ANOTHER GDR PLAY to get USD: “Overseas shares of EFG-Hermes Holding have sprung into life in the past three months,” Ahmed Namatalla and Tamim Elyan write for Bloomberg, saying investors are taking a loss of more than 30% on the conversion. Buying EFG Hermes shares domestically to sell them in London as GDRs is becoming a popular option to acquire USD after the similar transaction involving CIB shares hit its regulatory limits. “Multinationals are desperate to get [mns of USD] out, whether to buy raw materials or repatriate profits … Converting EFG-Hermes shares is a solution, albeit a very expensive one.” CI Capital Asset Management executive director Khaled Darwish says. Senior economist at Emirates NBD Jean-Paul Pigat looks at the bigger picture, saying “people always find a way around capital controls, even if it’s at a great cost to themselves … The problem isn’t money going out of the country, it’s the lack of money coming in. The first step in Egypt’s recovery has to be letting the exchange rate go to a level that investors feel is credible so that they can start investing again.” Namatalla and Elyan note that 14 Egyptian companies have GDR programmes and the shares of 10 are still eligible for conversion.