Good afternoon, friends and happy Wednesday. We still have one more day to go before the weekend, although this is the last issue of EnterprisePM for the week:

PSA- We will not be in your inboxes tomorrow. We take occasional publication holidays throughout the year during quiet seasons when we need a bit of time to tool up, do some training, or gear-up to do something new. We’re doing all three tomorrow, and that means EnterpriseAM, Enterprise Climate, Enterprise Logistics and EnterprisePM will all be off. We’ll be back to our normal publication schedule on Friday with Enterprise Weekend.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

Sugar is coming to the EMX: The Supply Ministry will begin selling sugar on the Egyptian Mercantile Exchange (formerly known as Egycomex) as of tomorrow, Reuters reports. The exchange — which already offers yellow corn and wheat — has invited traders to register on the EMX to start trading sugar, Reuters reports, citing a statement from EMX head Ibrahim Ashmawy.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

We have a very mixed bag in the international business press this afternoon, with no single story leading the conversation. Among the headlines to keep an eye on:

  • US asks Iran to stop selling drones to Russia (Financial Times)
  • Maui tourism, an economic mainstay, sparks anger amid fire ruin (Reuters)
  • China’s Tencent misses expectations despite fastest bottomline rise since late 2021 (CNBC)
  • Saudi pile of US treasuries at six-year low in shift to risk (Bloomberg)

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

  • Gov’t wants more for the Gabal El Zeit wind farm: The Madbouly government is in talks with Actis in a bid to convince the UK-based emerging markets private equity giant to pay USD 600-800 mn for the 580-MW Gabal El Zeit wind farm.
  • Kashier, NARD partner to provide integrated payment solutions: Egyptian e-payments startup Kashier Payments has signed a partnership agreement with multinational retail management and cloud software firm NARD to provide a payment acceptance service to merchants.
  • The earnings dump continues: The end-of-earnings-season rush continued yesterday, with a number of EGX-listed companies releasing their 2Q / 1H 2023 financials.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS- 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.

TAP OR CLICK HERE if you want to express interest in attending. We’ll be sending out the first batch of invitations soon.

Do you want to become a commercial partner? Ping a note to Moustafa Taalab, our head of commercial, or fill out this form and we’ll be in touch.

STAY TUNED for more detail about our agenda.

DID YOU MISS THE ENTERPRISE EXPORTS AND FDI FORUM? Tune in to the Enterprise Podcast and listen for yourself : The Enterprise Podcast is back with another installment of our forum series, where we bring you audio recordings of what was said on stage at the Enterprise Exports and FDI Forum,which took place in May.

WANT TO LISTEN? Head to: Apple Podcast | Spotify | Google Podcast | Anghami. We’re releasing a new episode every Sunday morning.

IN THIS WEEK’S EPISODE- We ask some of the biggest multinationals and suppliers operating here — namely, in logistics, e-commerce, and FMCG — what it is they’re looking for in a local partner, product or service and what are some of the pain points they’ve had to cope with. We were joined on that panel by Khaled Morsy, CEO of DB Schenker Egypt, Omar Elsahy, General Manager at Amazon Egypt, Tarek Kame l, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé Egypt and Sudan.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Are we breaking into the 40s again? Our favorite weather app sees daytime highs of 40°C from tomorrow and through the weekend, with the nighttime low hitting 25°C tomorrow and Friday, and 24°C on Saturday.

Tags: