Good morning, folks. We’ve been incredibly busy over here at EnterpriseAM HQ this week with the annual EnterpriseAM Finance Forum that we held on Tuesday and making sure that we keep delivering you all the most important pieces of local business news freshly into your inbox everyday. But it seems we weren’t the only ones working overtime by the amount of announcements and updates over the last 24 hours.

In today’s packed issue, we’ve got news that new investment incentives courtesy of the government are in the pipeline, movement in the world of M&A, Egypt’s first SPAC coming sooner than you expected, and much, much more. Plus, for all of those that wished that they’d made it to this year's EnterpriseAM Finance Forum, we’ve unpicked our conversation with business leaders about what investors want to see from Egypt moving forward in the issue below.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

Canadians should soon be able to get visas on arrival once again: Egypt will soon waive the requirement that Canadian citizens apply for visas in advance, Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly according to a statement from the Canadian government’s department responsible for foreign affairs.

Since October of last year, Canadians traveling to Egypt have no longer been able to obtain a visa on arrival and have instead had to apply for one via an embassy or consulate abroad before traveling. Instead of the USD 35 arrival visa previously, Canadians had to dish out USD 150 for a prior-arrival visa, undoubtedly turning away many tourists who had Egypt high on their list of countries to visit.

We never got official confirmation of what led to this, but word on the street was that Egyptian authorities weren’t happy with Canada’s increasingly strict visa rules for Egyptians and decided to respond in kind. Lending credibility to this theory was an email from the Egyptian embassy in Canada to Egyptian-Canadians that described difficulties experienced by Egyptians trying to get visas for Canada as “offensive in nature to the dignity of the Egyptian state.”

This is particularly good news for 300k Egyptians living in Canada — many of which no longer have Egyptian passports. With the unexpected things life throws at you, many Egyptian-Candians without a valid Egyptian passport would have sadly not been able to make it to funerals, weddings, and the like at such short notice.

HAPPENING TODAY-

Egyptian officials are taking the stage at the AIIB: The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s (AIIB) 2024 annual meeting will wrap up today and several Egyptian officials will be taking the stage to participate in a number of sessions.

What to look out for: The Finance Minister’s advisor for capital markets operations Mae Adel will join Chief Risk Officer at AIIB Antoine Castel and a number of other panelists in a session titled Mobilizing Private Capital Through Capital Markets Innovative Instruments and another on Egypt’s Sustainable Building Blocks for Physical and Digital Roads. Former Finance Minister and AIIB International Advisory Panel member Ahmed Galal will participate in a session titled Maximizing Investment Returns: Strategies for Enhancing the Quality of Infrastructure Investments.

#2- It’s day two of Cityscape Egypt: The country’s largest real estate exhibition runs until Saturday at the Egypt International Exhibitions Center and is set to host 80 developers, showcase 1k projects, and welcome over 40k attendees. Register for the event here.

PSA-

Vodafone helps Egyptians get in contact with loved ones in Lebanon: Vodafone Egypt has announced that it will be offering free calls to and from Lebanon for three days beginning today so its customers can call to check on the safety of loved ones amid the deadly Israeli barrage on the country.

WEATHER- It’s another warm late-September day in Cairo today, with a high of 33°C and a low of 22°C, according to our favorite weather app.

It’s a few degrees cooler in Alexandria, with a high of 29°C and a low of 22°C.

And over the weekend, expect to see temperatures remain the same in the capital and likewise 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.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

#1- We're five days away from the Global DPI Summit 2024 — aka the Global Digital Public Infrastructure Summit. The three-day event kicks off on 1 October at the new capital’s St. Regis and “will spotlight the extraordinary progress countries are making in adopting and implementing DPI principles.” The summit will see the participation of CIT Minister Amr Talaat and UNDP Chief Digital Officer Rober Opp, among many others. The registration door has closed but you can browse the event’s agenda here.

#2- Attention, investors: The Arab Women Investors Union will hold the Arab AfricanInvestment and International Cooperation Summit in Aswan from 11-15 November. The event will help promote investment, trade, and partnerships between African, Arab, and Brics nations and host senior figures from the private and public sectors. Register for the event here.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

Business news is once again being pushed down the digital front page as the world’s press cover frantic diplomatic efforts to try to put together a ceasefire to stop “hell … breaking loose” — in the words of UN Secretary-General António Guterres. French and US authorities pushed for a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah at the UN General Assembly yesterday, with French president Emmanuel Macron saying, “Israel cannot, without consequence, just expand its operations to Lebanon.” The two countries are apparently pushing for a 21-day ceasefire, according to two sources speaking to the Financial Times, with Biden expressing hopes that a truce might help pave the way to “dealing with the [occupied] West Bank” and Gaza.

Alongside hopes for a ceasefire are fears of an Israeli ground invasion into Lebanon after Israeli Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi told Israeli troops that the country’s airstrikes on Lebanon were aimed not just at degrading Hezbollah’s capabilities, but “to prepare the ground for your possible entry.”

ELSEWHERE IN THE REGION- Libya’s two opposing governments have reportedly agreed on a new central bank leadership to be announced later today, sending Brent crude futures down 2.3% by the end of trading with the expectation of the country to soon up supply. The country’s oil output has fallen by more than half this month after a dispute between competing political factions over central bank-controlled oil revenues led to the removal of the bank’s governor and production strikes in protest.

AND IN BIG TECH NEWS- OpenAI’s CTO Mira Murati announced her departure yesterday — the third in a string of high-profile departures from the AI leader after John Schulman and Ilya Sutskever earlier this year. It was also revealed that OpenAI is in the midst of formulating a plan to restructure the core business into a for-profit corporation as the company seeks to remove the cap on investor returns.

PLUS- The FBI is investigating California-based VC fund Hone Capital on allegations of accessing information about the technology, finances, and clients of US-based startups for the benefit of their Beijing-based financiers or even even the Chinese state. The VC fund has invested in more than 360 tech startups in less than three years, including acquiring stakes in driverless car maker Cruise, payments group Stripe, and aerospace engineer Boom.

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