Egypt Property Companies Surge for Second Day on Proposed Law

Talaat Moustafa Group (TMGH) Holding led a second day of gains for Egypt’s real-estate developers after the government said it is preparing a law to protect investors from prosecution on dealings with the former regime.

Talaat Moustafa, Egypt’s biggest publicly traded real- estate developer, surged as much 8.8 percent to 4.35 Egyptian pounds in Cairo and traded at 4.26 pounds as of 1:22 p.m., bringing its two-day gain to 16 percent, the most in almost a year. Six of October Development & Investment (OCDI) Co. traded at 65.97 pounds, bringing its two-day gain to 13 percent. Palm Hills Developments SAE (PHDC) traded at 1.98 pounds, taking its two-day gain to 15 percent.

Egypt’s government is preparing a law to protect investors from criminal prosecution, Cabinet spokesman Ahmed El Simman said yesterday. It will be presented in “days” and will include the creation of a committee to settle investment disputes, he said.

“Since a large portion of businessmen are involved in housing and real estate, the sector is on fire led by Talaat Moustafa and Palm Hills as they were the hardest hit after the revolution,” said Omar Darwish, equity sales trader at Cairo- based Commercial International Brokerage Co.

Egyptian courts have annulled land purchases agreed under the government of former President Hosni Mubarak without a competitive bidding process. An appeals court is scheduled to rule on May 24 on a 33 million square-meter (355 million square- foot) purchase by Talaat Moustafa for its Madinaty development.

The company reported first-quarter profit of 169.4 million pounds, exceeding the 140.7 million pound average estimate of three analysts on Bloomberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ahmed A Namatalla in Cairo at anamatalla@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Maedler at cmaedler@bloomberg.net