Egypt and Saudi Arabia have signed 14 investment agreements worth $7.7 billion

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22 Jun 2022

Egypt and Saudi Arabia have signed 14 investment agreements worth $7.7 billion, Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported on June 21st, citing the Saudi Minister of Commerce Majid bin Abdullah Al Qasabi. As per the signed agreements, the investments will be injected into various fields including infrastructure, renewable energy and green hydrogen projects, pharmaceuticals, and e-commerce. The agreements have been signed at the headquarters of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI) in the presence of Egyptian Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker, Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said, and the CEO of GAFI Mohamed Abdel Wahab. (Bloomberg Asharq)

The Egypt-based renewable energy solutions provider Infinity will levy tariffs on electricity charging for electric vehicles (EV) across all charging stations.
EVs owners will have to pay a tariff of 1.89 EGP per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for AC charging and a tariff of 3.75 EGP /kWh for DC charging, effective from June 28^th. Payment of tariffs can be made through Infinity EV app. This decision comes in accordance with the decree No.14 of 2022 issued by the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy on January 26th. Infinity now has more than 90 EVs charging stations with more than 300 charging points located in all major travelling roads including those from Cairo to Alexandria, Hurghada, Ismailia, Ain Sokhna and many more. (Arab Finance)
Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria have signed an agreement for the transmission of 650 million cubic meters of natural gas a year from the North African country to Lebanon through Syria.
As per the agreement, natural gas will be shipped via a pipeline from Egypt to the northern Deir Ammar power plant in Lebanon. The deal will add 450 megawatts to the Lebanese power plant, equivalent to nearly four extra hours of power daily to the grid. (Reuters)
The European Union (EU) will provide Egypt with 240 million EUR as the first tranche for the period from 2021 until 2024 under the 2021-2027 Multi-Annual Indicative Program (MIP).
The tranche will be used to support green and sustainable development in Egypt, as well as human development, economic resilience, and digital transformation. Under the program, Egypt and the EU will work jointly on long-term sustainable socio-economic recovery, in addition to the execution of the Economic and Investment Plan’s initiatives of the New Agenda for the Mediterranean, which was launched to strengthen EU's strategic partnership in the region. (Al Mal)
Moreover, the two sides will collaborate to reinforce bilateral trade relations and investments, along with encouraging Egypt’s further integration into regional and global value chains.
This came in on the sidelines of the 9th meeting of the Association Council of the EU and Egypt, which took place in Luxembourg on June 19th. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced on June 15th that the EU will support Egypt’s food security with an immediate relief of €100 million to provide finance for rural businesses and farmers. (Al Mal)
The number of foreign workers in the public sector in Egypt grew by 43.9% in 2021 to 1,687 from 1,172 workers in 2020.
This increase was driven by the diminishing impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, along with the increase in the number of national projects. Europeans made up 54.7% of the total number of foreign workers in the public sector, while Asians accounted for 24.8%. Meanwhile, workers from Oceania represented only 2.9% of the foreign labor in Egypt. (CAPMAS)
The Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation, Ministry of Justice, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have launched the activities of the economic courts’ development project.
The project comes within the framework of the comprehensive economic governance agreement signed between the Egyptian and the American governments at a value of 77 million USD. It targets governance and digitalization of economic courts in Egypt to support the Egyptian government’s role in achieving the goals of the national development strategy for 2030. The strategic partnership between Egypt and the US is solid, of which the bilateral economic cooperation is the main pillar, Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat said. The ongoing cooperation between the two country amounts to around 1 billion USD across several key sectors, Al-Mashat noted. (Arab Finance)
Moving to our EGX and companies talks, EFG Hermes Holding (HRHO) has announced that its investment banking division has closed the first issuance worth 651.2 million EGP of an 3 billion EGP securitization program for Bedaya Mortgage Finance, a non-bank online mortgage provider.
The bond is a mortgage-backed portfolio of approximately 1.02 billion USD assigned to EFG Hermes, which is the issuance’s special purpose vehicle (SPV). The issuance consists of eight tranches with tenors ranging between 13 and 84 months. The first two tranches are worth 22.22 million EGP each, while the third and fourth tranches are worth 88.9 million EGP and 226.69 million EGP, respectively. The fifth tranche is valued at 84.45 million EGP and the sixth tranche has a total of EGP 20.67 million. Moreover, the seventh and eighth tranches amount to 102.32 million EGP and 83.71 million EGP, respectively. (Arab Finance)
The Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) has announced that it received the mandatory purchase offer (MTO) from Chimp 1 Investment for a stake ranging between 51% and 90% in Beltone Financial Holding (BTFH).
Chimp 1 is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) of the Abu Dhabi-based private investment firm Chimera Investments which was announced earlier to be the investor behind the offer. The initial price of the offer is set at 1.485 EGP per share. It is worth noting that consolidated profit after tax rose slightly to 3.835 million EGP in the first quarter (Q1) of 2022 from 3.804 million EGP in the same period a year earlier. Beltone is an Egypt-based company, which operates within the diversified financial sector focusing on investment banking and brokerage. (Arab Finance)
Egypt Free Shops Company (EFSC) (MFSC) is expecting to achieve a 99.69% year-on-year (YoY) increase in net profits after tax during the fiscal year (FY) 2022/2023.
The company forecasts a net profit after tax of 160.381 million EGP in FY 2022/2023, up from 80.315 million EGP in FY 2021/2022. Egypt Free Shops anticipates total operating profit to be 837.315 million EGP in FY 2022/2023, up from 684.5 million EGP the year before. It is worth noting that the company recorded a consolidated profit attributable to the parent company of EGP 135.98 million during the first nine months of FY 2021/2022, down from 91.54 million EGP in the same period in FY 2020/2021. (EGX)
Telecom Egypt has signed a joint cooperation agreement with Grid Telecom, a subsidiary of the Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO), to connect Greece and Egypt using submarine cable infrastructure across the Mediterranean Sea.
This agreement comes within the framework of Telecom Egypt's strategy to enhance its international infrastructure, expand its networks and access points across the Mediterranean, and open an eastern gateway to Europe through Greece. It is noteworthy to mention that in February 2022, both companies reached a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at IPTO’s headquarters in Athens to explore different connectivity options between Greece and Egypt. (Mubasher)
The subsidiary of Halwani Bros Company in Egypt has inked a non-binding one-year renewable memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Aquat Food Industries Company, the sister company of ALBAIK Food System Company.
Under the agreement, both companies will study how to cooperate in the field of food manufacturing for the ALBAIK products and supply them to those who are licensed to operate ALBAIK's restaurants in Egypt. The transaction is subject to Aquat's examination and evaluation, including technical and logistical assessment for the factories of Halwani Brothers in Egypt. (Mubasher)