Qatar General Electric and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has awarded a contract to Doha Cables, the Qatari subsidiary of Egypt’s El-Sewedy Electric Company.

The contract is worth $440m. El-Sewedy, which owns 46 per cent of Doha Cables, will supply Kahramaa with 42,000 tonnes of copper cables in the next two years. The company was one of 12 bidders for the deal.

The win is expected to cushion El-Sewedy from the impact of the uprisings that swept across its native country Egypt in January, leading to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak in February.