Good afternoon, friends, and Ramadan kareem. Ramadan hours are kicking off tonight, with retail shops, malls, restaurants, and cafés staying open until 2am. In today’s issue, we discuss why it’s important to show off at work, review a “Great American Novel,” and recap all the footie fixtures hitting our screens tonight.

THE BIG STORY TODAY-

📍 The Finance Ministry is preparing to roll out a sweeping package of 49 tax and customs reforms designed to catalyze capital markets and drive both foreign direct investment (FDI) and portfolio inflows, five government sources told EnterpriseAM. Set to take effect in the upcoming fiscal year, the package represents a fundamental pivot toward a more predictable and investment-friendly fiscal framework.

The government aims to boost tax revenues by 1-2% of GDP within three years by expanding the tax base rather than hiking rates, our sources told us. The goal is to raise the tax-to-GDP ratio to 15-16%, bringing Egypt in line with middle-income peer averages from its current position of 12.5%.

As part of the amendments, the ministry plans to overhaul the tax treatment of gains on unlisted shares during acquisitions. The new mechanism aims to better reflect long-term acquisition costs by indexing them to inflation.

^^ Read more details on this story in tomorrow’s edition of EnterpriseAM.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

🌐 Following an extended AI-driven sell-off, global shares steadied this morning as investors were reassured by early earnings reports from private software companies. Firms like McAfee, Rocket Software, and Perforce Software reported solid annual revenues. Gains in defence and mining stocks also advanced the STOXX 600 by 0.8% to a record high. Wall Street futures rose 0.6% and the pan-European index is on track for a third consecutive day of gains.

^^Read more on Bloomberg and Reuters.

Elsewhere in the business press, Meta announced a new agreement with Nvidia to use Nvidia chips in its AI data centers. Shares of both companies jumped during Tuesday’s extended trading. Meta has been using Nvidia’s graphics processing units for almost a decade, and the expanded partnership will bolster Meta’s push to “deliver personal superintelligence to everyone in the world,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.

^^Read more on CNBC.

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

  • FinMin is moving beyond simple debt reduction toward a structural overhaul of the local bond market, with the finalized public debt strategy aiming to aggressively lengthen average maturities, slash interest costs, and bring the debt-to-GDP ratio down;
  • The gov’t is getting ready to offer up several large-scale hotel and residential projects along the Nile that could significantly change the face of the city. A recently approved plan will see significant changes along 11 km of the Nile and in bordering areas in Maadi and Dar El Salam;
  • Tanmiya Capital Ventures is looking to deploy roughly USD 100 mn over the next two to three years. Following the USD 130 mn close of its second fund in December 2024, the PE firm has already notched two plays and is hunting for four more mid-cap successes.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Ramadan is off to a breezy start in the capital, with temperatures set to peak at a high of just 21°C and a low of 12°C, according to our favorite weather app.

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