The African Development Bank has granted Egypt 271 MM USD to support Egypt’s Food Security and Economic Resilience Program

Newsletter

21 Jul 2022

For our top talks today, the African Development Bank (ADB) has granted Egypt 271 million USD to support Egypt’s Food Security and Economic Resilience Program. The assistance package aims to mitigate the global impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war on the Egyptian economy. The program includes assistance in the areas of food security and the development of the private sector. It will boost agricultural productivity and sustainability by providing additional incentives to local farmers. Under the program, local farmers will have more access to subsidized fertilizers to be more incentivized to grow wheat. The program will support the private sector’s fiscal resilience. (Arab Finance)

The Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry is planning to launch a new platform to exchange and recycle industrial waste and promote the small- and medium-sized industries and entrepreneurship in Egypt with an investment cost of 15 million EGP.
The new platform is expected to attract around 300 companies, 120 entrepreneurs, and 100 researchers, Associate Minister for Industrial Affairs at the Ministry of Trade and Industry Ahmed Reda said. It will contribute to the Egyptian experiment in the treatment of industrial waste through recycling which will boost green economic transformation in various production and services sectors, Reda noted. Reda added that the top objective of the new platform is to connect industrial facilities producing waste to beneficiaries and users of it. (Arab Finance)
The General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) canceled a tender due to high prices which exceeded its estimates, according to an official statement.
GASC announced on July 18th a tender to receive imported wheat from five countries, namely: the US, Canada, Australia, Argentina, and Brazil. The opening session of the tender took place on July 19th and the deciding session was scheduled to be on July 20th. On June 26th, Minister of Supply and Internal Trade Ali El-Moselhi said that Egypt is seeking to import 10 million tons of wheat during the next six months. (Al Mal)
The occupancy rates in the hotel sector in Cairo have surged to 60% during the first five months of 2022 from 32% in the same period a year earlier. The stock of available units stabilized during the second quarter of 2022. However, around 600 units are slated for delivery by year-end.
In Q2 2022, the office space segment saw the delivery of 80,000 square meters (sqm) of floorspace, bringing Cairo’s total office space stock to around 1.8 million sqm. Approximately 170,000 sqm of office gross leasable area (GLA) is anticipated to be completed in H2 2022. Cairo’s average asking rents increased by 3% year-on-year (YoY) to around 340 USD per sqm annually in Q2 2022, while the office vacancy rate inched up to 10% during the same period from 9% in Q2 2021. As for the residential segment, about 16,000 units are slated for delivery in H2 2022, which will bring Cairo’s total stock to 234,000 units. The retail sector stabilized and the total stock remained at around 2.9 million sqm of GLA, but more than 220,000 sqm of retail space is expected to be completed in H2 2022. (Al Mal)
Moving to our EGX and companies talks, Swvl has suspended all its routes within the city of Alexandria as part of ongoing efforts to cut costs, Swvl CFO Youssef Salem.
The company announced in May a raft of measures to reduce overheads in a bid to turn cashflow-positive in 2023, including slashing a third of its workforce, imposing cuts on executive pay, and scrapping unprofitable routes. The company is not planning to make any further cuts to routes in Egypt, he said. Cairo is now the only city in which Swvl operates intracity routes, while the company continues to operate intercity B2B and B2C trips in all other governorates, he added. (Bloomberg Asharq)
Swvl is trying to become a leaner machine amid tough times for tech startups. The app’s shares have plunged by over 75% since it debuted on Nasdaq in April, as tech stocks bear the brunt of rising risk-off sentiment in global markets.
The company is now trying to focus on its most profitable transport-as-a-service (TaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) streams in its relatively higher-earning markets. The news comes days after Swvl announced its fourth acquisition of the year. The company bought Mexico-based transport firm Urbvan Mobility in a share-swap agreement, giving it access to the second most populated country in Latin America. The company has continued to pursue global expansion through acquisitions of competitors in Spain, Chile and Argentina, Turkey, Germany, and the UK. (Bloomberg Asharq)
Beltone Financial has until Wednesday, 3 August to come to a decision on Chimera Investments’ bid to acquire up to 90% of its shares.
This comes a day after the Financial Regulatory Authority Greenlit Chimera’s offer, which will trigger an MTO. (EGX)
The board of directors of Paints and Chemical Industries (Pachin) (PACH) is set to consider the received non-binding offer from Saybad Industrial Investment to acquire up to 90% of Pachin’s share capital or at least a stake of 51%.
On July 7th, the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) announced it has received a letter of intent from Saybad regarding a non-binding purchase offer (NBO) for a stake ranging between 51% and 90% at an indicative price of 16 EGP to 16.5 EGP per share. Moreover, the FRA noted that Saybad seeks to start the due diligence process on Pachin’s stake to determine the final purchase price. Pachin is an Egypt-based public shareholding company that operates in the production, marketing, and distribution of paints, varnishes, industrial chemicals, printing inks, animal extracts, and other related products. (Arab Finance)
The Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) has approved the publication of the disclosure regarding the decision of Elsewedy Electric’s (SWDY) board of directors to cut issued and paid-up capital through writing off 13.402 million treasury shares.
The company’s board previously decided to reduce the issued and paid-up capital to 2.170 billion EGP from 2.184 billion EGP. The issued capital after the decrease will be distributed over 2.170 billion shares at a nominal value of EGP 1 per share. (EGX)
IBM has partnered with Export Development Bank of Egypt (EBank) (EXPA) to launch its digital banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform to develop the bank’s business operations and improve customer satisfaction.
EBank will work jointly with IBM and its business partner Sumerge to develop the platform using cloud software from IBM that is powered by artificial intelligence (AI). The platform will enable EBank to launch retail banking services, while revamping its existing corporate services. The solutions offered by IBM have helped in fast-tracking the digital banking transfers of EBank by 80% and speeding up interbank transfers. (Arab Finance)
Mena for Touristic and Real Estate Investment (MENA) has seen a block-trading transaction at a value of 6.24 million EGP.
The transaction has been implemented on 6.5 million shares. Established in 1980, MENA is an EGX-listed company that operates within the construction and real estate investment fields, along with project management and urban development. (EGX)