Good morning, friends, and a happy Tuesday to you all. It’s another busy morning here in Egypt, with debt leading the news well — our maiden local sukuk issuance was 5x oversubscribed and the Finance Ministry upped its local debt target for the month to over EGP 1 tn.

PSA-

WEATHER- After a few cloudy days, the capital is in for a sunny day, with a high of 29°C and a low of 21°C, according to our favorite weather app.

It’s a little cooler in Alexandria, which is in for a high of 27°C and a low of 20°C.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

Qatar will ink its long-awaited, big ticket North Coast project “in the coming days,” according to a cabinet statement detailing Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly’s visit to the Gulf nation, which included a meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

Déjà vu? This isn’t the first time we’ve been told to expect the project to soon be formally unveiled, but it looks like it will happen this time, with the announcement following an agreement between the two prime ministers to activate Qatar’s multi-bn direct investment package.

REMEMBER- The project is part of a wider USD 7.5 bn direct investment package from the Gulf nation, which was first announced during President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s visit to Qatar in April. Reports later suggested that Qatar was in advanced talks to develop a North Coast tourism project, with expectations of an agreement by year-end.

The Samla and Alam El Roum area of Matrouh was named the location of the project, confirming earlier reports. The cost and details of the project are still not yet out, but the Ras El Hekma-esque project will reportedly cost USD 4 bn and feature both residential areas and tourist accommodation, along with commercial and entertainment centers, a yacht marina, and advanced service facilities.

Madbouly will attend the UN’s Second World Summit on Social Development on day two of his Qatar trip, after attending the leaders summit of the Global Alliance Against Poverty and Hunger yesterday, according to a separate statement from the cabinet.

FROM THE DEBT MARKETS-

CBE’s second EUR t-bills issuance of 2025 oversubscribed: The Central Bank of Egypt auctioned off EUR 627.8 mn worth of one-year, EUR-denominated treasury bills yesterday, exceeding its EUR 600 mn target, according to the lender’s website. The CBE’s second auction of EUR-denominated t-bill this year received EUR 707.8 mn in bids. The bills had an average yield of 2.25%, unchanged from the average yield offered during the first EUR issuance of the year in August, when yields dropped 1.25 percentage points to their lowest level since 2022.

HAPPENING TODAY-

The business community and policymakers are eagerly awaiting non-oil private sector activity figures for October, set to be released by S&P Global later this morning. Last month’s report saw the country’s headline figure contracting to 48.8, taking us further away from the 50.0 threshold that separates growth from contraction.

Eighth time’s the charm? Non-oil private sector activity has been in the red for seven consecutive months and has only entered growth territory two times since November 2020.

** We will have the main takeaway from the report in today’s issue of EnterprisePM and a full rundown in tomorrow’s EnterpriseAM, so stay tuned.

SUKUK WATCH-

Weekly sukuk roundup: The yield to maturity on our sovereign sukuk climbed to 6.64% last Friday, up from 6.32% the week before, according to the Egyptian Financial Company for Sovereign Taskeek’s weekly report (pdf). Egyptian sovereign sukuk prices fell to USD 101.31, compared to USD 101.47 a week earlier.

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THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

OpenAI’s endless thirst for computing power is dominating headlines this morning. The ChatGPT maker signed a USD 38 bn agreement with cloud arm Amazon Web Services to gain access to its Nvidia GPUs for the next seven years. The processing power — which will be immediately available to OpenAI — will help ChatGPT respond to user prompts and train newer models, with plans to expand capacity in the next few years.

A vote of confidence: Amazon’s share price jumped 4% to close at USD 254 yesterday — an all-time high and a sign of relief for investors who worried Amazon was falling behind the AI race. Chipmaker Nvidia also gained some 4.4%, landing just below USD 209. (Bloomberg | CNBC | Reuters | Financial Times)

ALSO- New York is set for a showdown: The state’s general election will see Democratic nominee — and front-runner with a double-digit lead in the polls — Zohran Mamdani go up against former governor Andrew Cuomo, who landed a late endorsement from Donald Trump. The president lashed out against “Communist” Mamdani and vowed to cut federal assistance to New York under the young progressive candidate. The race — one of the most politically charged in the US in a while — is already seeing unprecedented voter turnout. (New York Times | Fox | Axios | Semafor)

AND- A scandal is rocking Israel: Top military lawyer Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi is now behind bars facing accusations of breach of trust and obstruction of justice. Tomer-Yerushalmi admitted last week to leaking a controversial surveillance video last year that showed Israeli soldiers severely abusing a Palestinian inmate at the notorious Sde Teiman camp. The prosecutor then disappeared for a few hours on Sunday night leaving behind a cryptic note and her car, sparking uproar, speculation and a nationwide search campaign that retrieved her safely. Prime Minister Netanyahu earlier called the leak “the most severe diplomatic attack Israel has faced.” (Associated Press | Financial Times | Bloomberg)

ALSO WORTH NOTING THIS MORNING-

  • China is increasing energy subsidies to the country’s biggest data centers, cutting bills by up to half to help out tech giants, unnamed sources told the Financial Times.
  • Starbucks is set to relinquish control of China operations to Boyu Capital in a USD 4 bn buyout. (CNN)

*** It’s Going Green day — your weekly briefing of all things green in Egypt: EnterpriseAM’s green economy vertical focuses each Tuesday on the business of renewable energy and sustainable practices in Egypt, everything from solar and wind energy through to water, waste management, sustainable building practices and how you can make your business greener, whatever the sector.

In today’s issue: We look at the government’s used cooking oil collection network to feed its sustainable aviation fuel production push.

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