An Egyptian delegation is heading to Turkey soon to reap investors

Good morning, friends. It’s been a quiet start to the week, but we have a bit of exclusive news this morning on how the government plans to crack down on land speculation. The New Urban Communities Authority is rolling out a system that slaps fees of up to EGP 1k per sqm on secondary sub-developers.

The bottom line? The state wants to put an end to developers holding onto land before effectively on-selling it to others — and if they do? It wants a cut.

MEANWHILE- Fitch Solutions’ research arm, BMI, is the latest to slash its forecast for economic growth in Egypt and beyond. It thinks our economy will grow 4.5% in the current fiscal year, down from a pre-war estimate of 5.2%.

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WISH THIS MORNING’S ISSUE was a podcast? We’ve got you. Tap or click here to listen to Morning Drive, a 10-minute version of today’s issue crafted for you to enjoy with your morning coffee — or while glaring at the treadmill and deciding, for the fourth [redacted] morning in a row, that today is definitely not leg day.

PSAs-

Government employees are off on Saturday, 25 April, in observance of the Sinai Liberation Day, according to a statement. We’re still waiting for word from the Labor Ministry and the Central Bank of Egypt as to whether the banking and private sectors will be granted a long weekend.

That… probably means the rest of us aren’t getting a long weekend? The Saturday holiday for public servants means it’s unlikely we’re getting Thursday or Sunday as a replacement day — and leaves us hanging about Labor Day, too, given 1 May falls on a Friday this year.

WEATHER- Looks like another perfect, breezy day in Cairo today, with a high of 26°C and a low of 15°C, according to our favorite weather app. Expect the mercury to remain almost the same tomorrow and Wednesday.

It will be several degrees cooler in Alexandria, with a high of 22°C and a low of 12°C.

Coseying up to Turkey

A delegation from Egypt will be in Istanbul at the end of June to pitch nearly USD 4-5 bn worth of potential investments in textiles, clothing, and other sectors, delegation head Adel El Lamai tells EnterpriseAM. The group will also be attending the annual meeting of the Egypt-Turkey Business Council to pitch potential investors in chemical industries, ports, logistics, and contracting.

The Suez Canal Economic Zone is the star of the show. “A number of anticipated Turkish projects will be announced in the Qantara West area … The clothing and textile sector is of particular interest to the Turkish side,” El Lamai tells us.

The council wants to see Turkish investments here hit USD 15 bn within the next few years, El Lamai says.Some 1.7k Turkish businesses have already put more than USD 3 bn into Egypt, with nearly 200 factories operating in textiles, garments, and chemicals in the 10th of Ramadan, Sadat City, and the SCZone.

Soaring inflation and rising wage costs in Turkey have pushed at least four big Turkish garment giants, alongside a cluster of SMEs, to move their operations to Egypt. A bonus (besides the USD investments)? The wave of incoming Turkish manufacturing is bringing advanced technologies that Al Lamai and others think will be a boon for Made in Egypt products.

More on TMG’s The Spine

The first phase of Talaat Moustafa Group’s (TMG) EGP 1.4 tn The Spine will be ready in four years, CEO Hisham Talaat Moustafa told El Hekaya’s Amr Adib (watch, runtime: 48:54). The project will ultimately be home to 3.5k hotel rooms, he added. The Investment Ministry approved the project’s Special Investment Zone designation yesterday.

Want to get your hands on a unit? Reservations open tomorrow morning, Moustafa said, adding that units will be offered with a 15-year payment plan and a 1.4% down payment.

The 15-year plan is one of the longer payment periods we’ve heard of and reflects the erosion of middle- and upper-class purchasing power after the inflation of recent years. Wages have yet to catch up, and with developers effectively providing finance to buyers, that means builders are finding ways of stretching out payment periods that not so long ago were customarily 5-7 years.

Missed our coverage of the project yesterday? Check it out here.

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The big story abroad

The US seized an Iranian cargo ship for allegedly attempting to breach its naval blockade, which President Donald Trump previously said would remain in full force until a peace agreement is signed. Tehran pledged to strike back and said it would not take part in a second round of ceasefire talks, upending Washington’s plans to kick off a fresh round of negotiations before the ceasefire expires tomorrow.

Oil markets jittered on the development, with Brent crude futures jumping over 5% to USD 94.90 per barrel. We expect the rally that pushed the S&P 500 to fresh highs last week to reverse course when markets open later today, as hopes for easing tensions unravel. US futures were broadly in the red this morning.

Seemingly undaunted by the turmoil, Asian markets are up in early trading this morning, with Japan’s Nikkei rising by around 1% and South Korea’s Kospi gaining around 1.3%.

Economists warn that the conflict’s aftermath will surely harm the US economy, triggering long-lasting inflation, the Financial Times reports. “What we see is that short-term inflation expectations have moved up here in the US,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told the FT.

And in the world of tech and sports, Chinese-made humanoid robots clinched a victory over their human competitors in a half-marathon race in Beijing yesterday. A synthetic marathoner made by Chinese smartphone brand Honor — a Huawei spinoff — managed to break the world record for the half-marathon, signaling vast improvements over last year’s trial, which most of the robots failed to complete.

*** It’s Blackboard day: We have our weekly look at the business of education in Egypt, from pre-K through the highest reaches of higher ed.

In today’s issue: We take a look at how the AUC Innovation Hub aims to bridge Egypt’s academia-industry divide.