News

El Mal newspaper - 21 October 2009

Maher Asham - CEO of Egypt for Information Dissemination (EGID) to “ El Mal “ Newspaper

Reforming Articles 49 & 50 is important to be able to keep track with the Changes of the technological environment.

A large number of brokerage companies have faced many obstacles in applying articles 49 and 50 that were issued by the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority EFSA last year. The two articles mainly stated that each company should have a solid technical base to build upon its security and surveillance system. The implementation of these two articles would cause a financial burden on some companies.

Accordingly the Egyptian Exchange started to find proper economical solutions to help medium & small brokers applying the rules.

Building on this, Mr. Maher Asham CEO of EGID mentioned that EGID has created new technological solutions that are low in cost yet efficient enough to answer to the requirements of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority EFSA. Mr. Asham also stated that the last few years have witnessed the appearance of new systems that are built on using less LAN connections yet with high efficiency that matches the requisite of EFSA; not only that it also has the capability of an automatic update without burdening the company with any extra cost needed to buy new updated softwares .

Mr. Asham highly advice both EGX and EFSA to try to reform both Article 49 and 50 so that it would match the current technological evolution and also to be more applicable and feasible to follow by all the current market players. He also stressed on both authorities to be more flexible in adapting to the new systems; that would help many brokers bind to the articles in question, yet without overbearing too much expenses.

Mr. Asham confirmed that EGID is currently targeting the small and medium brokers and is trying to help them apply both articles in an advanced way technically and moderate way financially of which ( El Gandoul Brokerage ) and ( El Moquatam Brokerage ).

On the other hand speaking about the future plans of EGID, Mr. Asham declared that the move of EGID to the new building in – El Tagamoa area, is a step that would back EGID’s growth plan. By having its own building EGID can present other services beside software development, for example it can provide training courses on the new created softwares. Extra training rooms can be rented or used to present EGX’s training programs.

Mr.Asham finally declared that the co-operation between authorities and brokerage would lead to beneficial results to all parties and to the Egyptian financial market in general.

Alam El Mal - 21 October 2009

CEO of Egypt of Information Dissemination – EGID “ 45 million Egyptian Pounds the cost of the new building , the opening is in February 2010 “

In An interview with Mr. Maher Asham the CEO of EGID he mentioned that his company’s revenue were not affected by the global economical crises, it has realized 12 million Egyptian pounds last year and he expects further increase for year 2009. He also confirmed that the opening of the new building of EGID in New Cairo will have a positive impact on the profits of EGID.

By interviewing Mr. Asham he highlighted that the Joint Venture between the Egyptian Exchange and NASDAQ OMX gave EGID the opportunity to gain the international expertise needed to tackle the Middle Eastern and International Markets.

By asking Mr. Asham:

• What are the new services that EGID is presenting?
- EGID is exclusively licensed by the Egyptian Exchange to disseminate all the information of the companies listed on EGX. EGID also created a variety of softwares that support the data vendors the brokers and the exchanges. An example of these Softwares is the backoffice system (Matador).

• How did EGID benefit from the increase of NASDAQ OMX’s share in the nominal capital?
- EGID was fully owned by EGX then after the joint venture with NASDAQ OMX we were able to increase our nominal capital which gave EGID the facility to get the best technology available needed in the softwares development. This increase also helped EGID enter the UAE – Dubai & Doha market. On the other hand EGID helped in launching Damascus Stock Exchange in Syria.

• Who are EGID’s Customers in the Egyptian Market?
- Of our main customers Mubasher , MIST, EFG-Hermes, Arabia Online & Sigma. They all take the data feed information about the companies listed on EGX.

• Is there any company to enter new markets?
- Currently EGID is studying the option of entering other Arab Markets as well as African Markets where we will introduce the services of transferring and disseminating the information. Lately we have discussed with the Chairman of Sudan Stock Exchange, the best means of advance.

• What about the Libyan Stock Exchange ?
- The Libyan market is a promising one in the field of financial instruments yet it lake a lot of technical facilities. It is worth mentioning that Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) have been one of the first organizations to support the Libyan Market.

• In what way did NASDAQ OMX help EGID?
- NASDAQ OMX provides EGID’s personnel with a yearly training. It has also sent many of EGID’s personnel to take the training in their main headquarter in Sidney – Australia.

• What is the future strategy of EGID?
- in the near future the company aims to realize three main targets. First, finish the new office that is located in the 5th District at New Cairo. Cost of this office reached more than 45 Million Egyptian pounds and it will officially open by February. Second, present new services and create new softwares to help the Brokerage companies and the data vendors. Third, to expand geographical, and be able to cover more markets in the Arabic region.

OMX and the Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchanges sign Letter of Intent regarding technology partnership

OMX, a leading expert in the exchange industry, and the Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchanges (CASE), the Egyptian Exchange and Exchange Technology group, have today signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to establish a Joint Venture to offer IT services to the financial markets in Egypt as well as the Middle East and Africa. Final agreements are expected to be signed during Q1 2006.