BdC prices IPO at top of range as demand holds despite EGX selloff

Tuesday, 27 Oct 2026

BdC prices IPO at top of range as demand holds despite EGX selloff

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Today at a glance

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

The House authorizes El Sisi to take “whatever measures needed” to support Saudi Arabia.

The Big Story Today

Banque du Caire’s blockbuster IPO holds firm against EGX selloff.

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

Enppi is potentially set to IPO in January, priced in USD.

Investment Watch

DPI closes Egypt-born fintech fund Nclude at USD 112 mn.

M&A WATCH

Al Ahly Capital signs to buy El Sewedy’s 40% of CIRA’s Damietta university venture.

Startup watch

Turuq takes its first outside investment from Den VC.

Also on our Radar

Gov’t, World Bank commit to raise minerals’ contribution to GDP to 6% by 2030, and mineral exports to USD 9.8 bn by 2040.

PLANET FINANCE

BMI sees Brent above USD 100 into 2027 as Hormuz stays commercially choked

Going Green

Egypt reuses 23.2 bn cbm of water a year, and the networks to deliver it are nearing completion.

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

The House authorizes El Sisi to take “whatever measures are needed” to support Saudi Arabia

Good morning, friends. It’s been a rough few days on the EGX, and the IPO everyone’s been waiting for now has a confirmed price. In today’s issue: a record institutional book for Banque du Caire (BdC), a fintech fund closing out four years after launch, and NBE’s investment arm doubling down on universities.

But first, the House has authorized President Abdel Fattah El Sisi to take “whatever measures are needed” to support Saudi Arabia. El Sisi has earlier said that any action would be defensive only, and ruled out an attack on Yemen.

On the business front, BdC has priced its IPO at the top of its range at EGP 5.30 a share after institutions put in EGP 205.8 bn worth of orders, the most any EGX IPO private tranche has drawn. That demand held through a sell-off on the EGX last Thursday. The price, one banking analyst tells us, matches the stock’s estimated fair value, so any gains once it starts trading (which is expected on 2 November) will need real demand behind them.

On the VC side, DPI Venture Capital has reached a final close on Nclude, the Egyptian fintech fund, at more than USD 112 mn. That’s a little above where the fund stood when DPI came in as advisor last year. The fund, which invests from seed through Series C, has since expanded under DPI into affordable ins., healthcare access, and SME credit.

In education news, Al Ahly Capital is buying El Sewedy’s 40% stake in the company building CIRA’s university campus in New Damietta. That makes it the second education platform Al Ahly Capital and CIRA will own together, with more schools and universities to come.

***

ARE YOU MORE OF A LISTENER? Morning Drive is a 10-minute summary of today’s issue crafted for you to enjoy with your morning coffee, while getting the kids ready for school, or driving through the morning rush. And if you like it, tell your friends to tell their friends. They can find us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever they get their podcasts.

***

Egypt positions itself as the Eastern Mediterranean’s energy hub, amid claims from Turkey, Israel, and Cyprus.

Issue III of Power Trip asks what that takes: Saudi and Libyan power links, the Greece-Europe green-energy highway, grid readiness, ports and supply chains shifting from efficiency to resilience.

Coming straight to your inbox tomorrow, 28 October.

Authority on standby

The House of Representatives yesterday authorized President Abdel Fattah El Sisi to take “the necessary measures” to support Saudi Arabia in defending its territory, sovereignty, and holy sites against “any external aggression,” according to a statement (pdf) from the House. MPs passed the mandate by a two-thirds majority of members after three closed sessions on 18, 19, and 26 October, which the House held at the president’s request in line with what the National Defense Council agreed upon on 18 October.

The MPs we spoke to back the mandate, with Magdy Morshed, head of the Egyptian Congress Party’s parliamentary bloc, telling EnterpriseAM that Saudi security is “an inseparable part of Egyptian national security.” Amr Rashad, a member of the Senate’s housing, local administration, and transport committee, says the moment “requires more cohesion and coordination among Arab states.”

On the day of the vote, Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir, and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin met with Iranian security officials in Tehran for four-way talks, which all sides agreed to continue. Egypt isn’t a party to the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement that Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey signed in August, though Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty has met with his three counterparts in a separate four-way format, most recently in Istanbul on 23 October for the group’s seventh meeting.

REMEMBER- President El Sisi described Egypt’s role as defensive when he asked for the authority on 17 October. At the Egypt Forum last week, he said the effort would not extend beyond the territory of the Arab country it is protecting, according to Al Ahram, which reports that it does not include attacks on Yemen.

The vote follows weeks of Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia, including a ballistic missile attack on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on 10 October that killed 13 people. Among them was Egyptian Azza Ramzy, a 28-year-old flynas flight attendant from Beheira, Al Ahram reports. The airport partially reopened on Sunday, a day before the Houthis said they targeted it again, with no immediate Saudi confirmation.

Priced in greenbacks

EXCLUSIVE- Enppi eyes a January IPO, priced in USD. The government is aiming to launch the IPO of state-owned petroleum engineering contractor Enppi in the second half of January, with the offering priced in USD, a government official tells EnterpriseAM. The state will likely sell 10-20% of the company, leaving EGPC, which holds 96.61%, with roughly 77-87%, by our math. The final stake is still being worked out with the offering’s advisors, who have not been named. Work on the fair value study has been accelerated, and the USD price range will be set once it’s done, the official says.

There’s one caveat: the EGX listing committee gave Enppi six months from its 28 June temporary listing to complete the offering, meet the final listing requirements and register with the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA). If it misses that deadline (28 December, by our count), the temporary listing is treated as void. The FRA can extend the window based on the company’s justifications and timeline, but it isn’t clear whether Enppi has asked for more time.

Why USD: Enppi was capitalized in USD (USD 357.08 mn across 2.86 bn shares), like Elab and Petroleum Marine Services. Most petroleum companies were founded with USD capital, which is why they’re listed among the EGX’s USD-denominated stocks, Assistant Prime Minister Hashem El Sayed said in June after the three companies’ temporary listing, adding that USD listings let foreign investors buy in without converting into EGP.

A Gulf listing would follow. The government plans to dual-list Enppi on a Gulf exchange once its shares start trading on the EGX to widen the pool of potential investors, the official says. El Sayed had said Enppi, Elab, and Petroleum Marine Services are expected to trade in USD, with a Saudi Exchange listing possible. “The Saudis are very interested,” EGX Chairman Omar Radwan told us in August.

A familiar face abroad: Enppi booked USD 1.34 bn of contracts in 2025, 97% of them outside Egypt. The flagship awards are in the Gulf: a USD 1.24 bn LNG pre-conditioning plant for Adnoc in the UAE alongside Petrojet, a USD 355 mn turnkey contract at PDO’s Birba gas facilities in Oman, and a six-year route into PDO’s USD 6 bn+ pipeline. It’s also building four of the world’s largest NGL storage tanks for Aramco in Saudi Arabia, and the Oil Ministry says it has qualified to bid in Azerbaijan, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, and Angola.

IN CONTEXT- Enppi’s IPO has been in the cards before: In 2019, then-oil minister Tarek El Molla expected it in 1H 2019, with the state reportedly planning to sell 25-30% alongside GDRs in London. This time the stake is smaller, and the second venue is in the Gulf. A senior government official told us in August it would probably list in 1Q 2027, and Radwan expects five or six of the 20 temporarily listed state companies to complete IPOs within a year. The official doesn’t expect the run of offerings, which this month included MNT-Halan and state-owned Banque du Caire, to crowd each other out or weigh on the EGX.

Lowering the floor

FRA eases brokerage liquidity requirements amid market sell-off: The Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) has temporarily halved the minimum net liquid capital that securities brokerage firms must hold to 5% of their total liabilities, down from 10%, according to a circular to brokers seen by EnterpriseAM.

The lower floor runs through Thursday’s session on 29 October, an FRA official tells EnterpriseAM, stressing that end date, and adding that the decision aims “to preserve market stability and limit forced selling.” That date goes further than the circular itself, which only covers brokers’ daily net liquid capital reports for the past two sessions on Sunday and Monday.

The timing points to the selloff. The EGX30 fell 3.56% on Sunday to its lowest since early April, then lost another 1.66% yesterday to close at 48.4k, after dipping as low as 47.9k during the session. A falling market can squeeze the ratio even at sound brokers: proceeds owed to selling clients add to their liabilities, while margin loans count for less of their liquid capital as the shares behind them lose value. A broker that slips below the floor might have to cut clients’ margin positions and sell into a falling market, so halving the floor gives brokers room to ride out the volatility.

The ratio is one of the FRA’s main solvency tests, measuring whether a firm has enough liquidity on hand to meet its obligations, both on and off its balance sheet. It comes from Decision 14 of 2007 on solvency standards for brokers, debt dealers, and custodians, which have to report their net liquid capital to the regulator daily. That same decision lets the FRA chairman change the ratio when market conditions and the financial position of securities firms require it.

The FRA amended that decision in 2024, tightening how the ratio is calculated to cut the risk of brokers defaulting on what they owe clients. Some firms had been counting book equity, which isn’t actual liquidity, as the money they set aside for margin lending, leading them to report more capital than was actually available, according to the regulator.

One more berth

The Arab Petroleum Pipelines Company (Sumed) is weighing a USD 400 mn investment to expand petroleum products handling at its Ain Sokhna terminal, including a new marine berth that would take its berths there to four, Asharq Business reports, citing an unnamed government official. The plan also covers upgrades to its offshore and onshore facilities to serve refining and petrochemical projects in the area.

Why it matters: Flows through Sumed have jumped 150% since the Iran war began, with the twin 320 km Ain Sokhna-Sidi Kerir system now running at its 2.5 mn bbl / d ceiling. That’s up from about 1 mn bbl / d in February, an official said in April. The pipeline has become the main conduit for Gulf crude that lands at Ain Sokhna on the Red Sea and is pumped overland to Sidi Kerir for reloading onto Mediterranean-bound tankers. Meanwhile, Saudi exports through Bab Al Mandab have recovered to about 1.5 mn bbl / d after government-allied Yemeni forces retook positions near the strait.

The canal is recovering too, but narrowly. September was Suez’s busiest month by tonnage since December 2023 at 106.3 mn Deadweight Tonnage (DWT), though its 1.23k transits are still 39% below pre-crisis levels, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence data. Container capacity rose 40% m-o-m to 2.19 mn TEUs, against 5.9 mn TEUs in September 2023, as more carriers switched back from the Cape. The crude segment Sumed serves was the standout: tankers were dominated by Russian crude bound for India, and gains tracked Saudi barrels rerouted through Yanbu and the pipeline. Bulk and LNG carriers lagged, and more than two-thirds of Asia-Europe container capacity still rounds the Cape.

The owners: Sumed, which was founded in 1974, is 50% owned by EGPC, with Saudi Aramco, UAE’s Mubadala Energy, and a group of Kuwaiti shareholders each holding 15%, and QatarEnergy holding 5%, according to Sumed’s shareholders page. Its existing Ain Sokhna jetty runs about 3 km and has three berths, two of them for petroleum products.

PSA-

WEATHER- Another warm autumn day in Cairo today, with a high of 30°C and a low of 20°C, according to our favorite weather app.

It’s slightly cooler in Alexandria, with a high of 29°C and a low of 18°C.

The big story abroad

Microsoft is opening the exit door to more than a quarter of its staff. The software giant is offering voluntary buyouts to around 60k employees, about 27% of its total workforce of 223k, as it seeks to pay for its costly AI infrastructure push while keeping spending in check. The offer covers workers at experience level 70 or below in the US, Canada, India, and the UK.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham wants his country back in the European Union (EU), but not yet. Burnham said yesterday he would like to see the UK rejoin the EU in his lifetime, but ruled out reversing Brexit in the current parliament. Speaking ahead of a UK-EU summit next month, Burnham said the UK got “a harder Brexit than was proposed in the referendum campaign,” which has weakened its economy and its control of immigration. For now, he wants “practical steps” to make the current arrangement work better.

The EU is reportedly preparing to slow the flow of Chinese goods without sparking a trade war. The move is part of a wider push to shrink the EU’s trade deficit with China, which hit USD 404 bn last year. The bloc plans to cut imports from sectors including chemicals, furniture, and machinery, possibly through import caps or tariffs, with measures that may be presented as soon as 1Q 2027. The European Commission is looking to repeat its recent agreement with Beijing that capped imports of Chinese hybrid vehicles at 350k a year, a limit set high enough to keep China from retaliating.

*** It’s Going Green day — your weekly briefing of all things green in Egypt: EnterpriseAM’s green economy vertical focuses each Tuesday on the business of renewable energy and sustainable practices in Egypt, everything from solar and wind energy through to water, waste management, sustainable building practices and how you can make your business greener, whatever the sector.

In today’s issue: We dig into what Egypt’s reuse figures actually measure, and how far the routes to its farms have come, as it cites its treatment plants in its Nile case against Ethiopia.

Banque du Caire is going public in a landmark IPO. On this episode of Making It, Hussein Abaza, the bank’s chief executive, joins Patrick to discuss the strategy behind the sale.

Listen to the episode on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anghami | YouTube

Sign up here to our newsletter to get Making It in your inbox.

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EGX Enppi Financial Regulatory Authority House of Representatives oil and gas privatization watch Saudi Arabia state privatization program Sumed pipeline WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

The Red Sea Is Calling. Dive Into the Challenge.

Aquaman returns to Somabay with six open-water races for seasoned swimmers and first-time competitors alike. With distances from 500 m to 10 km, there’s a challenge for every swimmer.

Swimmers from more than 60 countries. One extraordinary stretch of the Red Sea.

The Big Story Today

Banque du Caire’s blockbuster IPO holds firm against EGX selloff

Banque du Caire (BdC) priced its IPO at the top of its range after institutional demand held up through Thursday’s EGX selloff. The state-owned lender set its price at EGP 5.30 a share after institutions covered the private placement 6x over, or 19.8x excluding the anchor investors, according to a disclosure to the EGX (pdf) that confirms earlier reports. Private-placement orders reached EGP 205.8 bn (c. USD 3.72 bn), the most any EGX IPO private tranche has drawn, BdC says in a separate statement (pdf). At EGP 34.55 bn (c. USD 625 mn), the private tranche is also the largest in the EGX’s IPO history, with both records measured in EGP terms, the statement adds.

The real test starts when the stock starts trading, banking analyst Hany Abou El Fotouh tells EnterpriseAM. The final price matches the EGP 5.30 fair value set by BdC’s independent financial advisor, Baker Tilly, he says, which means “the stock wasn’t offered at a discount to its estimated fair value. Any rise in its price after trading starts will need real demand from investors and enough liquidity in the market to support it.” Strong demand in the book doesn’t ensure the same once the price moves daily, he adds. With 95% of the offering going to institutions, how big investors behave and how much stock actually trades will drive the first sessions. “The IPO’s success is an important step, but what matters more is the stock’s success on the bourse,” Abou El Fotouh says.

Where the stock goes from there depends on demand and the EGP in Abou El Fotouh’s view. If the appetite in the book carries over after listing, backed by enough liquidity and a stable exchange rate, BdC could get off to a positive start. Otherwise, the early enthusiasm could cool, especially with pressure on the EGP and Egypt’s credit default swaps at around 357 bps, a level he says reflects higher external financing costs and weaker risk appetite.

SOUND SMART- The 19.8x figure gives a better read of open-market demand, but it measures that demand against a smaller pool. “The way coverage is calculated makes a big difference to how you read demand,” says Abou El Fotouh. “We can’t treat the two figures as giving the same picture, or read directly from them how much demand we’ll see after listing.” The anchors took a big slice of the book: by our math, the four foreign cornerstone funds and the IFC and the EBRD were allocated about three-quarters of the private placement, based on BdC’s coverage figures.

The DFIs’ money comes with strings attached: Each lender is in for USD 100 mn, conditional on the private offering closing. BdC has committed to tightening its governance, transparency, anti-corruption, and environmental and social policies to keep an adequate number of independent members on its board and to draw up a climate transition plan. Both lenders are locked in for set periods.

At EGP 5.30, Banque Misr’s upsized sale of 45% of BdC raises some EGP 36.37 bn (c. USD 658 mn), keeping it the largest EGX IPO in USD terms in at least five years. The final price values the whole bank at around EGP 80.83 bn (c. USD 1.46 bn), according to the statement.

The brokerages still see upside even at the top of the range. Arab African International Securities’ research unit puts BdC’s fair value at EGP 7.8 a share, c. 47% above the offer price. Ostoul is more conservative, valuing the bank at EGP 6.55 a share, or c. 24% above the offer price, while its bear case of EGP 5.05 implies around 5% downside. At the offer price, Ostoul has BdC at 4.6x trailing earnings, a slight premium to the 4.2x average for the 10 listed peers it tracks, but at 1.2x book value against the peer average of 1.3x.

Buyers also have safer places to earn a return: With the CBE’s overnight deposit rate at 19% against urban inflation of 13.9%, lower-risk savings products are still attractive, says Abou El Fotouh. So anyone buying into a new stock “will need to see a clear [upside]” to earn a decent return, “whether from the share’s rise or from future dividends,” he adds. BdC is targeting a 20-30% payout to shareholders while keeping its capital adequacy ratio at 18-22%.

Retail investors have until Wednesday, 28 October to subscribe at the final price. The public offering had drawn orders for 454 mn shares as of Thursday’s close, 1.3x the enlarged 343.1 mn-share tranche, a senior government official previously told us. Execution is set for 29 October, with BdC shares expected to start trading on 2 November, subject to regulatory approvals.

The price also sets the benchmark for whatever Banque Misr sells next: An IPO sets a market price, so later stakes can be sold at that price whenever the seller chooses, BdC CEO Hussein Abaza told us on EnterpriseAM’s Making It podcast. “The market will establish how good or bad the bank is,” he said. His model is CIB, which the National Bank of Egypt sold down through a series of public offerings.

Banque Misr won’t be testing that soon, though. It can’t sell more shares for a year after the offering closes without the bookrunners’ consent, and EGX rules lock up 51% of BdC for at least two years, allowing it to sell only c. 4% of the bank after the first year.

Why the price matters beyond the bank: The IPO proceeds go to Banque Misr, not the Treasury, but officials are counting on the sale to strengthen their hand in the IMF’s final review, which started on Sunday. The Fund wants about USD 1.5 bn in divestment proceeds before the program expires on 15 December, with close to USD 1 bn still to raise as of July.

The broader market is going the other way: The EGX30 fell 1.66% to 48.4k points yesterday after touching 47.9k intraday, its third straight losing session, according to market data. That followed a 3.56% drop on Sunday to its lowest since early April and a 3.41% slide on Thursday. Together, the three sessions have wiped some 8.4% off the index since Wednesday’s close, by our math. In USD terms, yesterday’s loss was steeper at 2.45% as the EGP slid. The benchmark is still up 15.75% this year, down from 22.6% in mid-October.

ADVISORS- CI Capital is the lead global coordinator and joint bookrunner on the offering. Our friends at EFG Hermes are joint global coordinator and joint bookrunner. Baker McKenzie is advising BdC and its parent on US and English law, while Helmy, Hamza & Partners, a Baker McKenzie member firm, is counsel on matters of Egyptian law. Enterprise Advisory serves as investor relations advisor.

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banking Banque du Caire Banque Misr EBRD EGX IFC IPOs THE BIG STORY TODAY

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Investment Watch

DPI closes Egypt-born fintech fund Nclude at USD 112 mn

DPI Venture Capital reached a final close on the Nclude Fund at more than USD 112 mn, it said in a statement (pdf) yesterday, four years after the fund launched in Cairo as a dedicated Egyptian fintech play. Nclude stood at USD 105 mn after its second close in 2022, the size it was still running at when Development Partners International (DPI) took over its management last year. That makes the final close a net gain of some USD 7 mn, by our math, though the statement doesn’t say how much the new investors put in. “At over USD 112 mn, we believe Nclude is appropriately sized for today’s market,” Ashley Lewis, managing partner and head of DPI Venture Capital, said in the statement.

DPI became Nclude’s investment advisor in 2025 through a restructuring of the fund. The London-based investment firm is focused on Africa and has some USD 4 bn in assets under management and co-investments. It replaced Global Ventures, the Dubai-based firm that set the fund up. DPI has since brought in more LPs and widened the fund’s range. Nclude now writes checks of USD 500k to USD 10 mn from seed through Series C, against seed to Series B when it launched.

The portfolio spans 15 companies, featuring co-investments in Nawy (USD 52 mn), Paymob (USD 35 mn), and Money Fellows (USD 13 mn). They’re joined by names from outside Egypt, such as UAE-based SME lender FlapKap, health-access AI firm Kera, which operates in Senegal and Ivory Coast, and Accord Partners, an AI-driven accounting roll-up focused on Saudi Arabia.

Egypt remains Nclude’s core market, but up to 30% of the fund can go to companies elsewhere in Africa and the Middle East, according to the statement. DPI is looking for businesses that can grow across markets, whether that means expanding from Egypt into the Gulf and North Africa, or moving into Egypt from elsewhere in the region, the statement adds.

REFRESHER- Nclude launched in March 2022 at USD 85 mn under Global Ventures, with Banque Misr as anchor investor, the National Bank of Egypt in for USD 30 mn, and Banque du Caire in for USD 25 mn. eFinance Investment Group committed USD 10 mn, and the Egyptian Banks Company took an undisclosed stake. Mastercard came in later that year.

Tags:

Banque du Caire Banque Misr DPI Fintech Global Ventures investment watch Money Fellows Nawy NBE Nclude Paymob venture capital

M&A WATCH

Al Ahly Capital signs to buy El Sewedy’s 40% of CIRA’s Damietta university venture

Al Ahly Capital Holding has signed an agreement to buy El Sewedy Education Services Holding’s entire 40% stake in Cairo Misr for Educational Facilities, the company developing CIRA Education’s university project in New Damietta, according to a joint statement (pdf). The deal, whose price hasn’t been disclosed, covers 30 mn shares and leaves CIRA’s 60% untouched. With the Egyptian Competition Authority’s approval already in hand, the parties are now completing the share transfer and expect to close before the end of 2026.

What Al Ahly Capital is buying into: The 58-feddan site in New Damietta is set to become the Advanced Science and Technology International Hub (ASTIH), housing three independent universities with 19 faculties offering 91 programs. At full build-out, the campus will have room for about 30k students. The first phase is due to open in the 2027/28 academic year, in line with the September 2027 opening that CIRA CEO Mohamed El Kalla flagged in August. Al Ahly Capital, the investment arm of state-owned National Bank of Egypt (NBE), plans to put its investment and financial expertise behind developing Badr University in Damietta, CEO Karim Saada said in the statement.

The move deepens an existing partnership. Al Ahly Capital and CIRA already own Al Ahly CIRA for Educational Services — launched in 2021 with EGP 2 bn in capital — which went on to build Saxony Egypt University. The Damietta company becomes the second education platform the two own together. El Kalla said that makes theirs “the largest alliance of its kind in Egypt’s education sector,” adding that the partners plan to keep adding schools, universities, and other education facilities.

El Sewedy isn’t walking away from CIRA. The two launched three schools together in Greater Cairo and plan further joint projects, El Kalla and El Sewedy Capital Chairman Ahmed El Sewedy said. The Damietta project now moves to a partner with the means to take it into its next phase, El Sewedy added.

ADVISORS- Grant Thornton Egypt is acting as financial advisor and ran financial due diligence for Al Ahly Capital, with KPMG on tax advisory and due diligence. NAMEK Law handled legal due diligence and transaction documents and secured the competition approval. Nexon Partners is the exclusive financial advisor to the seller.

Another M&A in pharma

Rameda’s board greenlit a plan to buy all of Art Pharma in Rameda stock and told CEO Amr Morsy to go make the offer, according to a bourse filing (pdf). Art Pharma’s holders would trade their shares for newly issued Rameda paper. No price was given because none is fixed yet: independent advisor Baker Tilly will value both companies and set the exchange ratio, then bring it back to the board. The resolution carries a floor: holders of at least 90% of Art Pharma’s shares have to accept, or the acquisition doesn’t happen.

The related-party flag: The board got there with the votes of directors tied to “the major shareholder owning the target company” excluded, the filing says, without naming them or the shareholder. Rameda’s own board page points to the group they belong to: its Non-executive Chairman Sharif El Akhdar is LimeVest’s founder and also sits on Art Pharma’s board, and so does fellow Rameda director Dalia El Shal, LimeVest’s group CFO, the vehicle holding 31.5% of Rameda. A director stepping out of a vote on a company where they also hold a board seat is the ordinary way a related-party transaction is handled, and it is why the independent valuation, rather than the board’s approval, is what will decide whether the exchange ratio is fair.

IN CONTEXT- The strategy was already on the record. In March, as LVP Pharma was building its stake, Rameda’s COO Mahmoud Fayek told us the company was “actively engaged in evaluating value-accretive [prospects], whether through strategic molecule acquisitions or broader corporate transactions.” By June, CFO Mohamed Aboamira had narrowed it: Rameda was strictly targeting high-margin product and molecule acquisitions with zero capex, rather than corporate acquisitions. Art Pharma cuts the other way — a 6th of October plant built in 2015, not a molecule, turning out sterile dental anesthetic cartridges under the Artpharmadent brand, a manufacturing skill Rameda’s own branded generics, nutraceuticals, supplements, and veterinary products don’t cover.

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Al Ahly Capital CIRA Education Education El Sewedy Capital M&A M&A Watch NBE pharma Rameda Pharma

Startup watch

Turuq takes its first outside investment from Den VC

Cairo-based e-commerce fulfillment startup Turuq took its first outside investment in a seed equity round from tech-focused venture capital firm Den VC, according to a statement (pdf) out yesterday. The company didn’t disclose the size of the round, the valuation, or Den’s stake. Turuq doesn’t need the money to cover burn and is already eyeing a larger funding round around mid-2027 to fund more aggressive scaling, co-founder Ahmed Atta tells EnterpriseAM.

Turuq handles warehousing, inventory management, order packing, courier routing, and last-mile delivery for online merchants through a single platform. Co-founders Atta and Karim Kamal bootstrapped the business from warehouse space at Atta’s home, and it’s been operating since June 2023, though it was only incorporated in January 2025, Atta tells us. Along the way, it opened its first warehouse (April 2024), added a pickup model for merchants with their own storage (March 2025), and rolled out F.I.R.M., an in-house AI layer that flags unreliable order updates (August 2025), according to its website.

Turuq is already profitable, with gross margins of 40-45% and net margins of 10-15%, Atta tells us. “We didn’t take this funding to cover operational burn,” he says. “Our business model is not predicated on cashburning to buy market share.” The proceeds are going into corporate accounting infrastructure, systems to handle higher volumes, a marketing team, and regulatory compliance, along with some operational capex, which Atta describes as institutionalizing the company’s operational foundation. Turuq can fund its planned expansion internally through next year, he says.

Where it stands today: Turuq moves 50k-100k orders a month depending on seasonality, Atta says, and expects to hit some 200k over Black Friday. It has served more than 300 merchants since launch, with 90-100 active at any one time. Its total warehouse footprint is roughly 1.5k sqm, made up of a fulfillment hub in the Fifth Settlement and a sorting center in Maadi, where outgoing orders from its micro-fulfillment network converge for dispatch. Turuq runs its own couriers and fleet in some zones and outsources the rest to third-party delivery providers.

The case for micro-fulfillment centers: Fulfillment providers that rely on massive central warehouses of 10k-20k sqm “frequently lose operational control during demand spikes because everything is bottlenecked in a single facility,” Atta says. Spreading volume across nodes means a surge in one place doesn’t cascade: “If one location faces a temporary delay or heavy surge, it doesn’t spill over or disrupt the rest of the network.” He says that keeps Turuq within its SLAs 95-100% of the time.

The software is homegrown too: Turuq’s warehouse management system, courier management system, and supporting infrastructure are all proprietary, and the tech team is among the company’s largest departments. “While developing proprietary tech requires upfront capital investment, it creates significant long-term operational leverage and protects our margins, especially as we integrate AI,” Atta says.

An asset-light KSA entry may be in the cards. “Several Egyptian logistics companies have tried expanding into Saudi Arabia and failed,” Atta says. Turuq plans to enter via SaaS instead of building on the ground: “We can license our proprietary Warehouse Management System to third parties who already own warehouse assets, allowing them to run their facilities on our tech,” he says. The strategy would enable Turuq to “scale software and build out the logistics ecosystem without taking on direct asset risk abroad,” Atta adds, without giving a timeline.

What’s next for Turuq: The startup is looking to roll out same-day delivery through its micro-fulfillment network, which Atta says will let it cover more geographic areas faster, and it also plans to expand its fulfillment capacity and launch its SaaS platform.

The hardest part: “Regulatory and legal complexity is easily one of the most challenging aspects of this industry,” Atta says, pointing to commercial licensing and the question of who carries liability across merchant property, transit, couriers, and fleet vehicles.

IN CONTEXT- The investment comes a year after Turuq completed InvestIT, the investment-readiness program run by ITIDA and TIEC and operated by Flat6Labs, which introduced the company to Den. Fellow fulfillment players Khazenly and ShipBlu have also tapped venture funding, with Khazenly raising USD 2.5 mn in 2022 and ShipBlu securing USD 2.4 mn in 2021. Meanwhile, Mylerz tapped its existing shareholders for more than EGP 100 mn in fresh debt and equity in July.

Den VC backed a handful of Egyptian startups last year, including edtech Career 180 and cybersecurity firm The Whiteguard, and joined Riyadh-based WideBot AI’s USD 3 mn pre-Series A.

Tags:

e-commerce logistics Startup watch startups venture capital

Also on our Radar

Gov’t and World Bank commit to raise minerals’ contribution to GDP to 6% by 2030 and mineral exports to USD 9.8 bn by 2040

Egypt now has World Bank money behind its mining plans: The Petroleum Ministry and the World Bank Group launched a national compact on Sunday committing Egypt to lift minerals’ share of GDP to 6% by 2030, up from under 1% currently, and to reach USD 9.8 bn in mineral exports by 2040, according to statements from the World Bank and the ministry.

Egypt is one of eight countries in the program, launched in Bangkok on 16 October, and the World Bank Group is raising its global mining support fivefold to USD 19 bn over the next five years through its own lending, International Finance Corporation (IFC) investment, and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) guarantees. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will help with governance and capacity.

Why it matters: The Bank is not doing the technical work. The aerial survey is contracted to Spain’s Xcalibur and site studies go to geological consultancies. What it brings is money and credibility the state cannot give itself: lending, IFC investment, MIGA guarantees, and a GDP target a lender can hold it to. Mining usually stalls on the gap between finding a deposit and paying for a mine, and a monitored target is what narrows that gap.

IN CONTEXT- That money sits behind reforms Egypt has already made. The 2019-2020 overhaul traded production-sharing for royalties and tax capped at 20%. This year’s rules cut the state’s minimum project stake to 10% from 25%, trimmed exploration rents by up to 60%, and set 30-day approval clocks. The system meant to turn that into output is the open-sector round the Mineral Resources and Mining Industries Authority launched on 10 June: blocks stay open, and the first offer on one opens a 30-day counteroffer window. In its first three months, 335 blocks drew 403 offers from 119 companies, 14 of them foreign. The 6% target isn’t new either: the Petroleum Ministry has said 5-6% by 2030 for a year, and the compact closes the range to a flat 6%.

Water works

The Higher Committee for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Affairs cleared tenders for seven projects at its meeting on Sunday, led by two large seawater desalination plants for Suez and Port Said, according to a Cabinet statement. The Suez plant is sized at 1 mn cbm / d over two phases and will supply Suez and the Suez Canal Economic Zone during phase one and the New Capital during phase two. Port Said gets a 900k cbm / d central plant serving Port Said and several areas of Ismailia.

The committee also approved four industrial wastewater treatment plants (Amreya and Abu Rawash at 20k cbm / d each, Wadi El Natrun at 15k cbm / d, El Raswa in south Port Said at 35k cbm / d), the operating rights to the Hadayek El Assema transformer station and its networks, and the Supply Ministry’s contract with the X Trace consortium to build a system that tracks strategic commodities.

IN CONTEXT- Most of the package was already on the Finance Ministry’s books. A government document seen last month listed 16 water and power PPP projects worth USD 3.08 bn: four desalination plants worth USD 2.68 bn (87% of the total), the four industrial wastewater plants, a USD 150 mn sludge plant at Abu Rawash, a USD 23.5 mn water-recycling plant at Mostorod, and five electricity substations. Six of those are the projects approved on Sunday; the other ten were not addressed, and the Hadayek El Assema station and the X Trace system were not in that pipeline at all.

Why it matters: Egypt is funding its water gap with private money rather than sovereign guarantees. Desalination capacity has grown from about 84k cbm / d in 2014 to more than 1 mn in 2026, and the 2050 target is 8.85 mn cbm / d, requiring about USD 8.5 bn in capital spending plus over USD 800 mn a year in operations and maintenance, according to the World Bank. The state now offers land at no cost and long-term water purchase contracts instead of a full backstop. Those contracts still leave the government exposed if the EGP, energy prices, or demand move. The desalination program has already missed deadlines it set for December 2025 and January 2026.

Mapped out

The Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company (Gupco) signed a contract with SLB (formerly Schlumberger) to roll out a 1k sq km ocean-bottom node (OBN) seismic survey across its central and southern Gulf of Suez concessions starting next month, the Petroleum Ministry said in a statement. Executed alongside UAE partner Dragon Oil, it will be the largest OBN survey in the basin, aimed at mapping new oil frontiers and lowering exploration risk to raise domestic production.

Why it matters: Gupco drilled five exploratory wells between 2022 and 2026 using OBN data from an earlier survey phase, with an 80% success rate compared with about 25% from 2017 to 2022, the statement adds.

The ministry is expanding seismic work elsewhere as well. A survey of over 100k sq km in the southern Western Desert is currently underway, another of about 110k sq km near the Libyan border is also in preparation, and Egas is working with an SLB-Viridien alliance on an eastern Mediterranean program targeting 95k sq km.

Tags:

ALSO ON OUR RADAR GUPCO infrastructure mining oil and gas Oil Ministry water World Bank

PLANET FINANCE

> BMI sees Brent above USD 100 into 2027 as Hormuz stays commercially choked

A Strait of Hormuz that is open but commercially compromised is set to keep oil prices high well into 2027, and monetary policy tight with them, research firm BMI said at a MENA outlook webinar attended by EnterpriseAM. BMI expects Brent crude to average above USD 100 a barrel in 4Q 2026 and above USD 110 in 1Q 2027, on the assumption that Washington and Tehran reach another preliminary agreement to reopen the strait early next year. Brent would ease back toward the USD 70s later in 2027 as flows recover, though a serious escalation would push it above USD 120 and delay any normalization.

BMI maps three end-states… It sees a 40% chance a preliminary agreement holds and matures into a final settlement covering nuclear and sanctions issues; a 30% chance such an agreement decays into a “stop-start cycle” of violations and collapsed talks; and a 30% chance of escalation into high-intensity warfare. The first two paths together make a preliminary agreement the base case at 70%, most likely in 1Q 2027 (40%), against 25% for 4Q 2026 and 5% for 2Q 2027. The stop-start path is the most damaging, the agency says, as it would turn a shock that businesses still treat as temporary into a structural drag on investment, confidence, and non-oil growth.

… and two conditions for shipping to normalize under any scenario: a political agreement, then at least four weeks without a security incident, to let owners, insurers, and regulators reprice the risk. Flows then take six to 12 weeks to normalize, with tankers returning faster than LNG and container ships. On that framework, even a late-2026 deal would not deliver stable Hormuz flows before early 2027, and a slip or breakdown pushes it into the second half. Even then, BMI puts baseline traffic around 30% below pre-war levels, near 100 vessels a day.

The knock-on runs straight into rates: Higher energy prices keep inflation elevated for longer, BMI argues, forcing central banks to hold tighter and dragging on activity just as US and global bond yields are already climbing — lifting debt-service costs, slowing credit, and weakening business investment. Its base case for the Fed is two more 25 bps hikes this year, then a hold through 2027, though it says recent Fed signals have made the timing and the number less certain.

The hit won’t be distributed evenly across the Gulf: BMI forecasts the GCC economy shrinking 4.2% in 2026 before a 9.4% rebound in 2027. Saudi Arabia is set to contract an estimated 3.6% this year, with its oil sector to go down 16-17%, while Bahrain (-15.3%), Kuwait (-17.3%), and Qatar (-12.8%) will fall by double digits. The UAE is the near-term surprise, revised up to 1.6% growth for 2026 after it used its Opec exit, the Fujairah pipeline, and ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman to lift output to a record 4 mn bbl / d.

Oman and Bahrain mark the extremes: Oman is one of only two Gulf economies BMI sees growing this year, at 3.8%, because its main oil terminal at Mina Al Fahal lies outside the strait and keeps exporting. As a result, its public debt is set to fall toward 25% of GDP by end-2027. Bahrain is the fiscal weak link, with a 2026 deficit widening to 14% of GDP, public debt pushing past 160%, debt-service already absorbing more than a third of revenue, and CDS spreads blowing out well beyond the rest of the bloc. BMI expects GCC partners to keep Bahrain funded, at the cost of politically sensitive spending cuts and new taxes.

For most of the Gulf, the cushion is the balance sheet. Outside Bahrain, BMI argues, fiscal positions are not fragile, with low debt and sovereign-wealth buffers able to absorb the shock. The likely response, it says, is a reprioritization of capital from external deployment toward domestic resilience: defence, infrastructure that cuts reliance on Hormuz, and diversification. That would ripple outward, since MENA economies that lean on Gulf investment, from Egypt to the Levant, would feel it if the money turns inward.

The spillover reaches the oil importers. Higher crude has lifted fuel and import bills across North Africa and the Levant. BMI trimmed Egypt’s FY2026/27 growth forecast to 5.0% and sees the EGP holding in a 52-57 range to the USD into 1Q 2027, cushioned by record reserves near USD 57 bn; it reads the authorities’ tolerance for a weaker currency as a sign of a more flexible regime that can absorb the shock. Lebanon, Syria, and Tunisia face the sharpest cost-of-living pressure and the social discontent that follows, while Iraq has already devalued the IQD 15.4% and turned to the IMF.

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Asian markets were in the green earlier today. South Korea’s Kospi was up around 4% and Japan’s Nikkei was up around 2.2%. The upswing tracked overnight gains seen among most Wall Street equities.

EGX30	48,417	-1.7% (YTD: +15.8%)
USD (CBE)	Buy 56.21	Sell 56.35
USD (CIB)	Buy 56.22	Sell 56.32
Interest rates (CBE)	19.00% deposit	20.00% lending
Tadawul	9,762	+3.4% (YTD: -7.0%)
ADX	9,641	+0.5% (YTD: -3.5%)
DFM	5,752	+0.3% (YTD: -5.2%)
S&P 500	7,677	+0.7% (YTD: +12.1%)
FTSE 100	10,767	+0.7% (YTD: +8.4%)
Euro Stoxx 50	6,116	+0.8% (YTD: +5.5%)
Brent crude	USD 115.81	-0.8%
Natural gas (Nymex)	USD 2.60	-0.1%
Gold	USD 4,027	-0.3%
BTC	USD 79,951	-0.6% (YTD: -8.7%)
S&P Egypt Sovereign Bond Index	1,141	+0.1% (YTD: +14.9%)
S&P MENA Bond & Sukuk	148.11	0.0% (YTD: -2.5%)
VIX (Volatility Index)	18.39	-5.5% (YTD: +23.0%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The EGX30 fell 1.7% at yesterday’s close on turnover of EGP 8.9 bn (21.2% below the 90-day average). Local investors were the sole net buyers. The index is up 15.8% YTD.

In the green: Ibnsina Pharma (+4.6%), Edita (+4.1%), and Juhayna (+3.9%).

In the red: Telecom Egypt (-5.7%), Mopco (-5.5%), and Orascom Construction (-5.2%).

Tags:

BMI Financial Markets Fitch Solutions Planet Finance

Our weekly deep dive into the green economy and ESG issue in Egypt.

Published every Tuesday in EnterpriseAM.

Read going Green

Going Green

Egypt reuses 23.2 bn cbm of water a year, and the networks to deliver it are nearing completion

Egypt reuses about 23.2 bn cbm of water a year, and its drainage treatment plants add nearly 4.8 bn cbm in treatment capacity, Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Hani Sewilam told foreign reporters last month in a briefing that set Egypt’s scarcity against Ethiopia’s water resources and dam. At the opening of Cairo Water Week on Sunday, he put it plainly: “Egypt has no choice but to reuse water on that scale to meet its needs.” (watch, runtime: 25:17)

The networks that carry that water are close to finished. Two weeks after the briefing, the ministry said Bahr El Baqar’s routes, meant to irrigate 270k feddans in Sinai, were about 91% complete.

After treatment, water flows to the Sheikh Gaber Canal and then through a system of routes and pumping stations to reclamation areas in North and Central Sinai, an Irrigation Ministry official tells EnterpriseAM. The plant releases none of it into the sea or lagoons, and its output counts as reused water even before the routes are finished, senior hydrogeologist and water and wastewater utilities strategist Ahmed Salah tells us. “This is already the case for now, and it will continue once everything is fully completed,” he adds.

At both Bahr El Baqar and El Hammam, the plants were completed before their conveyance networks. Bahr El Baqar opened in September 2021 with a capacity to treat 5.6 mn cbm / d as we’ve previously reported. Its routes to North and Central Sinai climbed from 9% in February 2022 to 32% by January 2023, then to 88% in April 2026, and reached about 91% two weeks after the September briefing.

El Hammam, which serves the New Delta project and can treat 7.5 mn cbm / d, was listed as complete in April 2024. Sewilam ordered the handover of pumping stations on the route bringing drainage water to the plant last March, starting with those that had passed testing, and called for tests on the rest to be finished, according to a statement released at the time. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi inaugurated the New Delta 11 weeks later.

How it adds up: In April 2024, the ministry put canal recycling at about 21 bn cbm a year, with the plants at El Mahsama, Bahr El Baqar, and El Hammam adding 4.8 bn for a total design capacity of about 26 bn cbm. Salah reads that 26 bn as the level reached once every project runs fully and stabilizes.

“The design capacity of the three projects exceeds 5 bn cbm a year, while the operating total is estimated at about 4.8 bn cbm a year,” the ministry official tells us. Actual use in any year depends on drain flows, the readiness of conveyance and irrigation networks, and the pace of reclaiming and operating target areas, the official adds — and the ministry has no official figures yet on the actual utilization rate of the plants’ design capacity.

Validating the figures takes site data: Companies and lenders use national reuse figures for context, SLR Consulting Egypt Country Manager Ahmed Zedan tells us. Those figures “would need to be validated by site-specific data,” he says, such as how much water enters a plant, its quality, and where it ends up.

Groundwater is part of the New Delta’s plan: “The New Delta system adds about 2.7 bn cbm a year,” the ministry official tells us. El Sisi said the project targets 2.2 mn feddans. Treated water can’t irrigate the project alone, Salah says, calling groundwater an integral part of the design, “not just a backup system.”

Saving water on farms means less drainage to treat: Sewilam told Parliament in January 2023 that moving farmers to modern irrigation cuts the drainage water available for reuse and raises soil salinity. Salah calls the trade-off “a usual paradox or gap between anticipation and a real framework,” adding that the government’s consultants can design these plants to “adapt to different scenarios.” When drains run low, the plants could draw on more saline water, though that raises concerns over energy costs, he says.

Why it matters: Treatment capacity only becomes usable water once the networks carry it to the fields. Bahr El Baqar’s routes to 270k feddans in Sinai are about 91% complete, and El Hammam’s conveyance stations have been in handover since March — the last step before the two plants’ 5.6 and 7.5 mn cbm / d reach the reclamation they feed, including the New Delta, where Salah says treated water works alongside groundwater toward a 2.2 mn feddan target.

Tags:

going green wastewater wastewater treatment plant water

CALENDAR

OCTOBER

26-28 October (Monday-Wednesday): IEX Egypt, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo.

29 October (Thursday): Monetary Policy Committee’s seventh meeting of 2026.

29 October (Thursday): Customs goes fully paperless on Nafeza registration; advance-ruling service opens.

NOVEMBER

5-7 November (Thursday-Saturday): ICA Annual Conference 2026, Cairo.

6-8 November (Friday-Sunday): Global Entrepreneurship Festival, JW Marriott Hotel, New Cairo.

7-10 November (Sunday-Wednesday): Cairo ICT Forum, Egypt International Exhibition Center, New Cairo.

10 November (Tuesday): Cityscape Egypt Forum, Cairo.

14 November (Saturday): Rolling mills’ Administrative Court challenge.

16-17 November (Monday-Tuesday): World Economic Forum’s (WEF) first dedicated business meeting in Egypt + MENA, New Capital.

DECEMBER

7-10 December (Monday-Thursday): Food Africa, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo.

11-12 December (Friday-Saturday): ISER International Conference, Cairo.

17 December (Thursday): Monetary Policy Committee’s eighth meeting of 2026.

17-20 December (Thursday-Sunday): MacTech Egypt, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo.

EVENTS WITH NO SET DATE

2H 2026: Operations at Deli Glass Co’s new USD 70 mn glassware factory kick off.

2026: The Egyptian-American Economic Forum.

Early November 2026: Banque du Caire shares expected to begin trading on the EGX.

2027

20 January-7 February: Egypt to host the African Games.

1-3 February (Monday-Wednesday): Agri Expo, Cairo International Convention Center.

April 2027: Tenth of Ramadan dry port and logistics hub to begin operations.

29 September - 2 October (Wednesday-Saturday): Cityscape Egypt Exhibition, Cairo.

EVENTS WITH NO SET DATE

2027: Egypt to host EBRD’s annual meetings.

2027: Egypt-EU Summit 2027.

End of 2027: Trial operations at the Dabaa nuclear power plant expected to take place.

September 2028: First unit of the Dabaa nuclear power plant begins operations.

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