Good morning, wonderful people. We’ve made it through another week together. Before we dive into this morning’s top stories, we’re going to take the lid off the agenda for this year’s EnterpriseAM Finance Forum, coming up on Tuesday, 24 September.

Headlining the EnterpriseAM Finance Forum: We’ll be joined for the first time on stage by a senior government official, who’s joining us to outline a vision for where we’re going as a community and as an economy. The keynote interview will get underway at 9am sharp, and you won’t want to miss our exclusive networking breakfast from 8am.

Among the topics on the agenda:

  • Welcome to the hot seat — top industry CEOs set the tone by addressing the biggest (and toughest) questions of the day.
  • Looking from the outside in — what foreign investors and strategics think about Egypt right now.
  • The only asset class in town — It’s real estate or nothing. We’ll get into the ins and outs of the industry, how it’s financing itself, which areas (and price points) are next, and more.
  • Gazing into that crystal ball — The outlook for dealflow in 2025, from M&A and IPOs to securitization, FX and more.
  • A once in a generation opportunity? — A deep dive into the promise and pitfalls of the emerging energy economy.
  • Do we really love banking SMEs? — With NBFIs and fintech players staking their claims, banks are starting to take the SME market seriously.
  • The NBFI panel — The resilience of the Egyptian consumer is the business story of the decade. How are banks and NBFS players building sustainable businesses? What are the opportunities — and credit worries — in the B2B space?

^^ Check out EnterprisePM this afternoon for a link to the agenda with detailed panel descriptions.

Haven’t requested an invitation yet? Do it today — space is limited. Tap or click heretolet us know you’re interested.

** IMPORTANT NOTE — If you’ve already received your invitation on email, you *must* click through to confirm you’re attending.

PSA-

#1- The long weekend is nearly upon us, with the private and public sectors joining the EGX and also now the banks — as per a central bank statement out yesterday — in getting Sunday off as a paid holiday in observance of Prophet Mohammed’s birthday.

That also includes us here at EnterpriseAM, so our daily newsletter will be taking a break from your inbox Sunday. But worry not, we will be back bright and early on Monday to help you catch up on everything that happened over the long weekend.

#2- Foreigners get more time to sort out residency permits: The cabinet yesterday extended the period for foreign residents who do not have residency permits to legalize their stay in the country, granting them another year to sort their documentation out.

Remember: This is the third time the cabinet pushed back the deadline to settle the USD 1k fine and arrange an Egyptian host — it was initially set for December 2023, before being pushed to March and then again to mid-August.

WEATHER- The heatwave is not yet over in Cairo today, with an unseasonably warm high of 37°C and a low of 27°C, according to our favorite weather app.

It’s a fair bit cooler in Alexandria, with a high of 32°C and a low of 24°C.

And over the weekend, expect to see temperatures steadily decline in the capital and remain pretty much where they are for our friends on the Mediterranean.

** DID YOU KNOW that we now cover Saudi Arabia and the UAE?

** Were you forwarded this email? Tap or click here to get your own copy delivered every weekday before 7am Cairo time — without charge.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

#1- It’s blackout decision time for the oil, electricity ministries: The Oil Ministry and Electricity Ministry are awaiting consumption reports and supply data from the relevant authorities ahead of a meeting next week to make a decision on the resumption of power cuts, a government source told Enterprise. Following the meeting, the two ministries will present a plan — or potentially a set of options — to the cabinet to make the final call.

We knew this was coming: Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly specified in a mid-Julypresser that the summer respite from blackouts would come to an end in mid-September.

We’ve been told there’s three options on the table, with the ministries trying to figure out whether to bring back two-hour outages, one-hour outages, or — fingers crossed — no cuts at all.

#2- Turkey has expressed interest in purveying Egyptian offshore natural gas via its floating storage units and gasification ships, Asharq Business reported based on comments from Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar. Turkey and Egypt could cooperate in the oil and gas sector as relations between the two countries warm, Bayrakter added.

HAPPENING TODAY-

#1- It’s the fourth and final day of the 10th EFG Hermes Annual London Investor Conference, which has throughout been devling “into the profound potential emerging in key sectors across the global economy, offering participants unparalleled insights and connections in a rapidly evolving landscape.”

Wish you were there? We’ve got a rundown of Saudi Exchange CEO Mohammed Al Rumaih and Capital Market Authority Board Commissioner Abdulaziz Abdulmohsen Bin Hassan’s discussion from day two on how Saudi capital markets have grown and developed over the years into a global leader to be reckoned with. Check out the story in the news well, below.

#2- The government’s mega LNG tender to see us through to December is set to close today, with the government hoping to secure 20 shipments to be delivered between October and the last month of the year, a government source told us earlier this week.

HAPPENING NEXT WEEK-

The Egypt-UK investment conference is nearly upon us: Our friends at HSBC, together with UK Export Finance and Egyptian-British Chamber of Commerce, are hosting the Egypt-UK Investment and Opportunities Forum in London on Monday, 16 September. The conference will showcase investment opportunities in Egypt across different sectors — including renewable energy, water, automotive, food processing, IT, and AI — to potential investors from the UK. It will also facilitate matchmaking between institutions of both countries, bringing together government representatives, business leaders, and senior executives.

On the agenda: The event will feature presentations by GAFI head Hossam Heiba on supporting a sustainable investment climate, SCZone head Walid Gamal El Din on the economic zone’s investment proposition, and Advisor to the Vice Finance Minister Nevine Mansour on economic reform. The presentations will be followed by two panel discussions with large local and international companies — the first of which will discuss Egypt's growth potential and infrastructure and the second focusing on investment opportunities and success stories. The event will also offer three hours for one-on-one meetings (which must be scheduled in advance) and networking.

Tempted to jet off to London to attend the conference? Register your interest here.

FROM THE HOUSE-

The newly amended Criminal Procedures Law received approval from the House of Representatives’ legislative and constitutional affairs committee yesterday following three weeks of discussions, with participation from stakeholders including the justice and interior ministries, the Egyptian Bar Association, the National Council for Human Rights, and the National Dialogue.

Shorter terms for pretrial detention: The amended law reduces the maximum length of pretrial detention from six to four months for misdemeanors, from 18 to 12 months for felonies, and from 24 to 18 months for crimes that carry the penalties of death or life imprisonment.

The amended law also touches on strengthening constitutional guarantees for defendants, including assuring that defendants cannot be questioned without a lawyer, providing further regulations around financial compensation for the wrongly detained, travel bans, and asset freezes.

What’s next? The bill is set to be reviewed by the House when it reconvenes during the first week of October.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

Two days on and the US presidential debate is still dominating the digital front pages of the international press, with just a spattering of business and tech news trying to fight for ink with an avalanche post-debate analysis and thought pieces from the commentariat.

Now the dust has settled, pundits are trying to figure out who came on top, with the consensus in the international media being that while Kamala Harris had largely come out on top, the debate had not substantially moved the needle in a very close race between the two candidates. Trump campaign donors and Republican strategists are reportedly frustrated with the former president’s “uneven performance,” with one strategist calling the debate “a missed opportunity.” The former president’s claim that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating residents’ pets was one of a number of diversions that drew hand-wringing from some Republican strategists and donors, who lamented the former president’s failure to double down on issues like inflation or the state of the US economy under Joe Biden.

WHILE IN GLOBAL INTEREST RATE SPECULATION- US inflation cooled to 2.5% inAugust, inching toward the 2% inflation rate targeted by the US Federal Reserve. The release of the new inflation data has seen analysts consolidate behind expectations that the Fed will make only a 25-basis point cut at the central bank’s rate-setting meeting next week.

OVER IN TECH NEWS- OpenAI wants to nearly double its valuation to USD 150 bn in new financing round to raise USD 5 bn from investors in order to fund AI development that it hopes will give it an edge over competitors including Google and Meta.

AND IN OUR NECK OF THE WOODS- The prime minister of Libya’s Government of National Accord, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, has pledged to end the country’s central bank standoff that saw its oil output cut in half.

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