Chevron doing her best to export Cypriot gas via Egypt

Newsletter

20 Feb 2023

Chevron doing her best to export Cypriot gas via Egypt. Chevron has officially requested permission from Shell to use its underutilized West Delta Deep Marine (WDDM) facilities on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast to process gas from Cyprus’ Aphrodite field, oil and gas publication MEES reports. Chevron is a 35% partner in the Aphrodite field, along with Shell (35%) and Israel’s NewMed Energy (20%). Egypt and Cyprus are planning to lay a pipeline connecting the Aphrodite field to Egypt’s LNG facilities, where natural gas is liquified and exported to Europe, which is expected to be up and running by 2025. (Al Mal)

Sovereign Fund of Egypt’s (SFE) health and pharma sub-fund is reportedly eyeing a minority stake in the pharma giant El Ezaby Pharmacy
In partnership with an unnamed local investment company. The expected acquisition value was not disclosed. (Al Mal)
Two state-owned pharma firms could sell minority stakes within six months
Between 30-40% of Chemical Industries Development Company (CID) and Misr Pharma will be offered to investors, likely in an IPO on the EGX. Both companies are on the list of the 32 state-owned companies in which the government plans to sell stakes within the next year. The government is in talks with several investment banks to lead the offerings and fair value studies are being conducted. (Al Mal)
Both companies are subsidiaries of the Holding Company for Pharma Industries (HoldiPharma), which plans to maintain its controlling interests
No strategic investors have shown interest in acquiring the shares. Strategics tend to look to buy majority stakes. Most strategic investors have strong preferences for majority stakes (to ensure they can fully consolidate the results of their new investment) with clear management control. This theme will run throughout the privatization program — doubly so when we’re talking about well-managed, well-governed companies that aren’t already listed on the EGX. (Al Mal)
The House and Representatives and Senate industrial committees are currently debating a government-drafted bill that would, if approved, legalize hundreds of thousands of unlicensed industrial projects
The Senate Industrial Committee signed off on the two-article bill earlier this month, paving the way for it to head to plenary session for discussion and voting. The proposed amendments come as the government is pushing to localize manufacturing in a bid to boost exports and hack away at our import spending. (Al Mal)
The bill’s primary objective is to “facilitate licensing small and medium-scale industrial projects to join the formal economy
While giving them a chance to operate legally for a temporary period,” Senate Industrial Committee head Mohamed Halawa said. The amendments could “open the door for hundreds of thousands of unlicensed industrial projects to go legitimate at the end of the period,” as long as they get their ducks in a row and meet licensing standards, Halawa added. It’s difficult to get an accurate or specific number on the exact number of unlicensed industrial projects that are currently operating across the country, “but we estimate that there are hundreds of thousands,” Halawa said. (Al Mal)
Egypt’s M&A activity slowdown in H2 2022
M&A in Egypt took a slight dip in 2022 amid a sharper downturn in transactions across the Middle East and the world. The total value of Egyptian M&A transactions dipped some 9% to USD 8.2 bn last year, dealcount remained more or less flat at 242 transactions. Accordingly, the overall outcome of 2022 has been affected, with deal volumes and values tumbling by 16% and 37%, respectively, as compared to 2021. Total deal volume and value dropped to 115 deals, with 4.2 billion USD in value, in H2 2022 from 126 deals, with 4.3 billion USD in value, in H2 2021. (Arab Finance)
Major Danish firms consider business expansion in Egypt
A number of major Danish companies are considering growing their businesses in the Egyptian market, where they probed methods of strengthening their investments in the country. These companies are already operating in Egypt across the fields of pharmaceuticals, heavy industries, fodders, food industries, transport and shipping, programming, and agribusiness. (Arab Finance)
MNHD, CONSTEC ink MoU for construction of two new projects in Sarai
Madinet Nasr for Housing and Development (MNHD) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with CONSTEC Construction and Design for the construction works of two projects at Sarai in New Cairo. Under the signed MoU, the construction works of the two projects, namely The Arena Mall and Cavana, will be carried out at a value of more than 500 million EGP. (Al Mal)
Egypt eyes further cooperation with India in health sector
Egyptian Minister of Health Khaled Abdel Ghaffar discussed with Indian Ambassador to Cairo Ajit Gupte ways of boosting bilateral cooperation in the health sector. Abdel Ghaffar and Gupte discussed strengthening cooperation in the field of exchanging vaccine manufacturing technology. The two officials also probed further cooperation in the medical tourism sector, in addition to the establishment of medical tourism centers in the two countries. (Hapi Journal)