Centamin Egypt sees move to FTSE 250 by December

By Julie Crust

LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Centamin Egypt Ltd (CEY.L) (CEE.TO) expects to move into the midcap FTSE 250 index in the next reshuffle, the gold producer said on Friday as it made its debut on the London Stock Exchange's main market.

It became the sixth company this year to move up from the less closely regulated junior AIM market. The shares were up 0.9 percent at 136 pence at 0812 GMT, valuing the miner at 1.3 billion pounds ($2.2 billion).

"I think we will see an increase in liquidity, exposure to a lot more funds that don't invest in AIM and I think we should move into the FTSE 250 hopefully around December," Chief Executive Josef El-Raghy said in an interview with Reuters.

Centamin, which moved into production at the end of June, expects to start commercial output by the end of 2009 and finish the year with gold production at about 200,000 ounces a year. It is targeting an increase to at least 500,000 ounces in 2012.

(Editing by Paul Hoskins)

($1=.6053 Pound)