The European Union and the Ministry of International Cooperation organized a signing ceremony for a number of development financing grants within the framework of the Egyptian-European partnership worth 138 million euros

Newsletter

11 May 2022

For our top talks today, first, the European Union (EU) and the Ministry of International Cooperation organized a signing ceremony for a number of development financing grants within the framework of the Egyptian-European partnership worth 138 million euros. The grants included a 24 million euros grant agreement between the EU’s Integrated Rural Development program and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation to support the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, a €5 million grant euros to support the Ministry of Finance, a 5 million grant euros to support the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and 80 million grant euros to the Ministry of Health and Population. The 138 million euros financing grants cover several sectors including: health, administrative reform, environment, rural and community development, and governance. (WAYA)

Second, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is granting a loan worth 4.8 million USD to Intro Sustainable Resources (Intro-SR) and Intro Solar in Egypt.
The loan will be used to finance the stake of Intro-SR in a portfolio of energy efficiency, waste-to-energy, waste management, and solar photovoltaic (PV) projects. The projects cover one of Egypt’s first private-to-private energy generation projects that aim to encourage resource consumption efficiency. Established in the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) in 2020, Intro-SR is 100%-owned by Intro Investments Holding and operates in renewable energy development. EBRD recently announced that it would provide a senior unsecured debt facility of 20 million USD to the Commercial International Bank Egypt (CIB) (COMI) for on-lending to women-led private small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Egypt. It is worth noting that EBRD has invested over 8.5 billion EUR in Egypt across 144 projects since the beginning of its operations in 2012. (EBRD Website)
The Egyptian government is planning to increase self-sufficiency in wheat to 65% by 2025, from 45% in 2020, Minister of Planning Hala El-Said announced.
The government’s goals also include increasing self-sufficiency in corn, fava bean, lentil, oil crop, red meat, and fish to 32%, 80%, 16%, 10%, 65%, and 85%, respectively, El-Said revealed. The minister said that targets of the general budget for fiscal year (FY) 2022/2023 include increasing agricultural exports to 3.6 billion USD, from 2.4 billion USD in the FY 2020/2021, raising their contribution to total non-oil exports to 15%. The new budget’s targets also comprise adding around 500,000 feddan to the total agricultural land, she added. (Egypt Ministry of Planning)
It’s Inflation day! Figures for April are due out yesterday. Egypt's annual urban consumer inflation quickened to a faster-than-expected 13.1% year-on-year in April compared to 10.5% in March, which is the highest level of numbers since April 2019.
Consumer prices accelerated at their fastest rate in almost three years in March as the spillover effects from the war in Ukraine fed through to the Egyptian economy. With commodity prices still feeling the effects of the conflict, the devaluation of the EGP, and the traditional Ramadan inflationary hit, we’re not expecting the figures to have been any better in April. (Bloomberg Asharq)
We’re still waiting for Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly to unveil the government’s plans to boost private sector involvement in the economy.
Cabinet said Saturday that the PM would hold a presser “at the beginning of next week” to announce new details on how the government intends to attract more FDI and private-sector investment in Egypt. Whether or not we get word of the state’s privatization plans this week, we now have a rough idea of what it wants to achieve in the coming fiscal year: The draft budget shows that the government wants to raise 6 billion EGP from selling shares in state-owned companies in the coming fiscal year. Which companies and how many shares will be up for grabs, we still don’t know. But the government has sought to convey its seriousness about privatizing state assets in recent days, pledging to resume its privatization program in September and offer shares in several military-owned firms by the end of the year. (Zilla Capital)
Egypt is planning to pump around EGP 1.45 trillion in the fiscal year (FY) 2022/2023 budget, up 17% from FY 2021/2022, Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said said during a speech on the new general budget before the House of Representatives.
The new FY investments will include around 1.1 trillion EGP public investments and 350 billion EGP private investments, she noted. The minister revealed that Egypt will also invest 336 billion EGP in green projects during FY 2022/2023. The government is planning to pump 93.5 billion EGP investments into transformative industries during FY 2022/2023, El-Said added. El-Said maintained that around 17.5 billion EGP will be allocated to the general courts of governorates and to the Ministry of Local Development in FY 2022/2023. The Egyptian government is also dedicating 10 billion EGP in the general budget for FY 2022/2023 to integrate the social aspect in development plans. (Arab Finance)
Ali Auf, head of the Pharmaceutical Division of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, said that 70 pharmaceutical companies requested re-pricing with the dollar exchange rate jumps.
Any type of medicine has 20-30 alternatives that can be provided, but the sector is now in an exceptional situation, especially with the distress in global conditions, in addition to the outbreak of the Corona virus in China again. He explained that the increase, if approved, will not appear until within three or four months, especially since there is an old stockpile, as it will be applied to new shipments. It is noteworthy that the number of pharmaceutical items in Egypt is 17,000, according to the latest data of the Medicines Authority. The increase in the price of the dollar affected all commodities in Egypt, not just medicine. In addition, the last increase was in January 2017, an increase in the prices of more than 3,000 types of medicine, following the flotation of the Egyptian pound, by 50% for medicines whose prices are less than 50 EGP, and % 40 for those whose price is more than 50 EGP, and 30% for those whose price is more than 100 EGP. (Al Mal)
Moving to the EGX and companies talks, Egyptian payment aggregator Paymob has raised 50 million USD in Series B funding, marking the largest fintech Series B ever in Egypt.
The funding round was led by Kora Capital, PayPal Ventures, and Clay Point, with the participation of new investors such as Helios Digital Ventures, British International Investment, and Nclude, along with existing investors including A15, FMO, and Global Ventures. This round brings Paymob’s total funding to more than 68.5 million USD. Accordingly, Paymob becomes one of the most funded companies in the region. The startup will use proceeds from the round to expand its product range, scale up its position in the Egyptian market, and enter new markets across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. (Arab Finance)
Egyptian pasta-maker Egyptian Swiss Group — the maker of pasta brands Zeina and Rawaa is “experimenting” with rice, corn, and lentil flours as a substitute for wheat, as the war in Ukraine continues to drive price inflation for the grain.
“The price is the name of the game,” Egyptian Swiss Group General Manager Ahmed El Sebaie was quoted as saying. The food manufacturer joins firms across Africa exploring local alternatives to imported wheat, which has become around 40% more expensive so far this year. State grain buyer GASC has purchased around 13% less wheat so far this year compared with the same point in 2021. Egypt usually sources some 80% of its wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine, but the government has pivoted to focus on the local harvest amid the price spike. (Bloomberg)
International Medical Industries Company (ICMI) has announced that it has abandoned the idea of acquiring the shares of a medical clothing company, while studying the purchase of its assets and equipment only.
ICMI for Medical Industries said in a disclosure sent to the Egyptian Stock Exchange on Tuesday that the results of the initial examination of the acquired company led to the exclusion of the option to purchase shares. The company noted that it is currently studying the purchase of assets and operating equipment owned by this company (it did not mention its name), while submitting the matter to the Board of Directors for consideration.
Al-Garhy Iron and Steel Group announced the opening of the purchase window for the remaining shares in the National Glass and Crystal Company, affiliated to Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank - Egypt for a period of three months.
Al-Garhy Group asked the Egyptian Stock Exchange management to open the private deals market for shareholders of Al-Watania for Glass and Crystal until next July 26, according to a request submitted by the offer broker (Cairo National Company for Securities Trading). On April 21, Al- Wahda Industrial Development Company, a subsidiary of Al-Garhy Group, acquired 88.7% of Al-Watania Crystal shares after fierce competition with Kandil Glass Company. The results of the competition showed the response of 13.3 million shares in Al-Watania for Glass and Crystal to the offer of Al-Wahda Industrial Development Company at a price of 2.25 EGP per share, and a total value of approximately 30 million EGP. (Al Mal)
Dutch investment fund acquired a majority stake in Global Corp for Financial Services, with a total value of 915 million EGP.
“Global Corp” was established in 2015 by Egyptian and foreign institutions, and it works in the field of financial leasing and factoring, and the majority of its shares are owned by Ezdehar Egypt Mid-Cap Fund, SANAD Fund of the German Development Bank “KfW” ». Last September, Global Corp obtained the approval of the Financial Supervisory Authority to establish a "Global Corp" company for consumer finance. The Dutch fund that acquired Global Corp is contributed by the Paris-based Amzis Direct Investment Company, which has an announced plan to invest in Egypt. (Al Mal)
And for the startups talks, Spades, UAE-based dine-in payment FinTech startup, raises 2.5 million USD in an Angel round from select entrepreneurs & funds.
The round included prominent European business angels and early investments from global & regional VCs such as Nordstar and Impact46. The startup is growing their team and is planning to expand in the GCC and beyond. It was founded by Mehdi Chraibi, Adnan Haque, and Sameer Poonja. The startup allows guests to easily pay their bill by scanning a code or tapping to pay, without any downloads or registration, translating into shorter wait times. The startup provides a fast and secure payment solution that integrates seamlessly into all major POS systems, making refunds and reconciliation just a click away. (WAYA)
Tabby, Middle East’s leading buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider, partnered with Visa, a leader in digital payments and M2P FinTech, to make in-store payments easier with the Tabby Visa Card.
Shoppers will be able to activate their virtual Card on the app for free, add it to their Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or Google Pay digital wallets and tap the payment terminal at checkout to split their payments. Tabby Card is the next generation of Tabby’s in-store solution creating a more familiar shopping journey for customers tap and pay. The solution also allows retailers offer flexible payments with existing payments infrastructure and processes without integration. The card is currently under invite-only access in the UAE, but shoppers can join the waitlist to get early access. (WAYA)