THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014 BUSINESS Beltone Financial to invest $42 million Egypt’s Beltone working on four IPOs CAIRO: Egypt’s Beltone Financial aims to invest around 300 million Egyptian pounds ($42 million) to expand its domestic operations next year because it believes the worst of the country’s economic instability has passed, its chairman told Reuters. “The entire world is open to us. I see that the transition period in Egypt has ended. The investment opportunities that exist domestically are the best that can be found in the region,” Aladdin Saba said. “We will propose our expansion plan for 2015 to the board of directors. I envision us investing in the non-bank financial sector by setting up new firms, or by buying existing businesses if they would enable us to achieve our goal and save us time.” The optimism of Saba, who founded Beltone in 2002, is echoed by many Egyptian financiers, who think the government is getting a grip on Egypt’s economic problems after a threeyear slump following the revolution of 2011. With over 200 staff, Beltone has brokerage, asset management, investment banking and private equity operations. Foreign operations include offices in Dubai and London. Earnings have slumped since last year, when they were inflated by one-off gains such as a property sale. Consolidated net income tumbled 84 percent from a year earlier to 11.0 million Egyptian pounds in the first half of 2014; revenues sank 26 percent to 31.6 million pounds because of lower fee income. But the company has been one of the most aggressive Egyptian financial firms in seeking to get ahead of the expected rise in asset values in the event of an economic recovery over the next several years. It originally announced that it would distribute a dividend of 7 pounds per share for the 2013 financial year, but then suspended that decision as it sought with billionaire Naguib Sawiris to buy a 20 percent stake in Egyptian investment bank EFG Hermes for about $257 million. The purchase did not go through as the bid consortium attracted offers of just under half of the EFG Hermes shares which it sought. However, that setback does not appear to have dimmed Beltone’s ambitions. The company’s board decided this month not to distribute cash dividends and to use the company’s liquidity instead to fund its future expansion plans. “The decision to distribute dividends for 2013 was made under certain circumstances that have changed entirely, and our policy too has changed,” Saba said in an interview at the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit. “The first sign of change was the company heading towards acquiring a stake in Hermes. Therefore we decided, whereas our policy was to be conservative and distribute cash dividends, to look into expansion and investment opportunities.” He added, “We have liquidity of 120 million pounds and this covers a portion of the expan- sion that we are working on. There may be a new stage of external funding for the remainder of our investments, either through a capital increase or through obtaining bank loans.” IPOs Authorities are working to revive listing activity on Egypt’s stock market, which should benefit firms such as Beltone. Arabian Cement Co listed in Cairo in May after raising $110 million in its initial public offer, the first major one on the bourse for about three years; Egyptian Exchange chairman Mohamed Omran told Reuters this month that the exchange expected to approve 10 listings this year. “We are working on four new primary offerings, but all of them will occur in 2015,” Saba said without naming the companies. “We have an offering with a value above 1 billion pounds, and another with a value of around 750 million pounds. We can say that the aggregate value of the four offers will exceed 2 billion pounds.” In April, the exchange granted Beltone the country’s first licence for exchange traded funds (ETFs), a step towards deepening trade in the stock market. Omran said he had expected ETF certificates to be offered earlier this year, and now believed they would be introduced by the end of 2014. Asked when Beltone might proceed with ETFs, Saba said: “At the earliest. Beltone is not waiting for anything. There are still a few minor changes being made to the offering circular.” —Reuters NBK announces the Al Jawhara winners KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) announces the three lucky winners in Al Jawhara weekly draws during the month of October. NBK has re-launched Al Jawhara account by offering customers more chances to win bigger prizes; KD 5,000 weekly, KD 125,000 monthly and a grand prize of KD 250,000 quarterly. Jumnah Bhinderwala Bahia, Minors Ghezlan Nawaf Al Saqobi and Lamar Tareq Al Sarraf each won KD 5,000. Al Jawhara is one of Kuwait’s leading cash prize accounts offering numerous benefits to its customers. Not only is it an interest-free account with regular deposit and withdrawal privileges, it also entitles account holders to enter the weekly, monthly and quarterly Al Jawhara draws. Each KD 50 in an Al Jawhara account entitles the customer to one chance in any of the draws. All prizes are automatically credited to the winners’ accounts the day after the draw. The more money held in your Al Jawhara account, the greater your chances of winning. Al Jawhara accounts are available to both Kuwaitis and Expats and can be opened at any of NBK’s branches around Kuwait. NBK pioneered many firsts in both the local and regional markets by offering innovative products and value added services. For more information please contact NBK Call Center 1 801 801 or log on to www.nbk.com Al Mazaya Holding records 585% jump Sultan Telecom and subsidiaries receive ISO 9001:2008 Certificate KUWAIT: Sultan Telecom, a subsidiary of The Sultan Center is a leading telecommunications solutions company, yesterday announced that it has been certified as ISO 9001:2008 compliant for all of its operations after a thorough analysis of its quality system by UKAS Management Systems, a global independent certification body. ISO 9001:2008 sets criteria for a quality management system that must be met in order to gain certification. Accepted worldwide as the standard that defines quality, ISO 9001:2008 provides the necessary framework to improve company efficiency, minimize risk and maximize opportunity. ISO has over 19,500 international standards covering almost all aspects of technology and business. “Sultan Telecoms’ ISO certification is a coming-of-age significance that the company is a credible telecommunications solutions provider for its customers. The certification is an important achievement because it separates those nascent in technology versus those who can really deliver complex solutions that can be used today.” said Mamoun Sweis, Director of Sultan Telecom. Mr. Sweis added that because of the company’s long standing performance, it has been able to quickly achieve and bring up the performance of its subsidiaries. “We have been able to get our subsidiaries, ArabianITS & ATCO to also be certified for ISO 9001:2008”, he added. The typical time to implement an ISO 9001:2008 compliant quality management system is between 6 to 18 months, but Sultan Telecom and its subsidiaries completed the journey in 5 months. “Attaining ISO 9001:2008 certification is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our colleagues” said Ravinder Talwar, Senior Project Manager for Sultan Telecom. Shibu Pallickal, Lead ISO Manager said “This notable certification speaks of our continuous passion to innovate in our industry, provide first-class solutions for our customers and ensure that the Sultan Telecom brand and our technology solutions remain synonymous with un-matched quality”. “By receiving this certification, our customers and partners are assured that they are working with a company that is committed to the highest standards of operations.” said Naveed Ahmed, ArabianITS Manager. Top mortgage firm accused of abuses NEW YORK: One of the nation’s largest servicers of home loans may have denied struggling borrowers the chance to fix loan problems and avoid foreclosures, New York’s financial regulator has alleged. An investigation by the state’s Department of Financial Services found that Ocwen Financial Corp. inappropriately backdated foreclosure warnings and letters that rejected mortgage loan modifications, making it nearly impossible for borrowers to appeal the company’s decision. Many borrowers who had fallen behind on loan payments also received warning letters months after the deadline for avoiding foreclosure had passed, department investigators found. Potentially hundreds of thousands of backdated letters may have been sent to borrowers, likely causing them “significant harm,” Benjamin Lawsky, New York’s Superintendent of Financial Services, wrote in a letter to Ocwen released Tuesday. “Ocwen’s indifference to such a serious matter demonstrates a troubling corporate culture that disregards the needs of struggling borrowers,” Lawsky wrote in the letter to company’s general counsel. In a statement, Atlanta-based Ocwen blamed software errors in the company’s correspondence systems for generating improperly dated letters. The latest claims of wrongdoing against Ocwen come less than a year after the company agreed to reduce struggling borrowers’ loan balances by $2 billion as part of a settlement with federal regulators and 49 states over foreclosures abuses. It’s the most recent evidence that many of the same kinds of abuses that made the housing crisis and the Great Recession worse are still happening some seven years after the housing bubble burst. Subprime mortgage lenders thrived during the real estate boom years, as many borrowers turned to a variety of nontraditional, riskier loans when they couldn’t qualify for traditional, fixed-interest mortgages requiring down payments. But it all began to unravel in 2007, as defaults started to pile up. That eventually triggered a mortgage meltdown that sent foreclosures soaring and propelled the US housing market into its worst skid in decades. In the years since, companies like Ocwen have been enlisted to handle payment collection on behalf of banks and, in many cases, investors who own securities backed by bundled home loans. They also handle customer services, loan modifications and foreclosures. Such companies have also been criticized for not helping homeowners quickly enough - resulting in delays that lead to more fees and profits for servicers. Many have been the target of consumer lawsuits. Some mortgage-servicing companies processed foreclosures without verifying documents. Ocwen is the fourthlargest mortgage servicer in the country and the biggest that isn’t a bank. It specializes in servicing high-risk mortgages. At the start of this year, it managed $106 billion worth of subprime mortgages, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, a mortgage industry tracker. The New York Department of Financial Services launched a probe into Ocwen in August amid allegations that the company overcharged struggling homeowners on a product called forceplaced insurance, which servicers force borrowers to buy if they don’t maintain voluntary homeowners’ insurance. If mortgage borrowers don’t pay up for newly purchased insurance, Ocwen forecloses on their homes. Among its latest findings, the regulator determined that Ocwen failed to investigate the backdating of its letters to borrowers nearly a year after an employee raised questions about the practice. The letter did not specify whether the backdating was intentional or the result of poor oversight by Ocwen. “The existence and pervasiveness of these issues raise critical questions about Ocwen’s ability to perform its core function of servicing loans,” Lawsky wrote in the letter. In its statement, Ocwen said initially that its systems generated improperly dated letters to 283 of its borrowers in New York. It later said it is aware of additional borrowers, but didn’t specify.. The company added that it is investigating two other cases and cooperating with the New York regulator. “We believe that we have resolved the letter-dating issues that have been identified to date, and we continue our investigation as to whether there are additional letter-dating issues that need to be resolved,” the company said. A company spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for details on how many Ocwen borrowers nationwide received backdated letters or lost their homes as a result of the delayed warning letters. Ocwen’s stock slumped $4.78, or 18.2 percent, to $21.48 Tuesday. The stock is down 61 percent this year. —AP KUWAIT: Al Mazaya Holding Company has announced its financial results for the first nine months of the year 2014, after a Board of Directors meeting held on Tuesday, October 21, in the presence of Chairman of the Board of Directors Rashid Jacob Al Nafisi, the Board members and CEO. On this occasion, Eng Ibrahim Abdulrahman Al Saq’abi, CEO of Al Mazaya Holding Company, said that Al Mazaya Holding had continued throughout the first nine months of 2014 to achieve excellent positive progress in its financial results. The company recorded net profits of KD 5.662 million over the period, compared to KD 0.827 million over the same period in 2013, and profitability of 9.14 fils per share, compared to 1.33 fils for the same period in 2013. This was achieved by virtue of its focus on operational activities as it increased the occupancy rate in its income-generating projects, which led to an increase in the rental revenues of the company by 36.2 percent, valued at KD 3.883 million by the end of the third quarter of 2014, compared to KD2.850 thousand for the same period in 2013. This included the Sky Gardens Project in Dubai International Financial Centre, in which the occupancy rate reached 99 percent, and Al-Mazaya Towers at the heart of the Kuwaiti capital, with an occupancy rate of 100 percent, in addition to its projects in a number of the region’s countries such as the KSA and the UAE, in which the occupancy rates of the company’s projects reached 100 percent. The company also succeeded in achieving an increase in its operational revenues resulting from managing others’ projects. Al-Saq’abi stressed that Al- Mazaya was able to achieve good revenues from the sale of the last residential villas in “The Villa” project in Dubai Land, which are currently being delivered to clients, and the Office Spaces Project in “Mazaya Business Avenue, with revenues from sale properties amounting to KD 10.889 million, and total operating revenues amounting to KD 15.299 million as on September 30, 2014. Financial results Speaking about the company’s financial results over the first nine months of 2014, Al- Saq’abi said that the company was able to maintain steady growth in its operational performance and net profit, in line with its carefully plotted smart objectives. Reviewing the rest of the company’s financial statements for the past nine months, he pointed out that the company ’s total assets amounted to KD233.867 million, compared to KD216.438 million during the same period in 2013. The shareholders’ equity added up to KD104.642 million by the end of the third quarter of 2014, compared to KD99.815 million for the same period in 2013, which represents a 15.2 percent rise. Nine months achievements Speak ing about Al-M azaya’s Eng Ibrahim Abdulrahman Al Saq’abi major achievements during the first nine months of 2014, Al-Saqabi said that: The company has pushed up the timetable for development of AlM azaya Logistics in Bahrain - a group of industrial units for rent in Bahrain I nvestment War f, wor th more than KD 6 million - in order to speed up the operating-leasing operations, which will have a positive impact on the company’s revenues at the end of 2014. It also achieved positive results to implement the “Queue-Point” Project in Dubai Land, consisting of 25 building currently under development, as the company delivered numerous residential units in the project. l Al Mazaya acquired a new land in the “Sabah Al Salem” area in Kuwait, which spans 2000 square meters over a strategic location, in order to build a sophisticated medical center in line with the “Clover” Medical Project in Jabriyyah. - Al Mazaya designed a new residential projec t on its own land in Al Mawaalih (Seeb District) in Muscat, an area of 23,193 square meters, which is intended to be tendered to the contractors to start the development process. - Al Mazaya designed four new buildings in the Emirate of Dubai (Dubai Land). The project is expected to be completely implemented by the end of 2017. l Al Mazaya participated in the largest real estate event in the Middle East (Cityscape-Dubai), confirming its continued presence among the region’s major real estate companies, after having put forward a number of projects for sale and lease. -Al Mazaya announced its entry into the Turkish Real Estate Market, by establishing a Turkish company, ‘Mazaya Turkey Real Estate Investment’ and appointing a CEO, in a promising step to geographically expand and benefit from the promising investment opportunities in the new market. - Al Mazaya signed an alliance agreement with Domankaya Real Estate Company - one of the giant real estate development companies in Istanbul - whereby Al Mazaya develops joint ventures, taking advantage of the experience of the Turkish company and its position in the Turkish real estate market. l Al-Mazaya had broadened its relations with many banks and investors in order to enter into strategic partnerships for the development of its new projects in the Gulf region and the Middle East. It has also prepared extensive studies for the local, Gulf and regional markets, as a preliminary step to engage in the sectors that will achieve the required returns with a limited risk rate, benefitting from the company’s previous experience and the current market factors. Al-Saqabi concluded that Al-Mazaya still has numerous investment opportunities under consideration, which are going to see light in the near future according to the company’s strategic plan. Al Tijaria invests in Turkey Farmlands KUWAIT: Abdulfattah Marafie Chairman & Managing Director at Al Tijaria Real Estate Company said that the company has entered a new investment in the Republic of Turkey for an amount of $10 Million. The Turkish market is considered one of the strongest producing and exporting markets in agricultural products in the world. The main objective of this investment is to buy and develop pretargeted farmlands in an area of 10 million m2. In the same context, Al Tijaria Real Estate Company has taken the needed safety procedures required to preserve the rights of its shareholders while maintaining the lowest risk levels and taking into consideration a Conservative Exit Policy. The investment period is 8 years - from the date the proj- ect started with the possibility of extending it for two more years. The investment begins with two years of developing and cultivating the land, then 6 years to produce the agricultural crops. The salient feature of this investment Abdulfattah M R H Marafie is the existing need and demand from Turkish and international markets for such products. In addition to that, Al Tijaria has partnered with one of the international companies specialized in the production and exporting of concentrated juices which in turn will buy and market the agricultural crops resulting from this project. He also added that this type of investment comes within the company’s policy in investing in good and various projects in terms of sectorial or geographical distribution where all the company’s investment results in good returns and in stable markets which gets along with the conservative policy of risks management adopted by the company’s board members in addition to adding a value to the shareholders rights.
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