🍃 Good afternoon, friends, and welcome back. With the spring breeze upon us, one may feel the need to be surrounded by nature — or as folks on Reddit would say, touch some grass. In that spirit, we sat down with Karim Harouny, CEO of Egypt’s first and largest online garden center, Mashtal, to talk about all things green, business, and AI.
In today’s issue, we also take a look at the less-than-stellar sequel to Netflix’s Beef, bring you up to speed on the latest happenings in the world of football, recommend your next family outing, and more. Up first, the news…
THE BIG STORY TODAY-
📍 Snackmaker Edita secured a EGP 600 mn, seven-year loan to add new production lines and ramp up capacity, according to a bourse filing (pdf). This signals that Edita is moving to capitalize on its recent intellectual property Ws.
Edita has already set a rapid pace for growth, beginning with its EGP 320 mn acquisition of production machinery and four production lines in October 2025, followed by a January 2026 agreement with Hostess Brands to expand ownership of the HTT brands across 45+ African markets.
^^ We’ll have more on this story in tomorrow’s edition of EnterpriseAM.
It's official. MENA+ is live.
Our new regional flagship covers the flows of capital, people, and ideas across the Middle East — and beyond it. MENA+ covers AI and tech — and geopolitics, the war for talent, which BSD is on top (and who's gunning for them), the changing energy economy, new corridors to India and China, and much, much more.
What's with the "+" in MENA+? We think one of the most powerful stories in the region is the *export* of ideas and capital not just to neighboring regions (Asia, the Stans) but to international financial centers. MENA countries are jockeying for position in the new global economy now taking shape, and we're going to shape that conversation.
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** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:
- The New Urban Communities Authority will penalize developers and individuals who are sitting on plots they’ve been allocated, waiting for price appreciation instead of building;
- BMI cut its growth forecast for the Egyptian economy to 4.5% in the current fiscal year, down from 5.2% before the outbreak of the war in the Gulf. The updated forecast marks a 0.4 percentage point cut from the mid-March outlook;
- FRA Chairman Islam Azzam was appointed as the vice chair of the International Organization of Securities Commissions for the 2026/28 term.
☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- We’ll be feeling cool in Cairo tomorrow. Temperatures in the capital are set to peak at just 26°C, with a low of 14°C, according to our favorite weather app.
