Remittances from Egyptians working abroad recorded a 1.5% increase during Q1-2021/2022 fiscal year
For our top talks today, Adel Abdel Azim, Deputy Governor of the Economic Research Sector at the Central Bank of Egypt, said that remittances from Egyptians working abroad recorded a 1.5% increase during the first quarter of the 2021/2022 fiscal year. Abdel Azim added that the remittances of Egyptians abroad amounted to about 8.1 billion USD in the period from July to September 2021, compared to about 8 billion USD during the period July-September 2020. He pointed out that the total remittances during the period January/September 2021 amounted to about 24 billion USD, an increase of about 1.9 billion USD, at a rate of 8.8% compared to the period January/September 2020. He explained that the preliminary data for remittances of workers abroad during the month of September 2021 decreased by a slight rate of 3.0% (on an annual basis) to record about 2.62 billion USD, compared to about 2.70 billion USD during September 2020. (Al-Mal)
- The Minister of Finance, Dr. Mohamed Maait, said that the electronic bill system has achieved strong success, as more than 100 million electronic bills have been raised so far, and by the end of this month, 19 million electronic bills have been raised per month, with a daily average of 650,000 bills.
Maait indicated that this supports the ministry's moves in implementing the electronic receipt at the outlets of sale to consumers starting from the first of next April, explaining that as of the next fiscal year, the tax examination for the financiers will be conducted in the same year as the submission of electronic returns. (Economy Plus)
- In a similar context, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund, praised the performance of the Egyptian economy, saying: Egypt has maintained a good growth rate, but future expectations must be looked at. In this case, the indicators of international expectations for the growth rate in Egypt are all positive, and this is good.
On his advice to the government to deal with the inflation crisis, he said: “What will get Egypt out of the problems of global inflation and high prices is not only monetary policies, but projects, investments, and job creation. He pointed out that Egypt has already embarked on important large projects, but attention must be paid to increasing exports and investments, saying: "Egypt must solve export problems and obstacles, and participation between the private and government sectors is very important. (Al-Mal)
- In addition, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin said that the financial markets in the major countries are heading to the red color due to the conditions of uncertainty. He explained that "volatility is still a feature of the markets, and this reflects the state of uncertainty and this is due to the health effects of the pandemic.
Mahmoud Mohieldin stressed that the global economy does not operate alone, but is affected by political conditions, and this is clearly evident in the performance of the American, European and East Asian stock exchanges, as they represent a mirror of the economy compared to the Egyptian market, which reflects the performance of the real economy. (Al-Mal)
- Moving to our investments talks, Prime Minister Dr. Mostafa Madbouly held a meeting with Ankush Arora, CEO of Mansour Automotive Group, Eng. Tarek Atta, President of General Motors Egypt, and Mohamed El Ghazaly Harb, Head of Business Development Department at Mansour Automotive Group.
The prime minister stressed that the state is fully prepared to provide all possible means of support to build serious partnerships in this field, especially with General Motors which is an important partner for Egypt. Ankush Arora, CEO of Mansour Automotive Group, reviewed a proposal on launching the electric car industry in Egypt, and highlighted indicators of the volume of electric vehicle sales in the global market. He explained that the year 2021 witnessed the launch of 2.65 million new electric vehicles, an increase of more than 168% compared to 2020, and the share of electric vehicles has doubled globally to reach 14% compared to 7% in 2020. (Al-Mal)
- Despite the closures announced by car companies on an ongoing basis, the reports of the World Association of the “Automotive Industry” OICA still indicate a growth in the size of the industry,
whether from car owners, buses or trucks of all kinds during the first nine months of this year in the period from January to the end of September compared to In the same period last year, despite the pessimistic expectations that indicate the decline of the auto industry due to the crisis of the shortage of some production components, especially the electronic chips “semiconductors. The International Automobile Industry Association (OICA) showed that the car industry grew throughout the year during the first nine months of this year by up to 10%, to jump to 57.3 million cars, compared to the same period last year, which amounted to 52.1 million cars.
- Furthermore, UAE’s Al Nowais is looking to invest in desalination and green hydrogen projects in Egypt. Chairman Hussain Al Nowais did not give further details regarding the capacity of the projects, the expected investment values, or the anticipated timeline for these ventures.
He added that the company is waiting on the Egyptian government to launch tenders for desalination plants and has “signaled its interest” in investing in these projects. Moreover, Nowais is putting together a consortium with Japanese, Italian, and German firms to invest in green ammonia production, which can be used as a carbon-neutral fuel for aircraft. Al Nowais is currently constructing a 500 MW solar plant in Kom Ombo and a 500 MW wind project in Ras Ghareb, with plans to complete those within 2-3 years. (Bloomberg Asharq)
- Likewise, India’s Uflex is planning to build a new chemicals plant in Egypt with total investments of 30 million USD. The announcement took place during Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly’s inauguration of a new plastic films production line yesterday at the company’s 100 million USD Sixth of October factory, the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
The plastic packaging manufacturer has so far invested 200 million USD in its Egypt operations. The company produces 125 tons of plastics per year from its Sixth of October factory, and exports 60% of its production to 60 countries, bringing in 190 million USD per year. (Arab Finance)
- Turing to our EGX and companies talks, Sakneen, the PropTech company leveraging tech & data to digitise the homebuying experience, has launched an entirely new experience for its users, “Sakneen Valuation”.
Across specific compounds in Cairo, users can now see all homes on a map, including their own, with estimated market values as well as a number of relevant data points such as cost-to-finish and rental potential. The Sakneen Valuation is an algorithm-based estimate of the value of a home, reflecting what the property would command in the market today were it to be listed for sale. (Al-Mal)
- Bekia is looking to raise 1 million USD to help it expand to the UAE and Saudi Arabia during the first quarter (Q1) of 2022.
Alaa Afifi, CEO of Bekia, said that the company hopes to close an initial 1 million USD round in the Q1 2022 and will deploy the funds for its expansion, in addition to developing its existing services and attract new customers. The firm, which currently operates in Cairo, Giza and Alexandria with a fleet of 20 trucks, is also planning an expansion into other governorates. (Al-Mal)
- Oriental Weavers Carpets (ORWE) is planning to invest a sum of 15 million USD during 2022. These investments will be injected into adding a number of new looms and machines, in addition to, boosting the efficiency of production at some of the company’s factories.
The company’s investment plan for 2021 is expected to record around 26 million USD. (Arab Finance)
- Nestlé Egypt plans to pump 700 million EGP investments in new production lines at its Sixth of October factory between 2021 and 2025.
The company has already invested 100 million EGP of the allotted amount in a new production line that Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly inaugurated on December 20th. Nestlé has grown to over 3500 employees and providing more than 8,000 indirect employment in its factories in Egypt. (Arab Finance)
- And finally, the investment banking division of EFG Hermes (HRHO) has advised TPG’s Evercare Group on the sale of its 50% stake in Pakistan’s Islamabad diagnostic Centre (IDC). The stake will be sold to Integrated Diagnostics Holdings (IDH) (IDHC) in a transaction worth 72.35 million USD.
EFG Hermes served as the exclusive sell-side advisor to TPG. On Monday, IDH announced it signed an agreement to acquire a 50% stake in Base Consultancy FZ LLC UAE, the holding company of IDC, from Evercare Group. Accordingly, IDH will acquire a 50% indirect stake in Pakistan-based IDC. The acquisition transaction is set to be closed in the first half (H1) of 2022 at a value of 72.35 million USD. (Arab Finance)
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