Good morning, wonderful people. It’s a busy news day here in Egypt — in stark contrast to the cone of silence that seems to have dropped on the UAE and Saudi Arabia in the past 24 hours. Could the end-of-year news slowdown soon be upon us?

IT’S A BIG DAY FOR: Privatization. Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly is scheduled to hold a press conference at 2pm specifically to discuss the program. A government official has suggested the presser will include news that another sale agreement has been inked.

AND- We’re keeping an eye on the situation in the Red Sea, where shipping lines are diverting around the Cape of Good Hope in fear of attacks by armed Houthi groups. It’s bad news for the Suez Canal — and possibly even worse for the global economy, unless a new US-led maritime security force can get things under control soon.

PLUS- We have not one, but two M&As for you this morning. A unit of Beltone is making an acquisition in a smart food security play, while our friends at CIRA Education are welcoming publishing house and educational services provider Nahdet Misr as a shareholder at Innovette.

^^ Details on all of this and more in this morning’s news well, below.

EGP WATCH-

#1- EGP forwards hit record low: 12-monthnon-deliverable forwards contracts have fallen 7% since mid-November to a record low of 50.50, Asharq Business reports. That roughly matches rate at which the greenback is changing hands on the (opaque, illiquid) parallel market, further anchoring expectations of what a market-clearing rate could look like if the CBE goes for a float or devaluation of the EGP.

#2- The EBRD could be extending financing to “one or two banks” before the year is out, Khalid Hamza, EBRD’s Egypt boss, told Al Arabiya Business (watch, runtime: 5:22).

#3- Local-currency bond issuance from IFC next year? The IFC is looking to issue its first EGP-denominated international bonds in 2024, IFC Africa chief Sérgio Pimenta told CNBC Arabia. Cabinet gave the Finance Ministry the greenlight in August to engage with the IFC on a local-currency bond issuance. The move could see the IFC invest more in Egypt.

DATA POINT- Imports of gas from Israel exceed pre-war levels: Egypt has been importing 1 bn cubic feet of Israeli natural gas per day this week — up from the 850 mn cbf/d we’ve been importing in mid-November, a government official told Asharq Business. We used to import 800 mn cbf/d from Israel before Netanyahu’s war in Gaza disrupted supplies.

DO YOU TOIL IN TEAMS?

PSA #1- If you toil in Microsoft Teams, your files app is about to become a whole lot more useful. The Redmond-based tech giant is rolling out a new OneDrive integration for Teams that will take away the useless Files tab in your chat and replace it with baked-in OneDrive app. The updated experience — familiar to anybody who has used OneDrive on the web — is rolling out this month to users of “new” Teams. “Old” Teams users will get it sometime in January; Microsoft has no plans right now to roll it out to its mobile app.

You can get an early peek hereif it hasn’t rolled out to your app yet.

PSA #2- Friday is the first day of winter — and today is our first real “fall” day. We’re exaggerating there, but … not by much? Look for cloudy skies and a daytime high of 21°C in the capital city, with sunny skies Thursday and Friday with a high of 19°C over the weekend, per our favorite weather app.

THE BIG BUSINESS STORIES ABROAD: Global shipping woes. Colorado won’t let Trump on the ballot. And Google will pay a USD 700 mn fine and loosen its control over the Play Store to settle a US lawsuit.

HAPPENING TODAY-

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh will be in Egypt today to hold talks with intelligence chief Abbas Kamel on a ceasefire in Gaza and a prisoner swap, a source close to Hamas told AFP.

Security Council vote on Gaza: The UN Security Council will vote on a UAE draft resolution addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The vote was due yesterday but was pushed back, Reuters wrote.

HAPPENING TOMORROW-

#1- The Central Bank of Egypt’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to set interest rates. Our analyst poll sees the CBE holding rates steady for the third meeting in a row.

#2- Catch a GFF film in Downtown: El Gouna Film Festival’s program continues today with a curated selection of films showing at Downtown’s Zawya cinema.

#3- Movies aren’t your thing? Try a play. Art and friendship clash in Kenoma Theater’s Fann — an Egyptian adaptation of renowned playwright Yasmine Reza’s Art — at Downtown’s Rawabet Art Space. You can catch the play tomorrow, Friday, or Saturday. Buy your tickets here.

*** 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 a look at what the infrastructure sector has been up to this past year and how it navigated a number of economic challenges between inflation, import restrictions, and the devaluation of the EGP.

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