Egypt's Ghabbour Auto to launch GDRs in NY, London

CAIRO, June 1 (Reuters) - Ghabbour Auto (AUTO.CA), Egypt's largest listed auto maker and assembler, will soon launch global depositary receipts (GDRs) in London and New York that will trade over the counter, the company said on Monday.

The firm said it planned to issue the GDRs without a capital increase and said each GDR share would represent five Egyptian listed ordinary shares. It said it had named Bank of New York Mellon as the depositary bank.

Ghabbour gave no date for when the GDRs would be available but said it would be soon. The company said measures to issue the shares were expected to be completed this month.

"The GDR programme is an important component of our ongoing effort to become even more accessible to global investors," Chief Executive Officer Raouf Ghabbour said in a statement. Ghabbour, which has said it expects flat passenger car sales in 2009, last month posted a 91.5 percent decline in net income for the first quarter of 2009 to 7.2 million Egyptian pounds ($1.3 million) due partly to declining sales.

The firm said in April gains in March added to an improvement in sales it reported for the first two weeks of February, after a drop-off in the fourth quarter of 2008 due to the global financial crisis.

It has also said a plan to offer affordable taxis to drivers under a government plan to modernise the country's taxi fleet should balance out any declines.

Shares in the group, which said in March it hoped to launch GDR shares, ended on Monday at 23.20 pounds, just off a year high of 23.90 pounds set on Sunday. (Writing by Cynthia Johnston; Editing by David Holmes) ($1 = 5.6127 Egyptian pounds)