Another green hydrogen plant in the works?

Good morning, wonderful people, and a very happy almost-THURSDAY. The news cycle is continuing to serve summer slowdown vibes.

THE BIG STORY here at home this morning: It’s another calm day in a calm week for news on the local front. We bring you all the salient details of Egytrans’ acquisition of NOSCO, Midea Group’s USD 25 mn washing machine factory in the SCZone, and Flat6Labs’ new accelerator for startups in contech (that’s construction tech for the uninitiated among you)

ALSO- Drawing a line under the Suez Canal tugboat accident: The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) has finished recovering the wreckage of the tugboat that sank in the canal on Saturday, the authority said in a statement yesterday. The recovery efforts didn’t affect navigation in either direction of the canal, the statement reads. One crew member died at the weekend when the tugboat collided with Hong-Kong oil tanker Chinagas Legend.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

Yet another green hydrogen project? An unnamed foreign company has made an offer to the government to establish a green hydrogen plant in Egypt, according to a cabinet statement yesterday. The plant would be powered by 15 GW of solar energy and export USD 1 bn (400k tons) of green hydrogen annually, all of it to Europe, the statement reads. A plot has already been chosen for the plant and the unnamed firm will now look to carry out feasibility studies. The statement didn’t give the initial investment cost or planned timeline.

REMEMBER- We’re big on green hydrogen: The government signed framework agreements for nine green hydrogen plants worth USD 83 bn on the sidelines of last year’s COP27 climate summit and has at least two more agreements in the works.

There’s once again no single BIG STORY ABROAD dominating the front pages this morning. Among the top headlines:

July was the hottest month in history: Last month was officially deemed the hottest month ever recorded, breaking the previous record set in July 2019 by 0.3°C, according to data by the European earth observation agency. Blazing temperatures last month caused a rapid melting of Antarctic sea ice, heatwaves across large swathes of the globe, and wildfire outbreaks in countries including Greece. (Financial Times | Bloomberg | Wall Street Journal)

From the business pages: Mns of people don’t find Altman’s crypto identity-checker creepy. Over 2.2 mn people have so far signed up to Worldcoin, Sam Altman’s new “identity and financial network,” Reuters reports. Users have to agree to have their irises scanned for a digital ID in order to join, in a bid to create a reliable way to authenticate “personhood” online in the world of ever-smarter AI that Altman’s ChatGPT has helped usher in.

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The Enterprise Finance Forum is taking place on 18-19 September at the St. Regis Hotel in Cairo. This flagship forum is the latest in our must-attend series of invitation-only, C-suite-level gatherings that allow senior members of our community to openly and frankly discuss critical issues in key sectors of the economy.

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

LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST-

MISSED THE ENTERPRISE EXPORTS AND FDI FORUM? The EnterprisePodcast has you covered : The Enterprise Podcast’s forum series has been bringing you audio recordings of what was said on stage at the Enterprise Exports and FDI Forum,which took place in May. Throughout, we learned lessons from some of Egypt’s biggest exporters on how Egypt can export its way out of a crisis. We heard everything from how to build an exports and FDI strategy, to identifying a foreign partner and tapping into a global supply chain.

WANT TO LISTEN? Head to: Apple Podcast | Spotify | Google Podcast | Anghami.

IT’S THE FINAL EPISODE- Our final panel of the day was, naturally, the most forward looking. Our panelists discussed how the companies — be they in age-old industries or emerging ones — have adapted to changes to better position their businesses for an uncertain future. We were joined by Nadia El Tawil, investment officer at pan-African private equity firm AfricInvest, Mostafa Bedair , CEO of Giza Seeds and Herbs, and Abdallah Sallam, CEO of Madinet Masr.

OUR FORUM SERIES CONTINUES NEXT SUNDAY WITH THE ENTERPRISE CLIMATE FORUM- Fresh off the heels of a successful COP27, we held our first forum to dive deep into the fundamentals of what we think is the world’s most important industry. The conversations ranged from exploring the business opportunities for Egyptian entrepreneurs, companies and startups in climate, to demystifying green hydrogen, and how we finance our green transition. And we did it all in the Grand Egyptian Museum.

*** It’s Hardhat day — your weekly briefing of all things infrastructure in Egypt: Enterprise’s industry vertical focuses each Wednesday on infrastructure, covering everything from energy, water, transportation, and urban development, as well as social infrastructure such as health and education.

In today’s issue: We take stock of Egypt’s transport infrastructure investments.