Good morning, wonderful people, and a very happy THURSDAY. The weekend rolls around fast when most of the week is a public holiday — and there’s more where that came from, with a three-day weekend coming up to mark Labor Day next week.

THE BIG STORY here at home is a nice, big foreign direct investment: Our friends at private equity firm DPI are leading a major investment in budget supermarket chain Kazyon. There’s also plenty of tourism news as the government extends its subsidized loan program to include companies in the sector amid signs that arrivals to Egypt are continuing to rise. The boom in tourism continues as Egypt welcomes a growing number of high-value Western European, North American, and Asian travelers.

PSA #1- CFOs and IROs, rejoice: EGX-listed companies get more time to report their 1Q results. The Financial Regulatory Authority has given listed companies an extension until Tuesday, 30 May to report and publish their financials for the period ending 31 March 2023, according to a statement yesterday.

PSA #2- You will lose one hour of sleep tonight: Daylightsaving time will kick in at 12:01am Friday. Remember: All EgyptAir flights out of Cairo will depart one hour later.

PSA #3- Have a nice thought for your finance team this morning — they may be in for a busy weekend. This coming Sunday, 30 April, is the deadline for:

  • FY2022 tax returns — Mohamed Maait would very much like to be paid by Sunday, that being the filing deadline for this season’s returns;
  • Companies and self-employed folks to register for e-invoicing.

PSA #4- Vodafone’s cash transfer and bill payment services will be unavailable from 11pm today through 3am tomorrow, with the company citing “technical updates” in a text message sent to its users last night.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

Tis the season for fraught negotiations over the US debt ceiling: Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives yesterday narrowly managed to pass a law that would re-extend the debt ceiling in return for steep budget cuts, in a bid to push US President Joe Biden to negotiate to avoid a damaging default. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen earlier this week warned of “economic and financial catastrophe” if the country defaults on its debt (watch, runtime 0:26). The Republican bill stands little chance of passing in the Senate.Reuters, AP News, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post have more.

IN THE GLOBAL BUSINESS PRESS-

US tech earnings come in better than expected:Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet (pdf), and Facebook parent Meta have all reported stronger than expected earnings for the first quarter of the year, with the companies’ core businesses topping forecasts. (Financial Times | Wall Street Journal)

AND- The UK will block Microsoft’s USD 69 bn acquisition of gaming firm Activision Blizzard over concerns it would hamper competition in cloud gaming, Reuters reports. Both companies said they would fight the decision, which triggered a 12% fall in Activision shares during trading yesterday.

MARKET WATCH-

Is OPEC set to be vindicated on its oil production cuts? Oil prices fell below USD 80 per barrel yesterday — lending weight to the OPEC+ cartel’s contention that weak demand would justify their surprise move to cut supply earlier this month. “There is no doubt in my mind that the reasoning behind the early April announcement about cuts in May was appropriate,” Citigroup’s commodities research head told Bloomberg. “Those who were predicting over USD 100 oil did not understand how weak markets were looking.”

Not everyone is convinced: The cartel’s efforts to boost oil prices risk harming emerging markets and a global economy already suffering from high inflation, International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol told Bloomberg yesterday. “To see upward pressure on inflation from higher oil prices — that is the last thing that we want,” Birol said, noting that “the global economy is in a very fragile stage.”

THE REALIGNMENT-

The BRICS acronym could be about to get a lot longer: Nineteen countries are angling to join the bloc of emerging economies known as the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) as it gears up to hold its annual gathering in August, South Africa’s ambassador to the group told Bloomberg. Thirteen nations have formally applied to join and another six have reached out informally, Anil Sooklal is quoted as saying by the business news outlet. “We are getting applications to join every day.”

We’re interested: Egypt has reportedly expressed interest in joining the organization, as have Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iran, Turkey, Bahrain, and Algeria. We recently became a member of the New Development Bank — the BRICS’ USD 100 bn multilateral lender — allowing us to potentially lock-in funding for infrastructure projects.

AND- Talks to bring Syria + Turkey together have been “constructive”:Russia and Turkeyhave described this week’s four-way discussions to normalize ties between Ankara and Damascus as “constructive,” though did not indicate when a next round of talks may take place. The defense ministers and heads of intelligence of Syria, Turkey, Russia, and Iran met in Moscow on Tuesday for the discussions, which aim to bring an end to years of hostilities between the two countries.

This is part of a wider push for reconciliation in the region, which includes Qatar and the UAE mulling the restoration of diplomatic relations, Saudi Arabia and Iran normalizing relations, Egypt and Turkey reappointing ambassadors and Turkey’s reconciliation with Gulf countries.

CORRECTION- We incorrectly wrote yesterday that EGP 23 bn worth of imports have been released from the nation’s ports since the beginning of the year, rather than USD 23 bn. The story has beenupdated on our website.

The Enterprise Exports & FDI Forum, our latest industry-specific conference, is taking place on Monday, 15 May. The Enterprise Exports & FDI Forum will give insiders and newcomers alike the chance to talk about how to develop an export-centered business and how their companies can help Egypt build an export-led economy that makes us a magnet for foreign direct investment (FDI).

Why exports & FDI? In the wake of successive floats of EGP, exports and FDI have never been more important to our economy — or our businesses. We’re gathering some of the CEOs, top execs from local companies and multinationals, investors, bankers and finance folks to speak on how businesses can adapt their strategies to be export-oriented and what Egypt as a country can do to draw foreign investment and much-needed FX. Expect it to be heavy on lessons learned in Egypt and other global growth markets — and lots of success stories.You can learn more on our conference website here.

And what better place to discuss moving our goods than Egypt’s original logistics zone — the Nile. That’s why we’re looking forward to holding the event by the river’s vistas at the Four Seasons, Nile Plaza.

Some of the biggest names in business and finance are on board — are you? The Enterprise Exports and FDI Forum is taking place with the generous support of our friends, including:

Banking partners: Banque Misr | Al Baraka Bank | Emirates NBD | HSBC

Lead partners: DB Schenker | DP World | East Port Said Development | IDG | IFC | Madinat Masr

Event partners: Beyti | Concrete | Global Corp | Grant Thornton | Hassan Allam Utilities

WANT TO BECOME A COMMERCIAL PARTNER? Ping a note to Moustafa, our head of commercial, here.

HAVEN’T REQUESTED AN INVITE YET? If you’re a C-suite exec, business owner, DFI staff, export executive, investor or banker, please fill out the form here to signal your interest, letting us know your name, title and where you work.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

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