SCZone brings in Telecom Egypt to end network downtime for factories and terminals across its ports and zones

The Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) tapped Telecom Egypt to upgrade telecom networks and digital management systems across its ports and industrial zones, according to a statement. The agreement aims to eliminate service downtime for tenant factories and port terminals, including flagship facilities in East Port Said and Sokhna, while deploying smart systems and data analytics for logistics and facility management.

IN CONTEXT- SCZone is also digitizing its ports, signing a contract worth over EGP 1 bn with Nafeza Egypt for Logistics Services for a digital truck yard at Sokhna port that will run on Nafeza’s digital platforms and handle up to 1.1k trucks a day at full operation.

Riding the retail wave

HC Brokerage is partnering with digital investment platform Bokra to launch a shariah-compliant digital investment product tailored for mobile-first retail investors, Al Mal reports, citing HC Managing Director Hassan Shoukry. The partnership aims to channel informal household savings into the formal economy by tapping Bokra’s 45k subscribers, many of whom have never traded on the EGX. The push comes as individual investors take a growing share of local trading volumes.

IN CONTEXT- HC is pushing into an already crowded digital wealth management space. Retail traders can already tap EFG Hermes One and Thndr apps to trade EGX-listed equities and mutual funds, while fintech player Telda expanded into in-app EGX trading in March. Bokra was close to closing a USD 8 mn funding round in September to fund local and African expansion, after a USD 4.6 mn pre-seed round in April 2024.

All about cloud

Raya Holding signed three MoUs at Cairo ICT 2026 yesterday. The agreements include a cloud partnership with EgyHosting, startup support with AGX Consultant Studio via the Cyber Plus program and the Raya Cloud Stars initiative, and a pre-sales tie-up with Nutanix across Raya Integration and Raya Data Center, the company said in a bourse disclosure (pdf).

IN CONTEXT- The MoUs land mid-rebuild at Raya IT, the group’s systems-integration arm. Marwa Abbas took over as CEO in July after 30 years at IBM, the group launched Raya Nexus — an AI company with EGP 250 mn in issued capital — in September, and its board has conditionally approved up to USD 60 mn to buy a data center outright.

Tidying up

GSK Egypt is folding a dormant subsidiary into the parent: The Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) cleared GlaxoSmithKline Egypt (GSK) on Thursday, 5 November to call a shareholder vote on absorbing Amoun Pharma Industries — an inactive company (pdf) it already owns 99.64% of — according to an EGX filing (pdf). The new shares, worth c. EGP 830k, go to Amoun’s minority holders and nudge issued capital to c. EGP 836 mn, up from EGP 835.1 mn. Another c. EGP 986 mn goes into reserves: the merged equity minus the new capital.

Priced off a three-year-old balance sheet: GSK’s board approved it in August based on both companies’ position at 31 December 2023, putting GSK’s net equity at EGP 1.82 bn against EGP 830k for the minority stake in Amoun. GSK told the bourse (pdf) that this is a restructuring of its own investments rather than a capital increase in substance.

Nesma Airlines is now flyplus

Nesma Airlines rebranded as flyplus and plans to expand its fleet to 23 aircraft by 2027, according to a press release seen by EnterpriseAM. Operating an existing fleet of 13 Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft, the carrier logged over 2 mn passengers across its charter and scheduled routes so far this year. The expansion strategy involves adding 10 narrowbody Airbus jets, scaling its network beyond 38 scheduled routes, and introducing a tiered cabin layout featuring business and premium economy classes plus ancillary add-ons.

A new owner for Bo Island

Tahya Misr Holding for Investment and Development (the Tahya Misr Development Fund) is taking over Maxim Real Estate Investment’s Bo Island project in Sidi Abdel Rahman on the North Coast, according to a Housing Ministry statement. The board of the New Urban Communities Authority approved Maxim’s transfer of the project’s two land plots to the holding company, pending the required regulatory procedures. The holding company now takes on responsibility for the project and for completing its regulatory and administrative paperwork.

Protecting buyers is the priority, the ministry says, though its statement doesn’t spell out what the handover means for their contracts or the construction timeline. Instead, it asks buyers to ignore rumors and wait for updates through official channels.

Sokhna’s tire track begins

Chinese tiremaker Sailun Group rolled out its first passenger car tire from its USD 804 mn manufacturing plant in the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone), according to a statement from the latter. The milestone marks the start of trial operations across the 400k-sqm facility located within the developer Teda-Egypt’s zone in Sokhna. The plant is projected to create over 3k direct jobs and is scheduled to enter full-scale commercial operations in early 2027.

REMEMBER- The group first broke ground on its automotive tire plant in the Teda industrial zone last year. The first phase was originally slated to come online in 2026. SCZone chairman Mustafa Sheikhon told parliament on 3 November that phase one targets 18 mn tires, part of a zone plan to reach 42 mn.

Startup diplomacy

Egypt and India will set up a joint forum for their startups. The two sides are arranging a visit by delegations of more than 150 Indian companies, and the Indian ambassador wants fintechs and digital payment providers — including the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) — to participate, according to a Planning Ministry statement. The forum is billed as a permanent platform linking founders in both countries.

IN CONTEXT- Planning Minister Ahmed Rostom framed the forum as part of a government push, run through the Ministerial Group for Entrepreneurship, to produce new USD 1-bn-plus companies. The push sits with the Startup Charter the government unveiled in February, which targets USD 5 bn in VC funding and five unicorns by 2031. India’s ambassador put his country’s startup base at more than 240k and Indian investment in Egypt at about USD 5 bn across 55 factories.