Emirates NBD Egypt will offer two EFG Hermes equity funds, one conventional and one Shariah-compliant

Emirates NBD Egypt will start offering two EFG Hermes equity funds to its clients, one conventional and one shariah-compliant, under a new distribution agreement, according to a statement (pdf). Neither side named the funds, said how big they are, or stated when clients can start buying. The two go back to 2018, when Emirates NBD Egypt launched its first mutual fund and hired EFG Hermes Asset Management to run it.

It’s the second push to get EFG Hermes funds in front of retail investors this year. In February, the firm put five funds on its One app that had until then been reserved for institutional clients, including an actively managed Egyptian equity fund and a shariah-compliant one benchmarked to the EGX 33 Shariah Index.

A Klivvr expansion

Sawiris-backed fintech firm Klivvr is targeting a roughly 160% jump in its financing portfolio next year to as much as EGP 6.5 bn, up from more than EGP 2.5 bn disbursed in its first 12 months, Asharq Business reports, citing CEO Nils Bachtler. The current portfolio sits at EGP 2.4-2.5 bn, with banks and factoring companies providing around 95% of its funding. Klivvr plans to double its merchant network to more than 2k from around 1k within 12 months and is weighing SME financing — targeting EGP 2-3 bn in its first year — while applying for the needed licenses.

IN CONTEXT- The growth target lands in a sector that regulators are pulling back on. Klivvr draws about 95% of its funding from banks and factoring companies, the very channel the central bank is now restricting (banks are barred from lending to non-bank lenders that aren’t registered with the central bank and reporting to I-Score). The Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) has pushed through its own data rules, requiring consumer finance firms to report each approval, disbursement, and repayment to I-Score in real time and to link their databases to the regulator’s own. Klivvr is a relative newcomer: the FRA cleared its consumer finance arm in December 2024, and the Sawiris family’s Klivvr Holding bought Orascom Financial Holding’s 99% stake in Klivvr Electronics for EGP 657.7 mn in January 2025.

Share and share alike

Bonyan for Development and Trade is issuing 37.5 mn new shares at EGP 1 par to its employee incentive scheme, lifting its issued and paid-up capital by 2% to EGP 1.91 bn from EGP 1.87 bn, according to a disclosure (pdf) to the EGX. Shareholders signed off on the increase at an ordinary general meeting on Monday. The new shares are a fifth of the pool set aside for the scheme, which puts the full pool at some 187.5 mn shares, or 10% of the company’s capital before the increase, by our math.

BACKGROUND- The issuance comes a week after Bonyan’s board greenlit a buyback of up to 4% of its issued capital, with the stock at EGP 4.08 on 5 October, at about half what an FRA-approved independent valuer says its portfolio is worth. Bonyan is a real estate operating company (REOC): it owns income-generating commercial property and leases it out, with roughly 60% of its rental contracts USD-linked. It floated a stake of just over a fifth in July 2025 in the EGX’s first REOC IPO.

Funding the follow-on

Korra Energi CEO Ayman Korra sold 34.2 mn shares in the company for EGP 205.3 mn on Monday, one session before the cut-off to qualify for its EGP 405 mn rights issue, according to an EGX filing (pdf). The shares went at an average of EGP 6.004 through Wilzy Securities, cutting his stake to 73.48% from 75%. He and related parties now hold 87.48%, down from 89%.

The timing lines up with his own bill. His remaining shares entitle him to around 1.49 bn new shares, which would cost some EGP 305 mn to take up at the EGP 0.205 price. The stock sale covers two-thirds of it. Rights priced at par against a share price near EGP 6 are what make that take-up worth funding.

The terms: Korra is selling 2.025 bn new shares at par to existing shareholders, 0.9 for every share held, nearly doubling its share count and lifting paid-in capital to EGP 855 mn from EGP 450 mn. Subscription runs from 18 October to 1 November, and the rights trade separately, between Egyptians only, until 27 October.

Where the money goes: Up to EGP 255 mn goes to working capital, around EGP 100 mn to settling tax and financial leasing obligations, and the remaining EGP 50 mn to branch assets, marketing, and operating costs, according to the invitation to shareholders (pdf).

Building for the overflow

Alexandria is getting a dirty bulk terminal, and a Chinese company is building it. The Alexandria Port Authority signed an MoU with Xiamen C&D to develop the terminal at Al-Max Port, according to a Transport Ministry statement issued yesterday. Dirty bulk is the unprocessed cargo that can’t share a berth with grain: coal, clinker, and iron ore — the raw material feeding cement and steel. The design gives it storage yards, silos, two main quays, and handling facilities, with room for three of the largest bulk carriers at the same time once it’s built. It’s the first of four terminals planned for Al-Max Port, all part of the Greater Alexandria Port scheme inside the Sokhna-Alexandria logistics corridor.

The timing isn’t accidental, since transit containers through Alexandria and Dekheila ports rose 74% last fiscal year as carriers shifted to the Mediterranean to stay clear of the Red Sea, and the ports are feeling the squeeze. The Al-Max terminal and the Amreya dry port, which opens shortly, both belong to a wider plan for 33 dry ports and logistics zones along seven corridors. C&D wants more where this came from: managing director and CEO Liu Rongdian says the company is looking at further terminals and at commercial shipbuilding.

Blank check

Egypt says it will back Riyadh “without any reservation” in its fight against the Houthis. “Whatever is being asked by the Saudis, of course we will respond. Without any reservation, we are providing all kinds of support,” Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told Bloomberg when asked about the possibility of Egyptian military support.

Cairo considering joining defense pact: Abdelatty added that membership in the regional Makkah defense agreement “is under serious consideration from the Egyptian side.” He said Egypt enjoys close ties with all three signatories to the pact — Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey.