Egypt's Oriental Weavers delays work on new complex

CAIRO, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Oriental Weavers (ORWE.CA), the world's biggest machine-woven carpet producer, said on Sunday it would delay construction work for an industrial complex from mid-2009 to 2010 because of the global financial crisis.

Oriental Weavers said in March the first phase of the 1.3 billion Egyptian pound ($235.5 million) complex would produce rugs with an initial investment cost of 495 million pounds.

"In light of the decline recently in the world financial markets, the management of the company saw fit to move construction work planned for mid-2009 to the beginning of 2010," the company said in a statement to the stock exchange.

The company, however, has not seen any decline in its growth rate, productivity or sales, the statement said.

In November, Oriental Weavers reported a 48 percent increase in net profit after minority interest during the third quarter to 86 million pounds. It maintained its full-year profit growth target of between 10 to 12 percent.

Shares in the company were trading 0.71 percent up at 22.80 pounds by 0953 GMT. (Writing by Alaa Shahine; Editing by Jason Neely)