Al Amal to pour c. EGP 600 mn into new processing hub

Al Amal Agricultural Crops plans to invest between EGP 500-600 mn to establish a sorting and packaging facility in Beheira, Chairman Ragab Shehata tells EnterpriseAM. The 25k sqm facility is designed to deepen the company’s control over the value chain for its core products — dates, raisins, peanuts, sesame, and beans — replacing reliance on third-party facilities. The company is also exploring contract farming to secure the stable supply needed to feed its target of 30% annual export growth, he added.

Organic funding: The company plans to finance the project entirely from its own balance sheet. This highlights a critical competitive advantage for exporters in the current climate — the ability to fund capex through USD liquidity, bypassing the prohibitive cost of bank borrowing that is currently stifling expansion for purely domestic players.

State shareholders block Zahraa Maadi buyout bid over valuation gap

A consortium led by investors Ahmed Tarek Khalil and Mohamed Farouk Abdel Moneim has hit a wall in their bid to acquire 90% of Zahraa Maadi. The company’s majority shareholders — all of which are state-owned companies — rejected the EGP 6.95 per share mandatory tender offer, Zahraa Maadi said in a disclosure (pdf) to the EGX.

The why: The voting bloc, which together controls 53.9% of the developer, cited a “fundamental and sharp disparity” between the offer price and the company’s fair value.

Why it matters: It’s a reminder that state entities aren’t going to exit real estate positions without a significant premium. The shareholders justified the rejection by pointing to a “rapid growth phase” and the unrecognized value of the company’s land bank and upcoming projects. The Sisi administration has long been clear — going back to the establishment of the Sovereign Fund of Egypt — that while it is willing to dispose of assets, it wants to do so in ways that give it a stake in any upside that a private-sector investor might generate. Think: Sell a small stake now, and monetize the rest later, banking on a better valuation. Institutional politics, including board members looking to preserve sinecures, have also stymied potential transactions.

Titan Cement secures long-term energy hedge with EGP 500 mn waste infrastructure play

Titan Cement is moving upstream into waste management to lock in a stable supply of alternative fuel, signing a 15-year contract with the Sharqia Governorate, according to an Environment Ministry statement. Through its environmental subsidiary, Gaia Titan, the company will invest EGP 500 mn to establish and operate three waste treatment facilities, effectively integrating a key part of its energy supply chain with 200k tons of refuse-derived fuel expected to be produced annually.

This volume represents a significant substitution for imported coal, allowing the manufacturer to simultaneously lower its carbon footprint and reduce its exposure to FX fluctuations — a model other heavy industry players may look to replicate as the state pushes to breathe life into the Waste Management Act.

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