THIS EVENING: Egypt signs three industrial investment agreements + NUCA is taking its first sukuk issuance to market

Good afternoon, wonderful people. We have a mixed bag of news on the local front as the week begins to wind down.

** A QUICK PROGRAMMING NOTE- EnterprisePM is taking a publication holiday and will be back in your inboxes at the usual time Sunday afternoon. We’ll be publishing the Weekend Edition as usual on Friday.

So, when do we eat? Maghrib prayers are at 6:11 pm in the capital city, and you’ll have until 4:21 am tomorrow to hydrate and caffeinate ahead of fajr.

THE BIG STORIES TODAY

#1- Egypt signed three separate industrial investment agreements, according to Cabinet statements (here, here, and here). The agreements include:

Silo design + manufacturing: An agreement between East Port Said Development and Feerum Egypt allocating land for an EGP 1.6 bn factory in the East Port Said zone to design, manufacture, and establish silos and their components.

EUR 160 mn glass factory: The Suez Canal Economic Zone also signed an agreement with Saint-Gobain Glass Egypt to establish a EUR 160 mn glass factory in the Ain Sokhna industrial zone.

Ductile Iron Pipes factory: China’s Xinxing Ductile Iron Pipes Company also signed an agreement with the SCZone that will grant the Chinese company the right to use a 270k sqm plot of land in the TEDA industrial park to set up a ductile iron pipe factory. The project includes manufacturing 250k tonnes of cast iron pipes per year, with USD 146 mn in investments.

#2- The New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) is planning to take a EGP 260 bn sukuk issuance to market in 2024, in what would be the first ever issuance of sukuk from a government institution, Asharq Business reports, citing four sources in the know. The issuance, which is expected to be completed within a month, will help the authority pay settle debts owed to state-owned banks Banque Misr and the National Bank of Egypt, and will be backed by the Finance Ministry, the sources added.

NUCA maintains its spot as biggest player in the securitization market: NUCA has been setting records in the securitization market in recent years, issuing a total of EGP 70 bn of securities since 2019. The authority last closed a EGP 15 bn securitized bond issuance in November, in what was the second and final issuance in a EGP 30 bn program. It also set new records in 2020 with a EGP 10 bn issuance, and 2022 after closing a EGP 20 bn transaction.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

The international press is closely following updates from the Baltimore bridge collapse, as six workers on the cargo ship that crashed a major bridge yesterday in Baltimore have still not been found. News of a previous collision in Antwerp in 2016 involving the same Singapore-flagged ship has also emerged. It’s hoped that federal investigators will be able to glean more insight into how yesterday’s crash occurred, as the rescue team has recovered the vessel’s black box from the water.

The story is across the front pages this afternoon:Reuters | Bloomberg | Associated Press | CNBC

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

• EXCLUSIVE- We may be just hours away from a major shuffle of the leadership of at least six state-owned banks: New leaders could be appointed at banks where the state retains substantial control, including: the National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, Banque du Caire (BdC), AAIB, EBank, and Suez Canal Bank.
• GAFI hands out six golden licenses: The General Authority for Investments and Free-zones (GAFI) has awarded six golden licenses for projects worth a combined EGP 5.6 bn.
• Edtech startup Sprints has raised USD 3 mn in a bridge funding round led by Disruptech Ventures, which will support its plan to tap into ten new markets.

?️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- A cloudy day with a high of 32°C and a low of 18°C, according to our favorite weather app.