COMMODITIES-

Agriculture Ministry has pledged to resolve the issue of delayed payments to cotton farmers within 14 days at most, a source who attended a meeting of the House Agriculture Committee told EnterpriseAM. The Finance Ministry will step in to cover the overdue payments starting next week in case state-owned companies that bought the cotton — including subsidiaries of the Public Enterprises Ministry — are unable to do so, the source told us.

Farmers are still waiting to be paid for some 480k qintars purchased at the end of the last marketing season in March by the state-owned Cotton & Textile Industries Holding Company. The company made partial advance payments to cover 1.1 mn qintars, but still owes nearly EGP 3 bn due to a liquidity crunch, the source told us. Though the government typically pays farmers within 48 hours of delivery, farmers were recently told that payments could be delayed until the FY 2025-2026 budget is in place in July due to funding shortfalls.

REMEMBER- A high guaranteed price of EGP 10-12k per quintar for the season — up 112% on the previous season — put prices out of step with global rates, which pushed private sector buyers out of the market. Private companies ended up skipping five out of eight state-held auctions this season, leaving the government on the hook for large volumes it hadn’t budgeted for.

TRANSPORT-

The National Authority of Tunnels is looking to bring the Cairo Metro and other electric traction lines under its wings through a draft law that has reportedly received the greenlight from the cabinet, Asharq Business reported, citing an unspecified government document. It’s still unclear which other electric traction lines will be included, with the law potentially applying to the Cairo Light Rail Transit, Alexandria tram, the Cairo monorail, and the entirety of the cross-country high-speed rail network under construction.

The proposed legislation would also let the authority exploit the assets for financial gain, which could then be used to help pay its debts, fund the development of Metro lines, and launch new projects.

M&A-

Restructuring at Macro: Cosmetics pharma giant Macro Group (Macro Capital) saw its major shareholders, who had held their stakes through the special purpose investment vehicle Leo1, become direct shareholders in the company following a restructuring of the group’s  ownership and shareholding structure, according to an EGX disclosure (pdf). Our friends at EFG Hermes International Securities Brokerage executed the transaction.


** The story has been amended to better reflect the Macro restructuring news.  

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