Ghazl Al-Mahalla Football: The Ghazl Al-Mahalla Football Club (GMFC) has extended the subscription period for its LE98 million capital increase until 14 August because the summer holidays and the long Eid Al-Adha vacation in July limited demand for shares. The maximum number of shares that any investor can subscribe to is now 7.5 times the initial amount, as the ceiling has been raised from two million to 15 million shares.

Ghazl Al-Mahalla Football (GMFC) is a joint-stock company that came into existence in 2021, following the spin-off of the football activity from the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in Al-Mahalla Al-Kubra. According to a note by Al-Ahly Pharos, an investment bank, GMFC is not only the first football club to be listed on a regional stock exchange, but it is also the first to be listed immediately after incorporation before the issuance of at least two years of financial statements.

The LE98 million offering is part of a three-part plan to increase GMFC capital by LE200 million. Misr Spinning and Weaving have pumped in LE65 million, representing 32 per cent of the target. In return, the company will have a 20-year usufruct right to use the GMFC stadium, as well as advertising and sponsorship contracts. The second part of the capital increase took place through a LE37 million private placement covered by the Misr Insurance Holding Company and Egyptian, Kuwaiti, and Saudi individuals and institutions.

Cairo Poultry: The company has reported LE1.6 billion in sales for the second quarter of 2022, marking a 28.4 per cent increase from their level in the same quarter a year ago. “The climb came backed mainly by increasing selling prices, driven by global and local factors of a commodities rally, currency devaluation, overall inflation, supply chain disruptions, and local supply shrinkage,” commented Marina William, an analyst at Al-Ahly Pharos.  

The price increases have affected sales of some segments of the company’s business as the purchasing power of consumers has been affected. Sales of the company’s production of feed dropped by an average of nine per cent year-on-year.

William said that while commodities have started to cool down globally, positive for the company as it brings down costs and can push up volumes, this positive effect will not necessarily be reflected locally due to a second round of weak currency concerns and product unavailability. “If the second quarter’s global and local conditions continue throughout the remainder of 2022, we could see the same trends of increasing prices and declining volumes,” she wrote in a research note.

Beltone Holding: The local investment bank became 56 per cent owned by the UAE-based  investment firm Chimera. This came after Orascom Financial Holding (OFH) agreed to sell all the share it owns in the investment bank. Chimera submitted last week a bid to buy up to 90 per cent of Beltone shares for LE1.485 per share, but only three individual investors agreed to divest their holdings, adding only 150 more shares to the stake acquired from Orascom Financial.

The remaining shares not held by OFH are publicly traded on the EGX.

Paint and Chemical Industries: Pachin is the target of yet another acquisition offer with the  Universal Building Materials and Chemicals (SIPE) submitting a tender to acquire at least 60 per cent and up to 100 per cent of its shares.

SIPE’s offered to pay between LE17.5 and LE18.5 per share, which is eight to 14 per cent premium on the LE16.2 at which Pachin’s shares closed this week, valuing Pachin at LE420-444 million.

SIPE is a regional paint distributor, with plants in Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Egypt. It produces home and industrial paint as well as wood coatings and automotive paints.

It was only last month that SIPE offered to buy 100 per cent of Pachin at LE 16-16.5 per share, an offer that was rejected for being too low.

Pachin is currently 54 per cent held by state-owned companies and banks.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 11 August, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.