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HOSPITALITY-
State’s plan to boost yacht tourism gets a push: El Gouna has opened its new 80 yacht-capacity Fanadir Marina, bringing the city’s total yacht capacity to 680 and making El Gouna “the largest operator of private marinas in Egypt,” El Gouna CEO Mohamed Amer said in a press release (pdf).
Remember: Yacht tourism can bring in much-needed foreign currency, considering that it’s wealthy individuals who own or have access to yachts. The daily spend of those visiting Egypt via yachts is 94% more than the average tourist, former Tourism Minister Khaled El Anany previously said. Yacht tourism provides a great window to double the tourism spending of those visiting from the Gulf, tourism industry sources previously told us. Half of global nautical tourism is concentrated in the Mediterranean alone, which draws in over 30k yachts a year, according to the State Information Service. European countries overlooking the Mediterranean are currently dominating the yacht tourism sector, attracting an annual USD 150 bn from the sector.
** We took a deep dive into the state’s efforts to turn Egypt into a yacht tourism destination in a Hardhat here that we published last year.
ENERGY-
Vortex Energy portfolio company Ignis to produce green hydrogen, ammonia with KKR: Spanish renewables developer Ignis Energia — in which EFG Hermes’ energy investment platform Vortex Energy owns an equity stake since 2021 — has inked a strategic partnership agreement with private equity giant KKR to launch a new platform to produce green hydrogen and green ammonia to power power energy-intensive industrial sectors in Spain and other countries, according to a statement from Ignis’ advisor on the agreement Clifford Chance. Under the agreement, the platform dubbed Ignis P2X will be owned evenly by Ignis and KKR, with the latter providing EUR 400 mn to develop future renewable energy projects.
LEGISLATION-
It looks like we may soon be a member of the Fund for Export Development inAfrica after MPs in the House yesterday greenlit a proposal for Egypt to join as a member. Budget Committee head Fakhri El Fiqi said that the agreement will help the country double its trade with the continent as a whole and boost exports to other African countries.
A USD 47 mn extension to a USAID rural development grant was also approved, pushing the grant’s total value to USD 172 mn.
The House also passed amendments to the law regulating the performance of economic courts, proposed to fast-track settling economic disputes. MPs also given their final approval to amendments to the Civil and Commercial Procedures Law, which allow first instance and primary courts to handle larger cases. The changes were designed to better align with recent economic developments and currency fluctuations.
