CAIRO, 15 June 2005 — Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif met with Prince Saud ibn Abdullah ibn Thunayan, chairman of the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu (RCJY) and the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) to promote their trade strategic ties and means of increasing the volume of trade between the two countries.
“We held important talks with the Egyptian prime minister on developing the economic cooperation between the two countries in all fields that SABIC is involved in and also increasing the investment of the country in Egypt,” said Saud. “We have also agreed on establishing joint Egyptian-Saudi projects and especially in the filed of petrochemicals,” he said at a press conference.
Saud added that the Egyptian government lifted the flooding fees imposed on SABIC products entering the Egyptian market.
“Egypt has lifted all the flooding fees on SABIC products and it is now available in the Egyptian market and are treated like any other imported product,” said Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry Rasheed Muhammad.
SABIC is currently bidding for Egyptian Fertilizers Company SAE competing with India’s Tata Chemicals Ltd. and Egypt Kuwait Holding Co. Tata Chemicals Ltd. has raised its offer for Egyptian Fertilizers Company SAE to $352 a share, valuing SAE at $519 million. The new offer outbids the $350 offer made by Egypt Kuwait Holding Co.
Egypt’s government owns a 46 percent stake in Egyptian Fertilizers, which produces 400,000 tons of ammonia fertilizer and 635,000 tons of urea fertilizer a year.
Experts said that the Saudi petrochemical firm SABIC will also increase their offer for the shares next week.
“We are expecting SABIC to have a more lucrative price for the shares...at least the price it will offer will be 10 percent more than Tata’s offer,” said an expert at the Egyptian Stock Market who asked not to be identified.