Good afternoon, friends. Welcome to the beginning of the work week and day nine of the Paris Olympics. You will be glad to hear that on the investment and sports front, Egypt has been doing well.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

Energy investment news is once again leading the local news cycle, with news emerging that a consortium of state-owned companies plans to construct a USD 40 mn pipeline to transport imported ethane gas from Alexandria's Dekheila Port to facilities run by Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals (Sidpec) and the Egyptian Ethylene and Derivatives Company (Ethydco), Al Arabiya reports, citing an unnamed government official.

Sound familiar? The 40-km pipeline will be built by the Egyptian Natural Gas Company (Gasco) as part of the USD 660 mn project to import 1.1 mn tons of liquefied ethane annually through a newly launched joint venture announced on Thursday.

The why: The notoriously energy-intensive petrochemical, plastics, and fertilizer industries have been hit particularly hard over the last few months by the energy shortages facing the country. Companies in these industries, including Sidpec, were forced to temporarily shut down operations in June due to a “lack of feed gasses,” pushing many to look ways to secure gas supplies outside of the national gas network.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

It’s another slow day for the global business press, with no single story dominating the news, but some are picking up on the fact that private capital groups are preparing for a flurry of transactions in the second half of the year amid widespread expectations of Fed rate cuts in September. Four of the US’s largest private capital firms — Ares, Apollo, Blackstone, and KKR — invested USD 160 bn in 2Q 2024 in anticipation of a coming increase in merger and buyout activity, the FT reports. Private equity firms are reportedly sitting on an additional USD 2 tn worth of committed capital that has not yet been deployed.

Private equity is back, baby: The uptick in mergers and buyouts comes after a year and a half of fairly tepid private equity activity that followed the boom years of 2021 and 2022. While we’re not back up to those levels, it’s clear that “The … market is back,” Scott Nuttall, co-head of KKR, tells the FT. “This year, we not only have an open market, we have pent-up supply … coming to markets. So we are optimistic.”

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

  • Saudi Arabia eyes turning CBE deposits into Egypt investments as the kingdom looks to boost its investments in the country through its Public Investment Fund.
  • Auto sales jump 27.6% from May to June, marking the third consecutive month of sales rises.
  • The country’s net foreign asset position remained in the green, despite the surplus shrinking 10% to USD 12.9 bn in June on the back of 41% reduction of the net foreign asset surplus held by commercial banks.

enterprise

*** It’s Inside Industry day — your weekly briefing of all things industrial in Egypt. Inside Industry focuses each Sunday on what it takes to turn Egypt into a manufacturing and export powerhouse, ranging from initial investment and planning to product distribution, through to land allocation to industrial processes, supply chain management, labor, automation and technology, inputs and exports, regulation and policy.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Mercury is peaking at a high 37°C before simmering to a moderate low of 27°C by night, according to our favorite app. Sahel and Alexandria are seeing cooler weather, with a high of 33°C and a low of 28°C.

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