Palm Hills Drops on Chairman Acquittal Appeal, Land Report

Palm Hills Developments SAE (PHDC), an Egyptian luxury-property developer, dropped the most in a week as the public prosecutor plans to appeal the chairman’s acquittal and Al Mal reported the government may repossess land.

The shares slumped 2.8 percent, the most since June 29, to 2.44 Egyptian pounds at the 2:30 p.m. close in Cairo. That gave the company a market value of 2.56 billion pounds ($430 million). The benchmark EGX30 Index dropped 2.2 percent.

The nation’s public prosecutor plans to contest a court ruling yesterday that acquitted Yasseen Mansour of charges of making illegal profits and facilitating profiteering for others, according to a faxed statement yesterday.

The housing ministry may take back 210 feddans (882,000 square-meters) of a 310-feddan plot sold to Palm Hills because the land hasn’t been developed, Al Mal reported today, citing a ministry official it didn’t identify. Palm Hills said it didn’t receive a notice from the government on the land withdrawal.

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