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A subsidiary of Mubarak-era tycoon's steel company suffers significant increase in net losses
CAIRO, Dec. 22 (Aswat Masriya)- Al Ezz Dekheila Steel Company Alexandria (IRAX) suffered a 172.7% increase in net losses in the first three quarters of 2015, compared to the same period in 2014, business results revealed on Tuesday.
IRAX is a subsidiary of Ezz Steel Company, the largest producer of steel in the Middle East and North Africa, and an often accused monopolizer of the steel market. The company presviously controlled approxiamtely 50% of Egypt's steel market, but in 2009 the Egyptian Competition Authority cleared the company of any violations of monopoly law.
Recent consolidated business results showed that IRAX losses have been exacerbated to 559 million EGP over the first nine months of this year, compared to 205 million EGP in 2014.
Net losses from July to September amounted to 321 million pounds, a total of 32% more than 2014’s losses, the company said.
The company’s consolidated business results revealed a decrease in total sales in the first three quarters of 2015,compared to the first three quarters of 2014. Sales in the first three quarters of 2015 amounted to 8.8 billion EGP, compared to the 10.9 billion EGP during the same period of 2014.
Ezz was a senior member of the ruling political party during President Hosni Mubarak's 30-years rule. He was implicated in different corruption charges after Mubarak's ouster in 2011 and was handed several prison sentences which were all overturned by Egypt’s Court of Cassation.
After over three years of incarceration, economic analysts believe that Ahmed Ezz, the owner of Ezz Steel companies, has returned to is very different economic environment than the one he had known in the heydays of his economic empire, until his arrest in 2011.
The steel producer, who was called out for monopolizing the steel market during the January 25 Uprising in 2011, was released from prison in August 2014. The tycoon's steel firm Ezz Steel recorded significant net losses over all 2014.
Ezz’s political career has also gone downhill since his incarceration, as he was twice-excluded from running in parliamentary elections in 2015, after he filed an appeal against his initial exclusion.
