The Transport Ministry is considering 16 local and international consortiums to implement Alexandria’s Abu Qir metro project, unnamed sources at the ministry told Al Mal. The consortiums include Egypt’s ElSewedy Electric-Siemens, Orascom-Arab Contractors as well as India’s Larsen & Toubro and South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem, Spain’s Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, Italy’s WSPHT, China’s NORINCO International, Japan’s Hitachi Group and a French-Egyptian consortium led by Alstom, among others.

Speed Medical will buy back 20 mn shares in a bid to support its share price, which has come under pressure since the end of its bid for Prime Speed. The company’s shares have fallen more than 25% since the end of August when relations between the two companies broke down, with Speed publicly airing a list of grievances against Prime and closing the door on its takeover bid. The company will now buy back shares amounting to 1.8% of its capital, it announced in a disclosure (pdf) yesterday, a transaction that based on yesterday’s share price would cost EGP 34.4 mn. The company’s share price fell 13.5% yesterday to EGP 1.72.