Gold futures fell in electronic trade Wednesday, resuming their decline which has already pulled the front-month contract down by more than 8% so far this week. Gold for June delivery  gave up $14.80, or 1%, to trade at $1,372 an ounce during Asian trading hours. On Tuesday, gold rose $26.30, or 1.9%, on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The advance followed two consecutive sessions of declines which stripped prices of more than $200 an ounce. It is likely that “financial markets will continue to take its cues from any further abrupt movements in the price of the precious metal over the short term,” said CMC Markets senior trader Tim Waterer in a note Tuesday. More»

EFG-Hermes (HRHO.CA), the Middle East's largest investment bank, said on Tuesday it has not received notification from Egypt's financial regulator of clearance for its merger with QInvest of Qatar. Shares in EFG jumped 6 percent on a newspaper report that Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil had told Qatari businessmen that the deal would go through by the end of this week during a visit to Doha last Wednesday. An EFG spokesman told Reuters: "EFG Hermes Holding has not been informed of any development and accordingly we have published a disclosure to the EGX (Cairo stock exchange) this morning confirming that we didn't receive a "no objection" response on the deal till date." A spokesman for the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority said he had no immediate comment. EFG has said the joint venture, signed last May, will fall through unless it receives regulatory approval by May 3. The deal is politically sensitive in Egypt because both of EFG's chief executives, Hassan Heikal and Yasser El Mallawany, are on trial, along with the two sons of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, on allegations of illegal share dealings in relation to a 2007 transaction. More»

Egypt’s Prime Minister Hisham Kandil, vowed Hermes-QInvest takeover deal’s completion procedures before the end of this week. The Prime Minister said, in a reply to a question from a number of Qatari businessmen during his visit to Doha last Wednesday, the EFG-Hermes (HRHO.CA)’s strategic alliance with Qatari QInvest will come into effect within the week at most. On April 7th, EFG-Hermes noted in a release that it was still waiting for approval from Egyptian regulators for a deal with Qatari investment company QInvest, which lapses on May 3 unless cleared by then. EFG also stated that it had received regulatory approval in various countries for the deal, under which it would initially inject its core business into a joint venture 60 percent controlled by QInvest. More»

Oil futures slid nearly 3% in electronic trade Monday, with weaker-than-anticipated economic reports from China adding to festering worries about slowing growth in global demand for the commodity. May crude oil fell $2.47, or 2.7%, to $88.83 a barrel in Asian trading after China posted quarterly-growth and monthly industrial-production figures that fell short of expectations. China said gross domestic product rose 7.7% in the January-March quarter, slower than growth of 7.9% in the fourth quarter, and below expectations for an 8% gain in separate surveys from Dow Jones Newswires and Reuters. The report of slower activity for the major energy consumer came after the International Energy Agency last week modestly cut its forecast for growth in oil demand, and the Organization of the Exporting Countries slightly reduced its own global oil-demand estimates for the year slightly. Oil futures fell by 1.5% last week. More»

Gold futures sank another $50 plus on Monday, deepening their descent after entering bear-market territory last week, and prices for industrial metal copper also slumped following economic data from China that fell short of expectations. Gold for June delivery   tumbled $61.70, or 4.1%, to $1,440.10 an ounce during Asian trading hours. Gold last week lost 4.7%. The losses roughly matched gold’s heavy drop on Friday, when it lost $63.50, or 4.1%, to $1,501.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Friday’s settlement price marked a 20.5% drop for the most-active contract from the record high settlement of $1,888.70 an ounce reached on Aug. 22, 2011. Traders and analysts have cited numerous reasons for gold’s breakdown. Sentiment has suffered due to recent cuts to price forecasts for the precious metal and outflows from gold exchange-traded products. Among those calls, Goldman Sachs, last week lowered its average gold-price forecast for 2013 to $1,545 an ounce, a level it took out last Friday. More»

Omar Derwaza - Head of Investor Relations at Orascom Construction Industries – announced that the ongoing negotiations between OCI and the Egyptian Tax Authority are likely to conclude very soon, expecting that the two parties are going to reach a final settlement agreement within the current week. Derwaza declined to give a comment when he was asked about the value and the schedule of the installments OCI pledged to pay off. He said OCI is going to disclose within days all the details of the anticipatory agreement with the Tax Authority. On Saturday afternoon, sources close to the ongoing negotiations told Amwal Al Ghad that Orascom Construction Industries (OCIC.CA) is offering to pay off US$ 350 million as a first installment to reconcile with Egypt’s Tax Authority over taxes dues worth EGP 7.1 billion. For the remaining sums, they will be paid over a number of years to be defined in coordination between the company and the Tax Authority, sources said. The sources further added that OCI has refused to pay the EGP 7.1 billion as one tranche due to reasons related to default on payments besides the lack of a sufficient liquidity for the current phase. More»

Orascom Construction Industries (OCIC.CA) is offering to pay US$ 350 million as a first installment seeking to reconcile with Egypt’s Tax Authority over taxes dues worth EGP 7.1 billion. OCI said to pay off the rest of the tax dues in a number of installments through the coming years. Sources near from the Group said OCI has refused to pay the EGP 7.1 billion as one tranche due to reasons related to default on payments besides the lack of a sufficient liquidity for the current phase. The sources had formerly agreed with the Egyptian Tax Authority (ETA) to pay off US$ 500 million and the rest shall be paid off on several installments. However, when the agreement was about to come into effect, OCI offers to pay only US$ 350 million followed by pledges to pay off a number of installments within the coming years. More»

Egypt owes at least $5 billion to oil companies, half of it overdue, corporate reports have revealed, in a development highlighting the country's struggle to meet soaring energy bills while subsidising prices to avoid public unrest. Egypt has been delaying payments to firms producing oil and gas on its territory as it has struggled with dwindling currency reserves, rising food bills and sliding tourism revenues since the 2011 revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak. Most oil firms hope to recoup the debts in full, but they acknowledge it could take years. While they are still planning to invest in new projects in Egypt that will help it avoid an energy meltdown, the debt situation remains a challenge. The government's delay in paying its debts to oil and gas producers could hold back investment in the sector and potentially endanger Egypt's energy security. "The delays in payments to the operators end up hurting Egypt itself as a potential decline in investment and production may lead to lower government revenues and a supply gap, in a potential vicious circle," said Maji Jafar, managing director of the board of Dana Gas. Dana is owed $230 million by Egypt in overdue payments for gas supplies and says it is in active dialogue with the government over the debts. More»

Oil futures shrugged off solid gains for Asian stocks to trade lower in electronic action Thursday amid demand concerns. Benchmark U.S. crude oil for May delivery  lost 38 cents, or 0.4%, to trade at $94.26 a barrel, giving back almost half of its 44-cent gain during Wednesday’s New York Mercantile Exchange session. Likewise, rival London-traded benchmark Brent crude saw its May contract   retreat another 30 cents, or 0.3%, to $105.48 a barrel, extending the previous day’s 44-cent drop. Citi Futures said the Wednesday advance for Nymex crude was due to the day’s equity rally on Wall Street and a smaller-than-expected rise in U.S. crude inventories, as seen in the weekly Energy Information Administration report. But limiting gains — and spurring Brent’s loss — was a modest cut to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ global oil-demand forecast. More»

Citadel Capital Managing Director and veteran investment banker Marwan Elaraby participated in a panel discussion with global turnaround guru Wilbur Ross, sharing views on the current investment climate in Africa and Egypt “African markets will be the long-term engines of growth for Citadel Capital,” said Marwan Elaraby, Managing Director of Citadel Capital, the leading investment company in Africa and the Middle East with investments of US$ 9.5 billion and 10 focus platforms in five core industries: energy, transportation and logistics, agriculture and consumer foods, mining, and cement and construction. “We will continue to focus our investments on North and East Africa as we staunchly believe that there are tremendous investment opportunities in those markets. Our investments are concentrated on high-growth industries that offer broad exposure to the region’s compelling macro fundamentals such as energy deregulation, demand for infrastructure and population growth,” said Elaraby. More»