Happy almost-Thursday, ladies and gentlemen. It’s another busy afternoon as we rush towards the end of the workweek, so let’s get right into it.

THE BIG STORIES TODAY

Lighthouse to buy two schools this year: State-backed education investment platform Lighthouse Education is looking to put the entirety of its first close of EGP 560 mn towards acquiring two schools in Cairo this year, CEO Mohamed El Sherif told Al Mal. The transactions are currently still in the negotiation stage, he said.

Suez Canal Authority set up EGP 2 bn investment fund: More M&As could be on the horizon courtesy of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), which will establish a EGP 2 bn fund in March to finance its economic activities, SCA head Osama Rabie told Bloomberg Asharq. The fund was signed off on by the cabinet last week.

On the macro front, Egypt’s balance of payments recorded an overall surplus of USD 311.4 mn in 1Q2021-22, according to a statement from the central bank (pdf) released moments before dispatch. This comes despite a rise in the current account deficit to USD 4.0 bn, up from USD 2.8 bn in 1Q2020-21 on the back of the increase in the non-oil trade deficit by 26.1% y-o-y to USD 11.0 bn, the statement reads.

^^We’ll have more on these stories and others in tomorrow’s EnterpriseAM.

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

  • FinMin’s Kouchouk on mitigating the Fed, our first sovereign sukuk + how we got back onto the JPMorgan bond index: We spoke to Vice Minister of Finance Ahmed Kouchouk in an exclusive interview on Egypt rejoining JPMorgan’s emerging-market bond index, what the government plans to do to mitigate the impact of a high global interest rate environment, and the timing of some key debt issuances we have planned this year.
  • The government is looking to list “as many state companies as possible” on the EGX in 2022, PM Moustafa Madbouly said yesterday during a follow-up meeting on the state privatization program.
  • Solar plants are facing more new charges: Solar plants producing more than 500 KW of power will be required to pay fees to the Electricity Ministry to help defray the costs of connecting to the national grid — a move that industry players say represents a threat to Egypt’s nascent solar sector.

HAPPENING NOW- OPEC+ reportedly just signed off on raising production by 400k barrels per day in March, after a very brief meeting just before we dispatched this afternoon’s edition, Bloomberg reports, citing sources it says have direct knowledge with the matter. The decision comes despite its strategy so far failing to meet the recovery in demand as several member countries struggle to up their output.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD- The global business press is taking a breather from Ukraine to focus on record inflation figures from the eurozone, where price growth registered 5.1% in January, according to the EU’s statistical office (pdf). The major culprit for accelerating inflation is energy prices, which rose 28.6% last month as the bloc’s energy supply comes under increasing pressure.

The uptick in inflation is adding more pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) to shift its monetary policy strategy by moving towards rate hikes earlier than planned when it holds a policy meeting tomorrow. January’s readings could nudge the ECB to join the US Federal Reserve in abandoning the narrative that inflation is “transitory,” with analysts polled by Reuters suggesting that price growth figures continuing to exceed ECB expectations means it will begin tightening its monetary policy in 1Q2023. The Financial Times and CNBC also have the story.

The Central Bank of Egypt will also hold its first policy meeting of 2022 tomorrow. All analysts surveyed in our regular interest rate poll expect the CBE to keep rates on hold, as they anticipate our rates continuing to attract portfolio inflows even amid tightening and global inflationary pressures.

ALSO TOMORROW-

PMI also out tomorrow: January PMI figures for Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are also due out tomorrow morning. The figures will be available here when they’re released at around 6:15am CLT. Egypt’s non-oil business activity has remained in contraction territory for each of the past 13 months, although last month’s reading showed an improvement from the month prior as inflationary pressures began to soften, while an uptick in tourism activity and a sharp rise in exports helped support new business.

Tomorrow is the deadline to submit applications for the US Embassy’s Cultural Property Agreement Implementation initiative that would help Egypt protect cultural property from looting, theft, and illicit trafficking. The guidelines state that concept notes should be sent in by this Thursday, 3 February, while shortlisted applicants will need to submit full applications by 4 May. Each project will receive USD 50-100k, with around USD 500k earmarked for the entire program.

? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Key news triggers to keep your eye on in the first days of this new month:

  • Foreign reserves figures for January should be out from the Central Bank of Egypt within the next few days.
  • Inflation: Inflation figures for January will be released next Thursday, 10 February.

A call to logistics and cargo transport firms for rail freight privatization: Egyptian National Railways is inviting private sector players to a forum at its headquarters on Tuesday, 22 February, to gauge interest in its plans to delegate the management and operations of freight transport to the private sector. You can register for the forum by sending the organizers an email.

From our friends at the US embassy: Women can now apply to join Fortune GlobalWomen's Mentoring Program which will take place from 8-28 May 2022. The program aims to bring emerging women leaders from around the world to the US to meet and learn from the Fortune Most Powerful Women community, which includes executive women mentors from companies such as Accenture, Johnson & Johnson, and Aetna. The deadline to apply for the program is 8 February. You can begin your application by signing up here.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- The mercury will rise to 19°C during the day tomorrow before falling to 9°C at night, our favorite weather app tells us.

PSA- We’re in for a few days of wind + rain: Wind will pick up across Greater Cairo, Upper Egypt and the North Coast tomorrow and Friday, bringing light to moderate rainfall to parts of the country, the national weather service forecasts.

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