Good morning, friends, and a very happy Christmas Eve to all those among you who observe. The traditional news slowdown hasn’t yet taken hold, but things are a bit quieter this morning than on your average Wednesday. Still, we have news of the Finance Ministry’s early thoughts on next year’s state budget and a juicy boardroom drama at Juhayna to keep things interesting as we slide toward the weekend.

Speaking of Christmas: Our traditional holiday-season film marathon has begun following the formerly-resident 18-year-old’s return to Cairo from her freshman year at university (we granted her a temporary residence permit). Said temporarily-resident 18 year-old wishes EnterpriseAM readers to know that the 1983 Dan Ackroyd / Eddie Murphy film Trading Places is the ultimate holiday flick for capitalists like herself.

The plot: Two elderly commodities brokers — the Duke brotehrs — make a USD 1 bet on nature versus nurture. They engineer the downfall of their managing director, Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd), framing him for theft and drug possession, while simultaneously plucking street hustler Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) from poverty and installing him in Winthorpe’s job. Winthorpe and Valentine soon figure out the plot and team up to bankrupt the Dukes by front-running their scheme to corner the futures market for frozen concentrated orange juice.

The film wraps with a masterclass in commodities fraud and short-selling set on the Comex trading floor — and features cameo appearances from notables including blues great Bo Diddley, comedian and later US Senator Al Franken, comedian James Belushi, and puppeteer and filmmaker Frank Oz as a laconic (and crooked) booking officer.

Why is it a Christmas movie? It’s set at Christmas, features a debauched Santa suit, and ends with the villains destroyed by their own greed — and our heroes (including butler Denholm Elliott) chilling on a Caribbean island. Go catch the trailer (watch, runtime: 2:50).

Watch this space

LABOR — The Labor Ministry is putting a clock (and a clear pecking order) on payments a business must make when shutting down, liquidating, or going bankrupt. The ministry issued a new executive order yesterday spelling out that workers’ wages and entitlements don’t get waved away with a closure notice and that they sit at the front of the line ahead of other claims on the company’s assets, including state dues. Social ins. contributions are explicitly treated as part of workers’ rights, too.

Once a closure or liquidation is formalized, the employer, liquidator, or bankruptcy trustee has 30 days to inventory workers’ dues and pay them in full if funds allow, or pay what’s available and schedule the rest. There’s a hard cap of one year for full settlement. Labor offices are tasked with monthly oversight, can step in to help calculate dues where needed, and can escalate violations to labor courts, with any action that undermines workers’ rights deemed invalid.

CAPITAL MARKETS — London-based healthcare private equity firm Alta Semper plans to launch a USD 150 mn investment fund primarily focused on Egypt and Morocco, alongside East African markets, according to a press report citing remarks by Alta Semper Cofounder and Managing Partner Afshane Jetha. The fund will primarily focus on investing in the healthcare sector and medical tech solutions in emerging markets. It’s expected to reach final close in 3Q 2026, with USD 100 mn already secured so far from global asset managers, family offices, and development finance institutions.

The fund is already deploying capital, having invested in London-based medical equipment manufacturer Allmed, which manufactures dialysis machines in Egypt and has operations in Germany and Brazil.

SUEZ CANAL — A handful of major shipping lines are dipping their toes in the Suez Canal again, but it’s a bit early to say it’s a full comeback, EOS Risk’s Martin Kelly tells EnterpriseAM. While Maersk and CMA CGM are running the gauntlet again, Kelly warns us that the threat profile from the Houthis hasn’t just persisted, it has mutated.

Ins. premiums may have dropped 70%, but the algorithm for being targeted by the Houthis has never been more unpredictable, Kelly says.

** Want the full story? Head to EnterpriseAM Logistics to check out the interview here.

Happening tomorrow

#1- Will the Central Bank of Egypt close 2025 with a cut? The central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet tomorrow to decide whether to push ahead with another interest rate cut on top of the 625 bps delivered so far this year.

We were all confident a cut was incoming — but now it seems like it could be less of a shoe-in. Our poll of the 14 analysts and economists earlier in the week saw 12 of them pencil in a 100-200 bps rate cut, pointing to a larger-than-expected dip in the annual inflation rate for November. But with the IMF noting yesterday that disinflation is “not yet firmly entrenched” in a refreshingly glowing review, the committee may think twice before deciding to cut rates in its last meeting of the year.

Data point

8.9 GW — that’s the amount of currently installed wind, solar, and hydropower capacity in Egypt, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly said. In just two years, this is expected to more than double to 18.0 GW, he added.

PSA-

WEATHER- We have more typical winter weather in store for Cairo today, with a high of 23°C and a low of 11°C, according to our favorite weather app. The Egyptian Meteorological Authority is also forecasting intermittent wind during the day.

Meanwhile, Alexandria is in for colder weather, with a high of 21°C and a low of 10°C.

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The big story abroad

It’s a quiet Christmas Eve morning in the global business press and there are few signs that will radically change as the day wears on: Asian stocks are trading sideways on thin volumes and many Western will close early today before taking tomorrow off entirely.

The US economy grew at a brisk 4.3% clip in the third quarter of the year, backed by consumer spending on healthcare and computing. That’s well ahead of the 3.2% pace at which analysts polled by Bloomberg expected the economy to expand. Investment by businesses slowed and exports fell in the same period.

Oil-price watchers, take note: The US has moved special operations forces into the Caribbean, ratcheting up pressure on Venezuela’s government. Washington is already enforcing a blockade of oil tankers moving into and out of the Latin American country.

CLOSER TO HOME- The Libyan Army’s chief of staff died in a plane crash yesterday evening after flying out of Ankara, where he and three other senior military officers were meeting with Turkish officials. The jet carrying the military leaders asked for permission to make an emergency landing shortly before the crash. There’s been no word on the cause of the incident.

Morning must-read

Longtime readers may remember we’ve frequently suggested in the past that women aren’t truly grownups until sometime around age 28 — and that for guys, it’s age 30 or later? That your prefrontal cortex isn’t fully “baked” until your mid-30s? We might have been onto something: New research suggests the brain’s “adolescent” phase runs from about age 9 through 32 — and that your noggin is then pretty stable until age 66, when early aging begins.

Go read: Your brain ages in five distinct stages in the Wall Street Journal or catch abreakdown from Cambridge University, where the research originated, if you’re not a Journal subscriber.

*** It’s Hardhat day — your weekly briefing of all things infrastructure in Egypt: EnterpriseAM’s industry vertical focuses each Wednesday on infrastructure, covering everything from energy, water, transportation, and urban development, as well as social infrastructure such as health and education.

In today’s issue: Planes, trains, and automobiles were the drivers of the logistics sector, as the Suez Canal took a back seat in 2025.

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