** #3 M&A WATCH- Real estate giants SODIC and MNHD release operational updates. The two players in what we believe is Egypt’s largest-ever domestic merger issued operational updates yesterday as the transaction chugs toward a potential end-of-year close:

SODIC sees net contracted sales growing 14% y-o-y 2018: SODIC is anticipating net contract sales rising 14% y-o-y in 2018 to EGP 6.5 bn, the company said in a bourse statement (pdf). The statement notes that net contracted sales could have been higher had it not been for delays in launching its West Cairo project.

MNHD YTD 2018 deliveries up 126%: Madinat Nasr of Housing and Development (MNHD) announced that its deliveries reached 511 homes YTD in 2018, up 126% from YTD 2017. MNHD completed the construction of 2,956 homes in various developments in East and West Cairo with plans to deliver them to customers in 4Q2018 and early 2019, the company said in a statement yesterday (pdf). “We are very pleased with our accelerated construction plan and keeping our promise to deliver our units on time,” CEO Ahmed El Hitamy said.

Background: MNHD is the subject of an all-share acquisition bid by SODIC. We have plenty more from our exclusive sit-down with SODIC CEO Magued Sherif and MNHD Chairman Hazem Barakat.