on-year in the first half of 2015.

Qalaa management has reiterated its strategy for 2015, with its underlining factors being the mitigation of financial risk by significantly deleveraging at the holding and platform company levels, as well as limiting operational risk through the divestment of non-core and non-essential assets while focusing resources on core business and ensuring they have the funding needed to deliver on growth plans.

"Qalaa has repeatedly stressed that deleveraging is one of the company's key strategic goals for 2015 and onward," said Qalaa co-founder and managing director Hisham El-Khazindar. "We remain on track with our divestment programme, the proceeds from which will be utilised to reduce total consolidated debt from the current US$971m, excluding debt associated with Africa Railways and a greenfield megaproject, to around US$639m by the end of 2015."

Egypt: The Sinai Cement Company (SCC) has reported a US$3.6m net loss in the first half of 2015 compared to a profit of US$11.2m in the same period in 2014. Overall profits declined to US$4.2m from US$23m. On a quarterly basis, the firm lost US$1.3m in the first quarter of the year compared to a net profit of US$4.5m in the same period in 2014. The company operates a cement production facility in North Sinai.

Egypt: Arabian Cement Company's net profits grew to US$15.9m in the first half of 2015, up from US$13.8m in the same period of 2014.

Egypt: South Valley Cement has signed a US$34.7m contract with China's Sinoma for a new cement line.

Egypt: Misr Beni Suef Cement has announced a net profit of US$6.9m for the first half of 2015, compared to a net profit of US$2.2m in the same period of 2014.

Egypt: Alexandria Cement has reported that, in the first half of 2015, its consolidated net sales grew by 3% year-on-year to US$130m. It incurred consolidated pre-tax net loss of US$9.32m compared to US$14.9m in the same period of 2014. Alexandria Cement's standalone pre-tax net loss was US$6.13m, compared to US$31.4m in 2014.

Egypt: Suez Cement's consolidated net profit fell to US$15.2m in the first half of 2015 compared to US$39.9m in the same period of 2014, according to Arab Finance. Its standalone net profit fell to US$44.6m from US$53.2m in the 2014 period.

UAE: According to a Companies and Markets report, after the economic downturn of 2008 - 2009, the cement market in the UAE is showing a positive rebound and is expected to grow by 7.56%/yr in 2014 - 2019.

The UAE is currently producing double its cement demand. Over 50% of the cement produced in the UAE is exported to Oman, Egypt and other African countries. However, analysts believe that in the coming years the cement export share will decline to meet the growing domestic demand.

The growth of the cement market in the UAE is being primarily led by a surge in construction investment because of the revival of economy. The government will invest US$700bn in the next 15 years towards the infrastructure development in the country. Ahead of Dubai EXPO 2020 and UAE National Vision 2021, major investment will be directed toward transport and power infrastructure.

Egypt: According to Reuters, Arabian Cement Company has commissioned new alternative fuel processing machinery at its plant in Suez.

The state-of-the-art FLSmidth HOTDISC^TM allows Arabian Cement's plant to rely completely on coal and alternative fuels to run its operations. Moreover, it enables the plant to operate its kilns using alternative fuel materials directly, without the need to pre-treat them. Arabian Cement now has a designed fuel mix of 70% coal and 30% alternative fuels. The alternative fuel that will be used will be a mixture of agricultural wastes, municipal sludge and refuse-derived fuels (RDF). Alternative fuel use is expected to result in around 60,000t/yr of reduced CO₂ emissions.

Egypt/Sudan: According to Daily News Egypt, Qalaa Holding for Investment has signed an agreement with Financial Holding International (FHI) to sell FHI some of Qalaa's units. This is in line with Qalaa's aim to exit from some of its non-basic businesses and to reduce its consolidated debts of US$105m.

Qalaa will sell FHI its stakes in MENA Homes, Grandview and Dina Farms Land Companies, which will be separated from Dina for Agricultural Investments. In return, Qalaa will buy FHI's stakes in several affiliated companies, including cement producer ASEC Holding, as well as Taqa Arabia and Mashreq Petroleum in the energy sector. Qalaa will also buy FHI's stakes in Nile Logistics International in the Transport and logistics sector, Dina Farms Supermarkets in the retail sector and United Company for Foundries (UCF) in the metallurgical industry sector. The deal is expected to be finalised by December 2015, after the customary conditions and requirements are met.

Abdallah El-Ebiary, managing director of Qalaa's cement division, said that the cement sector is a main strategic area for Qalaa and that it has no intention of exiting it, nor the transport and energy sectors. He added that FHI plans to build a new pulveriser mill at the ASEC Cement plant in Minya, Egypt within the company's plan to convert to alternative energy due to the energy deficit and gas crisis. The cost will be US$30.2m and it will be built in the fourth quarter of 2015. "The company's strategy for the next period is to diversify to new and cheap energy sources instead of the traditional and unavailable sources. The investment cost is at US$30.2m, with US$1.31m for a pulveriser mill and US$11.8m for alternative fuel production," said El-Ebiary.

Qalaa also plans to increase the production capacity of its Takamol cement plant in Sudan from 430,000t/yr to 800,000t/yr in 2016. Qalaa aims to establish a new coal mine for the plant. The plant is 51% owned by ASEC Cement and 49% controlled by the Sudanese Social Security Investment Authority (SSIA), the entity that manages all pension funds in Sudan.