Aabar says stake in Arabtec 20.76%

Aabar Investments holds a 20.76 per cent stake in Arabtec Holding, further consolidating its influence over the company. Arabtec, in a statement posted on the Dubai bourse website yesterday, said Aabar and its units totally held a 20.76 per cent stake in the company as on May 10, denying recent media reports that the Abu Dhabi-based firm owned a 53 per cent stake in the construction firm.

Arabtec earlier this month named Aabar chairman Kadem Abdullah Kadem Butti Al Qubaisi as its new chairman, triggering market speculation that the Abu Dhabi company held a much bigger stake in Arabtec than earlier disclosed.

Tamdeen Real Estate

Kuwait's Tamdeen Real Estate Co. plans to embark next year on a new real estate project at a total cost of 70 million Kuwaiti dinars ($251.2 million), Kuwait-based Al Watan daily reported yesterday citing an executive. The project, to be located in Al Manshar area, will be the country's largest multi-use development as it will include a commercial complex, hotel, conference centre, offices and large parking lots, Mohammed Al Marzouq, the company's chairman and managing director, said according to the paper.

Union Properties

Union Properties posted a 73 per cent decline in first-quarter profit to Dh22.4 million, according to a statement to the Dubai bourse yesterday.

EFG-Hermes Holding SAE estimate was for a profit of Dh50 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

NBAD

National Bank of Abu Dhabi expects Gulf Cooperation Council bond offerings in 2012 to be between $30 billion and $35 billion, Fawaz Abusneineh, head of debt capital markets at the lender, said in an interview. The bank expects to manage two United Arab Emirates bond sales before summer, he said.

Telecom Egypt

State-owned Telecom Egypt, the only provider of fixed-line services in the country, posted a 1.7 per cent rise in first-quarter net profit yesterday, as the telco cut costs and added broadband subscribers. Its net profit in the three months ended March 31 amounted to 912 million Egyptian pounds ($151 million), up from 897 million pounds in the year earlier period, it said.

Damas

Shares in regional jewelry retailer Damas will be delisted from the Nasdaq Dubai next month as part of the company's takeover by Qatar's Mannai Corporation and investment funds managed by Egypt-based EFG Hermes. The bidders have received acceptance of their offer of $0.45 per Damas share from holders of 88.86 per cent of the company's issued share capital, according to a statement on Sunday.

Qatar Petroleum

Qatar Petroleum is investing in an Egyptian refinery, the Qatari oil minister said. The company expects results of the Dukhan field redevelopment study by the end of the year, Mohammad Al Sada said in Doha.

Yemen LNG

Yemen LNG, whose biggest shareholder is Total SA, is repairing new damage caused by an explosion on a natural gas pipeline that had been shut down since a bomb blast last month, a company official said. The pipeline was bombed at midnight in Gazan, a hotbed of Al Qaida militants in the east of the country, said the official, who declined to be identified, citing company policy.

The pipeline normally supplies a liquefied natural gas facility on the Indian Ocean port of Balhaf, he said. The 38-inch gas pipeline had been shut and under repair since a similar explosion on the network on April 26, he said. Total owns a 40 per cent stake in Yemen LNG. Other shareholders include Hunt Oil Co., Yemen Gas Co, SK Innovation Co., Korea Gas Corp., Hyundai Corp. and Yemen's General Authority for Social Security and Pensions.

— Compiled from agencies