Orascom Telecom split approved

Shareholders of Egypt's Orascom Telecom (OT) have approved the splitting of the company into two separate entities, OT said on Monday. The green light from shareholders comes after OT's board in April approved a move to almost double its capital to 14 billion Egyptian pounds (Dh8.5 billion), from 7.5 billion pounds, and to split the company into two entities — Orascom Telecom and Orascom Telecom Media and Technology (OTMT).

"The OT shareholders were also asked to authorise OT's chairman to change the internal ownership structure in relation to certain assets intended to be transferred to OTMT under the approved demerger plan," OT said in an email to Zawya Dow Jones. The shareholder meeting took place on Sunday.

According to an amended shareholding agreement between OT and France Telecom-Mobinil's two major shareholders, OT's stake in Mobinil should remain under the control of the Sawiris family.

Naguib Sawiris owns 51.7 per cent of OT through his Wind Telecom vehicle. As a result, OT's stake in Mobinil will be transferred to a company that is fully-owned by OT to guarantee the Sawiris family of a majority of voting rights in such a company.

Albaraka Bank

Albaraka Banking Group BSC plans to apply for a banking licence in Libya and to open more branches in Tunisia, chief executive officer Adnan Ahmad Yousuf said. Albaraka has a representative office in Libya and hopes to open a full-fledged Islamic bank in the North African country, he said in a telephone interview from Damascus, Syria, yesterday. The bank's Tunisian subsidiary has 12 branches and has asked the central bank for permission to expand, he said.

Ma'aden

Saudi Arabian Mining Co, the state-run producer known as Ma'aden, is proceeding with a $10.8 billion (Dh39.6 billion) aluminum project that will include a bauxite mine, metals refinery, smelter and rolling mill, the company's vice-president of precious metals and exploration strategic business unit said. Ma'aden aims to complete the 740,000-tonne-a-year smelter and 380,000-tonne-a-year mill in 2013, and the mine and 1.8 million-tonne-a-year refinery in 2014, Hany Al Dabbagh said yesterday at a conference in Dubai. The company is already producing at a $5.6 billion phosphate venture with Saudi Basic Industries Corp, he said. Saudi Arabia holds 11 million ounces of gold, and Ma'aden is seeking to raise the nation's output to 400,000 metric tonnes a year by 2015 from 150,000 tonnes now, Al Dabbagh said.

Qatar Navigation

Qatar Navigation reported a decline in net income for the third quarter to 584 million riyals (Dh588.8 million) from 1.1 billion riyals a year earlier, according to a company statement. The decline reflects a one-off profit made from the acquisition of another company in 2010, according to the statement posted on the Qatari Exchange yesterday.

Sorouh

Sorouh Real Estate Co signed a 30-year agreement to lease 287 of the 1,537 units available for rent in the Alrayyana development in Abu Dhabi, according to a company statement on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. Dubai Arabian American Development Company announced that Al Masane Al Kobra Mining Company (Amak), the joint stock company in Saudi Arabia which is 37 per cent owned by Arabian American, has successfully completed the construction phase of the mine and has issued notice to the surface facility operator that it will turn the facility over to them to begin operations on November 28.

Bonheur

Dubai Biotechnology and Research Park (DuBiotech), the life sciences hub in the Middle East and a member of Tecom Investments, yesterday announced that Bonheur FZ LLC, the Brazil-based producers of concentrated homeopathic medication, has registered for a laboratory facility in the park. The state-of-the-art lab, producing concentrated homeopathic medication for human and animal consumption in the domestic market, will be the first Latin American company to operate at DuBiotech. The announcement was made on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi Medical Congress 2011 that ended yesterday.