President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will inaugurate the Egypt International Petroleum Conference and Exhibition “EGYPS 2022” in its fifth session

Newsletter

14 Feb 2022

For our top talks today, first, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will inaugurate, today morning, the Egypt International Petroleum Conference and Exhibition “EGYPS 2022” in its fifth session, which will be held during the period from 14-16 February this year under the slogan “North Africa and the Mediterranean… Ensuring Energy Supplies”, with wide international and local participation from Ministers of petroleum and energy, heads and leaders of international and local companies, international oil and gas organizations and petroleum industry experts, as it is the largest and most important international and regional gathering of the oil and gas industry in the North African and Mediterranean regions. Engineer Tarek El Molla, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, said that the success of organizing this event in the previous editions gave great impetus and importance to the current edition by attracting more international participations to achieve maximum benefit for the oil and gas industry in Egypt, which aspires to attract more global and local investments by introducing what has been done From important reforms, success stories, and highlighting the promising potential for investment in this industry. (Al-Mal)

Second, Dr. Ali Al-Moselhi, Minister of Supply and Internal Trade, confirmed that the prices of basic commodities will decline during the next month of Ramadan less than what we are witnessing now, especially with the initiatives that are launched.
He added that the ministry has taken precautionary measures to secure its stock of wheat, as it has worked to diversify its import sources, such as the United States, France, Russia, Romania and Ukraine, and has also created a strategic reserve of wheat that will last more than 5 months, noting that the crisis between Russia and Ukraine will not affect wheat supplies to Egypt. (Al-Mal)
Moreover, the Egyptian government has entered direct negotiations with a number of Japanese financing institutions to obtain the required guarantees for the possible issuance of its first Samurai Bonds.
Egyptian officials are currently in talks with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) regarding the possibility of issuing fully guaranteed Samurai Bonds. The government seeks to obtain full guarantee, not a partial one, to ensure robust participation from investors. On February 1st, deputy finance minister Ahmed Kojak said in an interview with CNBC Arabia that Egypt plans to issue 500 million USD of JPY-denominated bonds during fiscal year (FY) 2021/2022. (Al Arabiya.net)
Also, The Egyptian Cabinet has approved a number of resolutions regarding the monthly minimum wages for state employees as well as incentives and bonuses. These decisions are set to be applied as of July 1st.
Under the new resolutions, the overall value of the monthly minimum wages across all segments will be raised by 300 EGP, with the public-sector overall minimum wage reaching 2,700 EGP. The Cabinet also approved financial allocations for new hirings in the sectors of education and Healthcare. Thereby, the Cabinet has allocated an annual sum of 1.8 billion EGP for hiring 30,000 new teachers as part of a five-year plan aiming at hiring a total of 150,000 new teachers. Moreover, the Cabinet has agreed upon the allocation of 1.8 billion EGP for hiring 30,000 doctors and nurses. Additionally, an amount of 500 million EGP has been dedicated for the promotion of employees who fulfill the promotion requirements by June 30th.
On a different note, Egypt traffic police seized 8,196 violations for not wearing a helmet and installing an electronic sticker during a day nationwide,
including 2,711 violations for motorcyclists for not wearing a helmet, according to the Ministry of Interior, appealing to motorcyclists to adhere to wearing it. The Ministry of Interior directed intensive traffic campaigns to monitor the commitment of motorcyclists to wear a helmet. On the other hand, traffic police withdrew 5,485 car licenses for not installing the electronic sticker, and removed 97 abandoned and dilapidated cars and motorcycles from the streets. (Al-Mal)
Moving to our EGX and companies talks, Makadi Heights, a subsidiary of Orascom Development Egypt (ORHD), has signed a cooperation agreement with SolarizEgypt for the development of a solar power plant in the heart of Makadi Heights.
Over an area of 15,00 square meters (sqm), the new solar plant is set to be built with an initial investment of 18 million EGP. The plant is set to commence operations by the first quarter (Q1) of 2023. Under the build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT), SolarizEgypt will be responsible for the financing, construction, operation, and maintenance of the solar power plant for the coming 25 years. This project is expected to save electricity expenses and generate a remarkable amount of clean energy annually. (Arab Finance)
Thunder Securities is currently negotiating to sign partnerships with several companies, including “Misr Capital” the investment arm of Banque Misr,
in addition to CI Capital for Financial Investments, with the aim of enabling the purchase of investment fund documents managed by these companies through its electronic platform. Ahmed Hammouda, co-founder of Thunder, said that negotiations with Misr Capital and CI Capital are expected to end next year, and also intends to partner with one of the Islamic investment funds. It is worth mentioning that the company's intention to employ 20-40% of the last financing round that it obtained a few days ago, amounting to approximately 20 million USD, (ranging between 4 and 8 million USD) in developing its technological infrastructure and increasing the number of investment products offered for dealers. (Al-Mal)
Suitera, the second tertiary technology start-up to be launched by the American University in Cairo, has received new investments, bringing the company to a value of 10 million USD.
Suitera, the semiconductor specialist, has received investment from EDA and semiconductor expert Jacob Jacobson, CEO of several successful exits, and Chairman and Board Member of several leading companies in the electronic design automation industry such as Xilinx, Actel and AMS AG. and New Scale Technologies, Vidatronic, Helic, Safello, Runtime DA, and RFMicron. (Al-Mal)
EFG Hermes Holding (HRHO) announced that its board of directors has decided to appoint an international financial advisor and an Egyptian legal counselor to provide financial and legal consulting regarding the potential sale transaction.
On February 9th, EFG Hermes announced it received a non-binding offer from FAB for a potential cash acquisition of not less than 51% of the company’s issued shares at an indicative purchase price of 19 EGP per share. It is worth noting that First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) is aiming at raising the indicative price of the non-binding offer for a potential cash acquisition of not less than 51% of EFG Hermes’s total issued capital. (Shorouk News)
EFG Hermes Holding (HRHO) has begun preparing for the initial public offering (IPO) of Samo Trading Co,
the owner of the brand name Abo Ouf, on the Egyptian Exchange, which is set to take place before the end of the first half (H1) of 2022. In 2021, EFG Hermes has succeeded in implementing around 40 transactions in the Egyptian and Arab securities market, varying between IPOS, debt arrangements, and acquisition deals. EFG Hermes is looking forward to maintaining its growth levels in terms of the transactions to be carried out. Regarding the offering of Ebtikar Holding, the company has an expansion plan it intends to complete before starting the IPO process, hoping that this listing takes place before the end of 2022. On the other hand, Banque du Caire is ready for the offering process, noting that the implementation of the bank’s offering is subject to the approval of government regulators, the Ministry of Finance, and the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE). (Al-Mal)
And finally, “Programming Creativity for Information Technology” has completed the central registration of its shares in the central filing system with the Misr Central Clearing, Depository and Registry Company,
in preparation for completing the procedures for offering its shares on the Egyptian Stock Exchange. “Programming Creativity for Information Technology” is one of the subsidiaries of the leading global “Programming” group in digital solutions, which operates in 16 countries around the world, where it is present in 8 mainly Arab and African countries, and its business reaches 8 other countries around the world. The Egyptian market is on its priority list for expansion, growth and access to more African and global markets in light of the full government support for all digital transformation processes in Egypt. (EGX)