Egyptian developer Sodic said it will set aside $195 million to finance the operations of its newly acquired stake in Syrian real estate firm Palmyra, which plans a housing development near to the capital Damascus.

The firm also said in a note to the stock exchange it would buy a 4,000 sq m plot of land from Cairo-based private equity firm Citadel Capital for 36 million Egyptian pounds ($6.3 million) in a suburb outside Egypt's capital Cairo.

Sodic, Egypt's fourth largest developer by market value, said in June it would buy a 50 per cent stake worth $40.5 million in Palmyra, adding to a growing list of Egyptian companies investing in Syria.

Palmyra, a subsidiary of the MAS Economic Group, plans to launch a housing project on a 500,000 sq m plot near Damascus in the first half of 2011, Sodic said in June.

Palmyra owns 2.6 million sq m of land in and around the Syrian cities of Damascus, Latakia and Aleppo. Sodic sells mostly high-end residential and commercial property on the outskirts of Cairo.

The firm's shares closed 3.2 per cent higher, as the benchmark index  rose 1.5 per cent.-Reuters