BEEF WATCH- Case against Emaar still under court review but negotiations are positive: An arbitration case againstEmaar Misrfiled by El Nasr Housingis still being reviewed by the Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration, the UAE-based company said in a statement (pdf). Negotiations between the two companies over their two-year-old dispute are positive and signal a potential resolution, Emaar said. Public Enterprises Minister Hisham Tawfik was quoted by the domestic press earlier this week as saying that the two companies will sign next week the final contracts to resolve their dispute over a land plot and delays in Emaar’s Uptown Cairo project. The two companies had reached an agreement whereby the former would pay EGP 100 mn to settle. The agreement also involves Emaar completing the project, and either returning 5% of the project land or buying it at market value.

Background: State-owned El Nasr brought the arbitration case against Emaar in June 2017 alleging that the UAE-based company failed to develop 3 mn sqm of land allotted to it in 2005. El Nasr also claimed there are 215k sqm unlawfully within Uptown’s borders. Emaar’s offer of EGP 100 mn in settlement was then met with acceptance since El Nasr’s arbitration case was said to be “baseless.”