The three-day Egypt Petroleum Show starts today at the Egypt International Exhibition Center
The three-day Egypt Petroleum Show starts today at the Egypt International Exhibition Center. Running through to Wednesday, the conference will bring together more than 32k participants and over 2k delegates. It will see the participation of 41 global oil and gas firms, 500 exhibitors and 260 speakers. Our friends at Cheiron are official sponsors. Kadri Simson is scheduled to arrive to Cairo tomorrow for talks with Oil Minister Tarek El Molla and Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz on advancing an agreement to increase gas exports to Europe signed in June between Egypt, Israel and the EU, the EU and Israel said over the weekend. (Hapi Journal)
Planning Minister Hala El Said is leading a business delegation to a number of Gulf countries along with Sovereign Fund of Egypt (SFE)
Head Ayman Soliman to drum up interest in the offering program. The team was in Kuwait over the weekend for talks with investors — including the country’s sovereign wealth fund, the chambers of commerce and retail conglomerate Alshaya Group. El Said also visited Qatar, Bahrain and Oman last week. Similar conversations to be had in Dubai this week when El Sisi travels to the emirate to attend the World Government Summit, which runs 13-15 February. (Al Mal)
Moody's has downgraded the long-term bank deposit ratings of five Egyptian banks by one notch
National Bank of Egypt SAE (NBE), Banque Misr SAE (BM), Banque Du Caire SAE (BdC) and Commercial International Bank (Egypt) SAE (CIB) to B3 from B2 and Bank of Alexandria SAE (BoA) to B2 from B1. Moody's has also downgraded the Baseline Credit Assessments (BCAs) of all five banks to b3 from b2. At the same time, Moody's has changed the outlook to stable from negative on the banks' deposit ratings. The rating actions follow Moody's downgrade of the government's issuer rating to B3 stable from B2 negative. (Al Mal)
Egypt and Russia have completed much of the technical work to introduce Moscow’s MIR payments system in Egypt but no final decisions have been made
Russia’s ambassador to Egypt Georgy Borisenko told Russia's RIA Novosti. Russian authorities have been working with the Central Bank of Egypt to set up Mir, Russia’s alternative to MasterCard and Visa since, last year following the introduction of Western financial sanctions on Moscow in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine. Egypt and Russia have been discussing the idea of increasing the use of national currencies in bilateral trade, cutting out the use of the greenback. (Al Mal)
At the end of last year, the Supply Ministry announced it will roll out a “fair price” list for several strategic commodities amid soaring inflation, in a bid to control price gouging
The indicative pricing is set to be imposed on 15 commodities as a starting point. Meanwhile, the Senate is currently debating a separate proposed bill that would impose price controls on basic commodities for a controlled period until market volatility subsides and prices begin to cool down. Industry players are divided on the effectiveness of indicative or mandatory pricing frameworks on keeping market prices in check, but all agree that ensuring the availability of raw materials is the most important variable. (Al Mal)
Annual urban inflation hit 25.8% y-o-y in January, marking a fresh five-year high
Food and beverage prices were once again the biggest driver of consumer price inflation, rising 48.0% y-o-y in January. The government has been working to tamp down food inflation for the past several months, extending until at least mid-March a cap on the price of rice, in addition to previously setting partial caps on the price of unsubsidized bread. (CAPMAS)
Pharma delivery app Yodawy raised USD 16 mn in a series B round led by Dubai-based Global Ventures and Delivery Hero’s VC arm
The round also saw participation from two first-time investors, Japanese healthcare-focused fund AAIC Investment and Saudi investment group Dallah Albaraka, as well as existing investors Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), C-Ventures (CIB’s VC arm), and P1 Ventures. The company closed a 7.5 million USD round in mid-2021. Since then, it has increased its revenues by 400% and launched new features. The startup will use the funding to fuel its regional expansion plans, expand its daily meds delivery program for chronic patients, and continue to automate its operations. (EGX)
MSCI adds Ezz Steel, Heliopolis Housing to its small-cap index
Ezz Steel and Heliopolis Housing have been added to MSCI’s small cap index following its quarterly review. Heliopolis Housing is returning to the small-cap index after it was removed in May last year. There were no changes to the Egyptian firms included in MSCI’s standard index. See the revised index list, which comes into effect on 28 February. (Bloomberg Asharq)
LifeOnScreen acquires UAE’s MMP worldwide in a 29.9 million USD deal
Founded in 2016, MMPWW aims to create the next-generation ad tech solution through effective data mining and tech-driven attribution modeling, offering a cookieless targeting approach to digital advertising. The deal will allow LifeOnScreen to advance further into the digital and tech space, consolidating the full MMPWW portfolio and aiding expansion into new markets. (WAYA)
Forus and Jahez sign a 2 billion SAR partnership to offer BNPL solutions to restaurant owners
Forus, a debt crowdfunding company, licensed by the Saudi Central Bank, and Jahez, a food delivery service in Saudi Arabia, are partnering to provide instant interest-free business loans to Jahez’s restaurant owners. The agreement is worth almost 2 billion SAR. This partnership will allow restaurant owners to access instant loans of up to 500,000 SAR with flexible repayment plans. (WAYA)
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