MANUFACTURING-

Government gives the greenlight to Turkish USD 700 mn denim factory in Port Said: Turkish ready-made garment maker Şirikcioglu has obtained approval from Egypt’s government to establish a denim factory in Port Said with an estimated investment cost of USD 700 mn, according to a statement from the Trade Ministry. The factory will be built on an area of 100k sqm and will provide around 5k jobs during its first phase, the statement read.

ENERGY-

Regional drilling giant Ades inks jack-up drilling contract with the Egyptian government: Saudi Arabia-based and born-in-Egypt driller Ades Holding has signed a two-year SAR 185 mn contract — currently equivalent to USD 49.3 mn — with the Suez Oil Company to deploy a jack-up rig in the Suez Canal, a subsidiary of the state’s Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), the company said in a disclosure to the Saudi Exchange. Operations are expected to kick off in 2H 2024.

The contract is for longer than first thought: The final contract, which was signed on Thursday, 13 June extended the operation period from the 21 months initially agreed on in May — which had the contract valued at SAR 161 mn — to two years.

ICYMI: Ades announced in March that it had signed a ten-year service agreement with two subsidiaries of the EGPC to boost oil production at two brownfields in Egypt alongside an unnamed “leading local exploration and production player,” the company said at the time.

INVESTMENT-

B Investments eyes big ticket healthcare investments in 2024: Private Equity firm B Investments is looking to invest EGP 1.5-2 bn throughout the year with a focus on the healthcare and pharma sectors, Chairman Hazem Barakat told Al Borsa. Barakat added that two investments in these sectors are set to be concluded soon in addition to another investment currently being studied.

We’re gonna see more B “investments” in the longer term: Barakat also revealed that B Investments eyes doubling their operations every three years, adding that the company’s current operations size amounts to some EGP 20 bn.

REAL ESTATE-

The new capital’s Forbes International Tower is expected to cost USD 1 bn, according to a statement from the cabinet. The tower will be built by Magnom Properties, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Rawabi Holding, who signed anMoU with the business magazine last year on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos to build the tower.

TAX-

FinMin wants to give businesses more time to settle tax disputes: The Finance Ministry has filed a proposal to the cabinet to renew a taxation law allowing companies with annual revenues below EGP 10 mn to settle tax disputes until the end of January 2025 as the ministry looks to improve the investor climate and boost tax revenues, a cabinet statement read. Some 17k disputes, amounting to over EGP 15.5 bn, have been settled in the ten months between between August 2023 and May 2024, the statement added.

BANKING-

Sahl digital bank in the pipeline? Cairo-based fintech startup Sahl is mulling over filing for a digital bank license from the Central Bank of Egypt, CEO Abdullah Assal told Asharq Business (watch, runtime: 1:40).

Remember: The race to become Egypt’s first digital bank is on, with Banque Misr’s Misr Digital Innovation being the first to receive preliminary approval from the Central Bank of Egypt in May to launch one.

EXPORT-

Alwady Green goes to KSA: Local agribusiness firm Alwady Green has almost wrapped up construction works on its first branch in Saudi Arabia, with investments exceeding EUR 5 mn, Al Borsa reports, citing company chairman Amr Ashour. The new branch — the second in the Gulf market following the branch in UAE — is slated to open in under two months to promote homegrown mangoes in the kingdom and surrounding Gulf countries, according to Ashour.

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