Good morning, wonderful people, and happy Mother’s Day to all our moms out there. We hope each of you gets the love she deserves today and every day.

Before you do anything else this morning, would you do us a favour? Go visit ourcompletely redesigned, much more powerful website at Enterprise.news or, if you prefer, tap or click here to take a tour of what’s new.

Eight years, and more than 2k issues of EnterpriseAM later, we’ve grown. Fifty of you read us on day one. We now count well over 400k subscriptions, five weekly industry verticals, and a couple of top-ranked podcasts. EnterpriseAM has been joined not just by EnterprisePM and the Enterprise Weekend Edition, but also by Enterprise Climate, the first of our MENA-focused industry verticals.

As we’ve grown over the years, we’ve continued to publish Enterprise on the web using technology that we threw together just a few months into this journey. We use some very cool home-grown technologies on the back end to keep it all afloat, but the overall architecture? Let’s just say it wasn’t “fit for purpose” — it just wasn’t the best home for our community’s essential read on anything that has to do with business, finance, economics, regulation and more across Egypt and the Arab world.

Our new website is beautiful, fast and packs powerful search technology that will allow you to follow the stories that matter to you most — or to quickly find the one story, analysis piece, or interview that you really need out of the mns of words we’ve written. These features include:

  • Dive deep into topic pages on everything from regulation to startups, from IPOs and M&As to the people who make business tick;
  • Story tags to let you follow the issues, people, and companies that matter most;
  • Powerful search backed by modern technology, including filters that let you zero in on exactly what you want;
  • Bookmark stories to read later when it’s best for you;
  • Have us (er … a bot) read a story to you if you’re in the car or walking around the house or office;
  • Already a subscriber to our email edition? Sign in without a password — just tell us the email address you use to read Enterprise and we’ll send you a one-time password to get you in without the need to make a new password;
  • Going on vacation? Sign in to put your subscription on pause if that’s easier for you — or choose to add or remove a subscription to one of our publications.

All content since January 2020 is on our new website and we’ll continue moving over back issues in the coming weeks. Need to access an older story? Our old website (enterprise.press) is still up for the time being, but won’t be home to new issues.

THERE’S LOTS MORE TO COME- We’re going to be using our new tech and structure to launch plenty of new features and powerful tools in the weeks and months to come.

THE ISSUES THAT DEFINE OUR GENERATION remain at the front and center in everything we do: Financial inclusion. Infrastructure. Privatization. Regulation. Healthcare. Education. Entrepreneurism. Consumerism. Climate. Artificial intelligence. Gender equity. Major realignments in foreign policy. In Egypt, in MENA and in emerging markets, and around the world.

Did you run into a bug? It’s inevitable — hit reply to this email and let us know. If you have time to include a screenshot, that would be great.

HIT REPLY and drop us a note to let us know what you think of the redesign, where you think we could do better, or anything else you think would make your morning read richer and easier to navigate.

A SPECIAL THANKS THIS MORNING to all of our advertisers. Their support allows us to bring you Enterprise without charge every weekday, and for that we are eternally grateful.

EnterpriseAM:

  • HSBC Egypt
  • EFG Hermes
  • SODIC
  • Infinity
  • Somabay
  • Saleh, Barsoum & Abdelaziz (Grant Thornton})
  • Moharram & Partners

EnterprisePM:

  • Mashreq
  • Palm Hills Developments
  • CIRA Education

Enterprise Weekend:

  • Hassan Allam Properties

Enterprise Climate:

  • HSBC
  • Infinity Power

Industry partners:

  • CIRA Education
  • Orascom Construction
  • Infinity
  • Industrial Development Group (IDG)

AND… We’re delighted to let you all know that our next publication will launch very soon, with the support of our friends at Hassan Allam Utilities.

And last but not least, hats off to our in-house team of talented software developers, UI / UX folks, editors and reporters whose tireless work made this relaunch possible.

WATCH THIS SPACE- Jumbo rate hike next week? Economists are expecting the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to raise interest rates by 200-300 bps when it meets on 30 March, according to Bloomberg. The central bank has already raised rates by 800 bps over the past year but will need to go further to curb soaring inflation and contain downward pressure on the currency.

Speaking of pressure on the EGP: EGP futures contracts continued to stray further away from the official rate yesterday. Twelve-month non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) jumped to a record 40 yesterday, according to Al Arabiya, suggesting that the currency will fall around another 30% over the next 12 months.

Officially, the EGP remains unchanged: The official EGP-USD rate hasn’t changed since 12 March, remaining priced at 30.96.

PSA- The EGX is out with its Ramadan working hours: The EGX will move to its traditional Ramadan working hours on Thursday, which will see trading begin at 10 am and end at 1:30 pm on the main market.

HAPPENING TODAY-

The Fed begins today one of its most important policy meetings in recent years: The Federal Reserve will begin its two-day policy meeting today to decide what to do with interest rates. The central bank is between a rock and a hard place, faced with still uncomfortably high inflation on the one hand, and a simmering banking crisis — triggered by the rapid pace of policy tightening over the past 12 months — on the other.

What will policymakers do? No-one really knows. Expectations for the meeting have oscillated between a larger 50-bps hike prior to the banking tremors to a small rate cut at the height of the market panic last week. UBS’s emergency takeover of Credit Suisse over the weekend has so far helped to calm market nerves, giving the Fed space to maintain credibility in its inflation fight and raise rates by 25 bps. Still, a lot will depend on whether the markets can sustain yesterday’s nascent post-Credit Suisse recovery or whether jitters return over the next potential flashpoints (First Republic Bank’s days are looking numbered right now, as we explain below).

Shoukry in Copenhagen to talk climate: Foreign Minister and COP27 President Sameh Shoukry is in Copenhagen today to co-chair day 2 of the meeting of climate leaders ahead of COP28, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday. Day 1 of the meetings saw Shoukry meet COP28 President and UAE’s Industry Minister Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber and UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: Higher Education Minister Ayman Ashour will speak on the performance of state-owned universities and the shortage of doctors and medical supplies in university hospitals. At the committee level:

  • The Budget Committee will review the performance of the Holding Company for Spinning and Weaving and its affiliated companies.
  • The Energy and Environment Committee will discuss draft bills allowing the Oil Ministry to contract four foreign companies to explore for oil and gas in North Sinai.
  • The Education and Scientific Research Committee will look into National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority’s efforts to fight cybercrime.
  • The Tourism and Civil Aviation Committee will discuss the effectiveness of the Umrah Online portal.

THE BIG STORIES ABROAD-

Operation Save Credit Suisse is over. Operation Rescue First Republic Bank continues: JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon is leading talks between a group of Wall Street banks focused on how to save the faltering First Republic Bank. The bank’s share price plummeted as much as 50% during trading yesterday despite 11 major banks depositing USD 30 bn at the lender last week in a bid to restore confidence. Customers have reportedly withdrawn USD 70 bn of deposits since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank sent shockwaves through the global financial system almost two weeks ago. (Reuters | Financial Times | Wall Street Journal | Bloomberg | CNBC)

MARKET WATCH- Financial markets rebounded on the weekend’s Credit Suisse rescue, with shares in Europe and the US recovering from early losses to finish higher. The USD index slipped, crude futures rose, and treasuries rose as risk appetite showed signs of returning. US and European equity futures opened higher this morning, while stocks in Asia have rebounded from yesterday’s losses, with most exchanges in the region in the green ahead of dispatch time this morning.

ALSO GETTING ATTENTION-

  • Xi in Moscow: Chinese President Xi Jinping held more than four hours of talks with Vladimir Putin in Moscow yesterday on his first trip outside China since being nominated for a third term last month. A Chinese readout published by Xinhua says the two leaders had an “in-depth exchange of views” on the Ukraine conflict, and said that Beijing wants to help find a political settlement. (AP | Reuters | CNBC)
  • D Day: The Donald could be indicted by a New York court today and the city is bracing for protests. (AP | Reuters)

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

PSA- Need funding for a green project? You can now apply to the second round of the Smart Green Projects Initiative until the end of May, according to a Planning Ministry statement. Eligible projects must use technology solutions to address environmental issues, present evidence of feasibility or innovation, and provide a written acknowledgement that no awards have been received during the initiative’s first round, among other requirements. You can view the full list of criteria here and apply here.

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

*** It’s Going Green day — your weekly briefing of all things green in Egypt: Enterprise’s green economy vertical focuses each Tuesday on the business of renewable energy and sustainable practices in Egypt, everything from solar and wind energy through to water, waste management, sustainable building practices and how you can make your business greener, whatever the sector.

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