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M&A-
#1- Cairo Clinical Labs gets ready to welcome a new owner: City Lab is set to finalize its acquisition of Cairo Clinical Labs tomorrow, with the two sides agreeing to ink the final agreement tomorrow, City Labs said in an EGX disclosure (pdf). City Lab’s board also approved the fair value study of acquisition target Cairo Clinical Labs, which values the firm at EGP 60.2 mn.
Remember: In July, City Lab appointed the Financial Advice Corporate Transactions (FACT) as independent financial advisor to provide a second opinion on Cairo Clinical Labs’ value.
The price tag? Prior to the fair value study, the two sides had agreed on a EGP 55 mn price tag, but following the study they agreed to up the price tag to EGP 59 mn. Some EGP 37 mn will be paid in cash — EGP 10 mn of which has already been paid in April — while the remaining EGP 22 mn will be used for future capital increases.
#2- MB Engineering has an acquisition brewing: Industrial outfit MB Group subsidiary MB Engineering is gearing up to submit a mandatory tender offer for a controlling stake in an unnamed industrial company operating within the same sector, the company said in an EGX disclosure (pdf), without naming the target company or the percentage it is looking to snap up.
EDUCATION-
#1- Educatly wants a financing license: Edtech startup Educatly is in talks with the central bank to obtain a license to provide education financing for students, co-founder and CEO Mohammed El Sonabty told Al Borsa.
Educatly? The startup works to bridge the gap between students and universities across the globe to help people find and secure a place to study abroad.The startup has raised some USD 3.5 mn since its launch in 2020 and has a student user base of over 3 mn students around the world and signed agreements with 1.1k universities across 90 countries.
Want to find out more? We sat down with El Sonbaty last month to discuss the education platform’s expansion plans.
#2- New education platform on the block: Edtech platform EYouth and a number of business figures have launched NextEraEducation, an EGP 2 bn educational initiative, according to a statement (pdf). The platform will leverage AI-powered learning and global partnerships to deliver accredited programs and bachelor’s degrees in fields such as programming, cybersecurity, AI, business administration, data science, and analytics. Its partners include Drake University, University of Minnesota, Illinois Institute of Technology, Collège de Paris, and Nexford University.
MANUFACTURING-
#1- Gov’t looks at private players to manage industrial zones: The Industry Ministry is looking into contracting local and foreign private players to take over the management and operation of three industrial zones — Kom Abu Radi Industrial Zone, Bayad Al Arab Industrial Zone, and an undisclosed zone in Upper Egypt — Al Mal reports citing informed sources. The selected companies will be awarded 10-15-year contracts, under which they will have to reach annual targets for bringing in new factories.
#2- EgyptAlum raises the curtain off partner for foil production line: EGX-listed Egypt Aluminium (EgyptAlum) is in negotiations with German rolling and foil slitting technology specialist Achenbach over its potential investment and funding of its USD 100 mn foil production line, according to an EGX disclosure (pdf). EgyptAlum first unveiled its plans for the production line in April.
CYBERSECURITY-
Egypt scores full marks in cybersecurity index: Egypt was placed in the Tier 1of the International Telecommunication Union’s 2024 Global Cybersecurity Index (pdf), scoring 100, receiving maximum score for all five pillars — legal measures, technical measures, organization measures, capacity development, and cooperation measures. This is an improvement on the 2020 index, which gave us an overall score of 95.48, with technical measures dragging our score down.
Cybersecurity has been a hot topic: In recent years, Egypt’s public and private sectors have witnessed a considerable increase in high-profile cyber attacks, from claims that hackers have obtained and sold online the WhatsApp numbers of 45 mn Egyptians to reports alleging that two Egyptian blue chip companies were hacked by LockBit — the world’s most successful ransomware gang at the time — compromising personal and financial data.
