Revolution scars Egypt's corporate sector: report

The recent Egyptian revolution may have transformed the country's political future but has left the country's corporate sector scarred, according to a new report by Zawya, West Asia's leading online provider of business intelligence.

In its latest report on the impact of the Egyptian Revolution on the country's publicly-listed companies, Zawya said that during the first two months of 2011, Egypt experienced "a low probability, high impact event". The event, known as Egypt's 2011 Revolution, left deep imprints on the Egyptian economy.

Zawya Equity Capital Markets Research analysts measured the economic effects of the revolution on the country as a whole, and studied the effects on companies listed on The Egyptian Exchange.

In terms of revenues, the sector that recorded the lowest median percentage change was Travel and Leisure, with a 54% decline, while the highest median was that of the Chemicals sector at 20%.

For Price, the Real Estate sector witnessed the sharpest median decline (29%), unlike the median in the Technology sector which saw an appreciation of two per cent.

67 per cent of the companies in the Telecommunications sector were directly damaged during the revolution, with The Egyptian Company for Mobile Services reporting the highest Direct Damage of around 90 million Egyptian pound.

Companies operating within the Banking, Financial Services, and Real Estate sectors had part of their Assets Under Investigation by Egyptian authorities.

Forty per cent of the companies belonging to the Basic Resources and Chemicals sectors reported that at least one of their shareholders' stakes was frozen, with Telecom Egypt reporting the highest number of Shareholders' Frozen Stake (11 shareholders).

The team, led by Senior Market Analyst Hasan Shahin and Market Analyst Nicolas Zreik used the companies' disclosures released on The Egyptian Exchange website, as per The Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority's (EFSA) request, and reflected on Zawya's platform as the primary source of information.

The criteria used were: Revenues, Price, Direct Damage, Assets Under Investigation, and Shareholders' Frozen Stake.