Egypt total investments pumped into upgrading oil pipelines have exceeded 1.1 billion EGP in 2020

Newsletter

31 Aug 2021

For our top talks today, first, we need to highlight that Egypt total investments pumped into upgrading oil pipelines have exceeded 1.1 billion EGP in 2020. Moreover, Agiba Petroleum Company has invested a total of 269 million USD during 2020/2021. It is worth mentioning that one of the top projects being implemented by Agiba is the natural gas processing plant with a daily capacity to process 180 million cubic feet to produce 150 million cubic feet of gas and 10,000 barrels of crude oil per day. We believe that the oil sector will continue witnessing the implementation of new projects in the next couple of years to support the petroleum products’ transport network by building new lines and boosting the capacity of the network.

Second, the Egyptian Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maait, affirmed that the country is working on integrating the informal economy into the formal sector in order to ensure fair completion between local businesses. Starting from September, the unified electronic tax system will be applied at 10 tax offices in Cairo.
The Egyptian Tax Authority is linked to 74 government entities through the unified electronic tax platform which will help enhance the governance of the tax system and foster efforts against tax evasion. Taxpayers will be able to access services online without the need to go to the tax offices using their unified tax registration numbers.
In addition, it is important not to neglect mentioning that The Egyptian Ministry of Transport is in talks with three entities, including Spanish, Japanese, and Korean companies, over soft loans worth a combined 1.2 billion USD.
The ministry aims to use the loans to finance the purchase of 55 new trains for Cairo Metro Line I and Line II. Moreover, the transport ministry plans to launch a global tender, under which all interested companies can compete for supplying and manufacturing mobile units. It is worth noting that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced earlier this month that it approved to provide a sovereign loan valued at 250 million EUR to Egypt for financing the rehabilitation and upgrade of Cairo Metro Line II.
By the same token, the Egyptian government has recently approved an initiative valued at 500 million EGP to support vehicle exports.
This initiative aims at encouraging cars manufacturers to pump new investments and to maximize production, in order to increase exports. It is worth noting that Egypt is currently directed towards clean energy to protect the environment and keep up with the global developments regarding this matter. As a matter of fact, General Motors (GM) seeks to expand in the Egyptian market as well as to increase its production in the country by developing currently its factory in Egypt. We expect that the automotive industry will see radical changes over the coming five years due to the global industrial and environmental variables.
Equally important, the retail loan portfolio of Banque du Caire increased by about 1.4 billion EGP, with a growth rate of 4% over the fiscal year 2020, bringing the total portfolio to about 35.9 billion EGP at the end of last June. Noting that the microfinance portfolio recorded 5.3 billion EGP.
Moreover, the electronic acceptance services through the QR-Code also witnessed a growth rate of nearly 100%, with a total number of merchants reaching 69,000 by the end of the second quarter of 2021.
Moving to our companies talks, EFG-Hermes discloses the Central Bank's approval to complete its 76% stake acquisition of the Arab Investment Bank in alliance with Egypt 's sovereign fund.
Under the acquisition transaction, the two parties will subscribe to raising the issued and paid-up capital of AIB with a sum of 3.8 billion EGP bringing it to the total of 5 billion EGP. Once the transaction is complete, EFG Hermes will hold a 51% stake in AIB’s capital, while Egypt’s sovereign fund will own a 25% stake in the bank. It is scheduled that the deal will be completed during the third quarter of 2021.
And regarding our real estate talks, first, the Commercial International Bank (CIB) and Colliers International, is preparing to start promotional rounds next September to attract investors from the local and Gulf markets to the educational zone that Tatweer Misr intends to establish in its Bloomfields project in Mostakbal City.
Last April, Tatweer Misr signed 3 contracts with an investment value of 3.2 billion EGP to establish a branch of the New Jersey University of Technology (NJIT) and the establishment of two schools for “King’s College” England, and a school for “Narmer American College”. It is worth mentioning that the alliance intends to promote the entry of investors into the shares of a holding company or owner of the educational zone, which would allow the investor to own part of the affiliated entities operating in the field of schools and universities, in addition to diversifying investments in more than one sector.
Second, Contact Developments revealed that it has two projects in the new administrative capital, namely: The Mercury project and the Iconic Tower project with an investment value of about 2 billion and 200 million EGP.
Also, it is noteworthy that the company’s future plans include increasing the capital and completing the procedures for offering the company on the stock exchange, as the coding conditions are expected to be completed by June 30, 2023. Here, we need to mention that almost 90% of customers who buy units in the new administrative capital are buying for the purpose of investment, whether by resale or rent, and they are looking for units at the lowest price and the highest return, especially with regard to commercial units.
Moving to the EGX talks, Sphinx Obelisk B.V. sold its entire stake of 52.05% in Taaleem Management Services.
The transaction involved the sale of 380.11 million shares for 1.74 billion EGP, averaging 4.59 EGP per share. Another disclosure revealed that Thebes C.V. acquired 20.82% of Taaleem by buying 152.04 million shares for 697.88 million EGP or an average price of 4.59 EGP a share. In the nine-month period ended 31 May, Taaleem Management Services achieved consolidated net profits of 228.39 million EGP, compared to 193.04 million EGP in the year-ago period, including minority shareholders' rights.
And finally, Egypt is expected to inaugurate a new COVID-19 vaccine factory inside the Vacsera Complex in the Sixth of October City by the end of 2021. The new factory is built over an area of 6,000 square metres inside the 60,000-sqm complex, set to be the largest hub for COVID-19 vaccines in the MENA region.
The output capacity of the factory is planned to reach 3 million doses per day or 1 billion doses annually as the Ministry of Health is in negotiations with several international companies to produce COVID-19 vaccines locally. Eight main vaccines will be manufactured at the complex. Vacsera has another vaccine plant in Dokki which has recently supplied the Ministry of Health with 1 million doses of the Vacsera-Sinovac vaccine. Moreover, Egypt is expected to receive the first batch of the Pfizer vaccine doses by the end of this week or by early next week.