Egypt’s cabinet has delayed until early next week a meeting planned for Wednesday that had been expected to offer a legal solution to Talaat Moustafa Group’s (TMG) land row, the cabinet spokesman said on Tuesday.
The government has formed a legal committee to draw up a resolution to the dispute over the state land sale for TMG’s flagship Madinaty project.
Asked by text message if the meeting had been delayed, Magdy Rady said: "Yes, to give more time to the legal committee on Madinaty to finish."
Shares in Egypt’s biggest listed property firm slipped after Rady’s comment, falling from above LE 7.04 per share to LE 6.87 by 1030 GMT. The stock was still up 3 percent from Monday’s close, compared to a 1 percent gain by Egypt’s benchmark share index.
The stock tumbled last week after a court upheld a ruling that a housing ministry body broke the law by selling land for the company’s landmark project Madinaty without a public auction.
Concern has grown that the dispute will deter potential homebuyers for Madinaty and the case has rattled investors who fear other land deals could be challenged.
The stock has partially recovered as the government sought to reassure investors the dispute would be settled quickly without damaging their interests and that similar cases would not happen in the future.
Some analysts are warning that investors hoping for a swift resolution to the TMG dispute might be disappointed due to the legal complexities of the case and the sensitive political environment in the run-up to November parliamentary elections.
The cabinet meeting delay "reflects the massive uphill task that’s going to face the government in trying to resolve this issue in a way which satisfies all parties," said Mansour Abbas, a senior equity trader at Naeem Brokerage.
