Sahl is preparing to launch in DIFC to serve Egyptian expats in the UAE

Digital bill-payment platform Sahl is preparing to launch operations in the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) to serve Egyptian expatriates in the UAE, following talks between Egyptian Planning and Economic Development Minister Ahmed Rostom and DIFC Governor Essa Kazim, according to a statement. The planned expansion aims to allow Egyptians living in the UAE to directly pay utilities, municipal fees, and financial obligations for their families back home.

IN CONTEXT- The DIFC expansion marks the primary operational step in executing a broader state-backed initiative launched last month. In August, Delta Egypt Payments — the app’s fintech firm, in which the state-backed National Investment Bank holds a stake — signed a cooperation protocol with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, and Egyptian Expatriates to roll out digital bill-payment solutions for citizens residing abroad. Beyond fintech, discussions between Rostom and Kazim — who also serves as chairman of DP World — touched on expanding logistics operations and container-handling investments across the Suez Canal Economic Zone to draw on Egypt’s port infrastructure and enhance regional trade corridors.

Approvals for Azimut, Menthum

Azimut and Menthum Holding have secured Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) approval for investment fund platforms, according to an FRA statement. Azimut Investments-Egypt will set up a digital platform for private equity and venture capital funds, while Menthum Holding for Financial Investments can now receive subscriptions and process purchase and redemption orders for open-ended investment fund units.

ALSO- The FRA cleared Ashal for Digital Finance to offer microfinance through fintech platforms, and gave MNZL a final license to offer consumer and mortgage finance via fintech.

BACKGROUND- The FRA has kept up a steady drumbeat of fintech licensing this year. Granite received approval for a similar investment-fund subscription platform last January. In May, Fawry Healthcare-TreMed became the market’s first third-party healthcare administrator. Misr Reins. Brokerage was also granted a license to begin operations, and Horizon Securities and Bonds Trading was licensed for fund subscriptions.

Catching the phosphate rush

Elsewedy Capital Holding plans to begin production at a phosphate fertilizer plant in the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) by late 2028, Asharq Business reports, citing an unnamed government official. The plant will produce 500k tons of fertilizer, with 80% earmarked for export and the rest sold domestically. The Oil Ministry pushed the consortium last month to speed up the project’s production timeline.

BACKGROUND- The Mineral Resources Authority signed a USD 500 mn shareholders’ agreement with Wadico and Elsewedy Capital in July to set up the company that will develop, build, and run the plant. The government is initiating several phosphate fertilizer projects. This week, we saw the SCZone add nine new industrial projects in Sokhna, including the Na Trans for Fertilizers and Chemical Industries project, which is running a USD 10 mn plant producing 100k tons a year, with a planned USD 45 mn expansion to lift capacity to 375k tons.

ALSO- Phosphate Misr has partnered with Indorama on a USD 525 mn Ain Sokhna complex, targeting 600k tons a year in its first phase, with 80% of it earmarked for export. The government is also breaking ground on the USD 658 mn Abu Tartour phosphoric acid complex in New Valley, built by CSCEC and East China Engineering, with an initial capacity of 250k tons annually for export.

Duty calls, margin falls

Egypt DutyFree Shops’ (EFSCO) net income fell 21% y-o-y in FY 2025/26 to EGP 317.2 mn from EGP 400.4 mn, according to a bourse filing (pdf). EFSCO pins the decline on a 2023 ministerial decision that raised the dutyfree alcohol allowance for travelers entering Egypt — first to two liters in February, then to three in July, while layering on customs fees of up to 25% per liter — which the company says cut its dutyfree alcohol sales by around two-thirds.

But the numbers say otherwise: Dutyfree gross income fell EGP 1.5 mn, or about 1.5% of the company’s EGP 103.4 mn pre-tax income decline, by our math. Much of the decline came from somewhere EFSCO doesn’t explain — gross margin in its far larger non-dutyfree business compressed to 36.7% from 43.1%, costing c. EGP 62.6 mn in gross income even as segment sales grew 4.3% to c. EGP 1.3 bn.

What’s next: EFSCO says it’s lobbying the prime minister and finance minister to reverse the alcohol allowance rules and expects a real sales bump if that happens. On the ground, the company opened a Marsa Alam Airport branch in February, is opening a new Sharm El Sheikh hotel branch to replace one whose lease expired, and is still pursuing a customs license for a branch inside the China-Egypt Teda economic zone at Ain Sokhna.

Four-year freeze finally melts

Egypt’s National Railways Authority (ENR) has set in motion a USD 82 mn contract with Austria’s Plasser & Theurer to import 14 track maintenance machines after making a 15% down payment, a government official told Al Manassa. This marks the authority’s largest-ever single order of maintenance equipment; it had been frozen for four years by Egypt’s FX crunch. ENR paid around USD 12.3 mn to Plasser & Theurer after lining up local-currency bank loans to open letters of credit, with all 14 machines expected for delivery within a year.

REMEMBER- This isn’t ENR’s only modernization push this year. In June, ENR signed four contracts worth EUR 690 mn (c. EGP 39.5 bn) with an Alstom-led consortium to modernize the 6th of October-Alexandria corridor and the Belbes-10th of Ramadan line.

On a different modernization track, the World Bank recently flagged “high” fiduciary risk on a USD 440 mn loan it extended to ENR for the railway improvement and safety project. The project started about the same time, in 2021, along the Alexandria-Cairo-Nag Hammadi corridor, with a drag on the Cairo-Beni Suef segment specifically, the one segment the project was responsible for building from the ground up. The delay was attributed to material procurement, design reviews, site handover needs, technical scheduling, and contract management. However, track renewal is underway on roughly 107 km of line in parallel with the safety work, a government official told us earlier.