CAIRO: Egypt’s Misr Aswan Tourism said on Sunday its shareholders agreed to scrap a land sale contract with the country’s second-biggest listed property firm, Palm Hills Developments, and return money from the sale.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak issued a decree in June canceling the sale contract for the land in the southern city of Aswan following a parliamentary debate about the price paid for it, state and independent media reported.
The government was involved because the Egyptian state owns one fifth of Misr Aswan Tourism, according to a state holding company’s website. Palm Hills previously said it had paid LE 12.6 million ($2.2 million) as a partial installment for the land, and was seeking its return.
"We have agreed with Palm Hills to return LE 12.6 million, which was the amount the company paid," Misr Aswan Chairman Mohammed Hassan told Reuters by telephone, adding that the money should be returned within a month.
Aswan, on the Nile river, is home to pharaonic ruins that help draw millions of tourists to Egypt each year.
