Egypt's Oriental Weavers buys local textile firm

The board of Oriental Weavers, the world's biggest machine woven carpet producer, approved the acquisition of Rosetex during a meeting last Wednesday, Oriental's investor relations manager said on Sunday.

Rosetex's 65,000 square metres of land is located near Oriental's main facility in 10th of Ramadan city just outside Cairo.

"The land is next to us, so we said it's a good opportunity to acquire it for future expansion," Haitham Abdel Moneim told Reuters.

Oriental Weavers is financing the acquisition in full, and expects Rosetex's operations to commence within a year. The new firm has not yet acquired machinery.

Oriental Weavers sells 45 percent of its goods on the local market and has an 85 percent share of Egypt's carpet industry. It exports the remainder to more than 100 countries.

Asked about Oriental's expansion plans, Abdel Moneim said: "Signs of recovery and rebound of demand are looking good ... the fourth quarter contribution of exports is higher than the local and this hasn't happened in a while. This is proof the market is picking up."

The firm's fourth quarter financial results are due to be announced in March. Its shares were down 2.9 percent by 0949