Acronyms are out of control

Sunday, 14 May 2023

Acronyms are out of control

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Today at a glance

The Big Story Today

Telecom Egypt’s secondary stake sale closes.

INSIDE INDUSTRY

Explaining the government’s plans to develop transformative industries in FY 2023-24.

FOR YOUR COMMUTE

Is your soap the reason you’re getting more mosquito bites?

ON THE TUBE TONIGHT

The Last Thing He Told Me: A disappearance unravels an intricate web of secrets.

Sports

It’s Catalan Derby day.

Under the Lamplight

Equal parts entertaining and chilling: How our bodies react to lethal chemicals.

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TONIGHT

THIS EVENING: Telecom Egypt’s secondary stake sale closes + We’re looking forward to meeting you at the Exports and FDI Forum tomorrow

Good afternoon, wonderful people, and welcome to a brisk start to the week here in Omm El Donia.

Did you feel the quake? A 3.85 magnitude earthquake hit South Sinai this morning, according to a statement (pdf) from the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics. No damages or casualties have been reported so far.

The Enterprise Exports and FDI Forum istaking place tomorrow at the Four Seasons Nile Plaza. The event will see CEOs, top execs, bankers, and development finance folks attempt to solve the biggest economic issue of our time: How do we get out of our FX crunch by boosting exports and raising foreign direct investment.

We are very grateful for the interest we’ve seen from many of you and we cannot wait to meet those attending.

** Attendees who have confirmed and RSVP'd to their personal invitations do not need a QR code to enter the venue, but please do bring a business card you can give us in exchange for your name tag and lanyard.

We sent out the invitations to the event earlier today. These invitations were extended on an individual basis, and cannot be shared or substituted. Due to the incredible interest (for which we’re very grateful) we are unable to accommodate anyone who did not receive an invitation.

The event kicks off with an 8am networking breakfast, with the opening panels starting at 9am.

Who can you expect to see there? Our friend Tarek Hosny, head of investments and projects at Fertiglobe. As head of projects and investments at one of the nation’s most valuable exporters, Tarek Hosny is going to be speaking at the forum about how we can continue to increase our non-oil exports. He is joined on stage for that discussion by Mohamed Talaat Khalifa, CEO of Concrete, and Shams Eweis, corporate affairs manager, Egypt, North Africa and Levant at Mars about how they succeeded in entering the international market and what they are doing to stay there.

Who else is speaking (in no particular order)?Hossam Abou Moussa, partner at Apis, Hassan Massoud, associate director and head of private equity (Southern Mediterranean) at the EBRD, Tarek Kamel, CEO of Nestle Egypt; Omar Elsahy, general manager of Amazon Egypt; Khaled Morsy, CEO of DB Schenker; Shady William, managing director of IDG; Mark Wyllie, CEO of Beyti; Kareem Abou Ghaly, chairman and CEO of Pasta Regina; Yasmine Khamis, chair of the Orientals Group, Cheick-Oumar Sylla, director for North Africa and Horn of Africa at the IFC; Hossam Sallab, CEO and vice-chairman of Sallab Group and Royal Ceramica; Helmy Ghazi, deputy CEO of HSBC Egypt; Nada El Ahwal, CSO of Transmar; Nadia El-Tawil, investment officer at AfricInvest, Mostafa Bedeir, CEO of Giza Seeds and Herbs, Abdallah Sallam, CEO at Madinet Masr, Yassir Zouaoui, partner at McKinsey; and Mohamed ElGebely, team leader at USAID Trade.

Topics and live interviews will include:

Why exports and FDI are the way forward and what lessons have worked from around the world;
How to attract foreign partners and figure out what they are looking for;
What are the fundamentals to creating an export and / or FDI strategy;
What it takes to secure a place in a multinational’s supply chain.
How industrial clusters could expedite exports, FDI and possibly be an avenue for SME development;
How Egypt’s industries need to be open to evolution to become more competitive.

Tap or click here to explore the full agenda.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

TE’s secondary stake sale closes: Telecom Egypt’s secondary stake sale was executed on the EGX’s secondary market today with 162.2 mn shares sold to institutional investors for EGP 3.7 bn, representing 95% of the total 170.7 mn shares the Finance Ministry offered to investors, according to an EGX bulletin. The accelerated bookbuilding process wrapped on Thursday with a 3.11x oversubscription, according to a ministry statement. Further information about the buyers has not been made public.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

Are we going to bid farewell to Erdogan? Turkish voters went to the polls today in a crucial election that could bring an end to the two decade-long rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Recent polls indicate that Kemal Kilicdaroglu, Erdogan’s primary opponent, holds a slight edge over Erdogan, but if neither candidate secures 50% of the votes, a runoff election is scheduled for 28 May. The outcome of the election has the potential to create ripple effects extending beyond Turkey’s borders, possibly affecting Turkey’s geopolitical position. (Reuters | Washington Post | Bloomberg | Wall Street Journal | New York Times)

ALSO- A powerful cyclone made its way towards the coast of Myanmar and Bangladesh today, prompting the evacuation of around 400k people residing in vulnerable areas. (Reuters)

HAPPENING NOW

The National Dialogue is rolling: National Dialogue sessions kicked off this morning, with the four sessions slotted for today set to end at 6pm. Two of today’s three-hour sessions are focusing on the electoral system, while the other two discuss discrimination, according toa dialogue’s statement. All sessions can be viewed on the dialogue’s Facebookand Youtubeaccounts.

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

The government has offered a 10% stake in Telecom Egypt (TE) through the EGX, reportedly raising EGP 3.95 bn (c.USD 129 mn) and valuing TE at around EGP 39.5 bn.
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) will keep interest rates unchanged when it meets on Thursday after inflation came in slightly lower in April, according to our interest rate poll.
We’re unlikely to see another steep devaluation of the EGP before the end of this fiscal year in June, BNP Paribas and Citigroup analysts wrote in research notes last week.

*** It’s Inside Industry day —your weekly briefing of all things industrial in Egypt. Inside Industry focuses each Sunday on what it takes to turn Egypt into a manufacturing and export powerhouse, ranging from initial investment and planning to product distribution, through to land allocation to industrial processes, supply chain management, labor, automation and technology, inputs and exports, regulation and policy.

In today’s issue: We break down the government’s sustainable development strategy for the upcoming fiscal year for transformative industries.

WANT TO START A CAREER IN INVESTOR RELATIONS ADVISORY?Enterprise Advisory (formerly known as Inktank Communications) is looking for smart, talented people to help us tell the stories of exciting companies. Enterprise Advisory is the region’s leading investor relations advisory company and works on investor and strategic communications issues that take you deep inside the c-suite. Our clients are in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and beyond. Egyptian and foreign nationals alike are welcome to apply.

NEVER WORKED IN INVESTOR RELATIONS OR ADVISORY BEFORE? We have the Enterprise Advisory Development Program. The four-month program will see full-time, paid participants take part in workshops and lectures from veteran investor relations and advisory professionals, while also applying their knowledge in a practical setting. Those who successfully complete the program will be offered full-time positions on staff for a chance to work in a flexible and supportive — but still fast-paced — work environment that eschews micromanagement and rewards good work. Enterprise Advisory offers the chance to build a network of high-ranking individuals across some of the largest and most influential companies in the region through direct exposure to clients.

During the program, you’ll learn:

Finance for non-finance people;
How to analyze businesses, their business models, their strategic advantages, and their strategies;
How to take that information and then tell an audience of investors, journalists, and analysts a compelling and well-developed story;
How to frame individual companies’ stories within the wider macroeconomic environment.

Career switchers are very welcome.

Apply directly to jobs@enterprisemea.com and mention “advisory development program” in your subject line.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Expect tomorrow to feel much like today, as our favorite weather app expects the mercury to rise just a notch to a daytime high of 35°C, with a nighttime low of 19°C.

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Telecom Egypt WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TONIGHT

FOR YOUR COMMUTE

Is your soap the reason you’re getting more mosquito bites? Plus: Acronyms are getting out of hand

The soap you use could be a factor in attracting mosquitoes: Certain scents and chemicals found in soaps can make some people more appealing to mosquito bites than others, according to a recent study cited by the Wall Street Journal. Prior studies have established that a person’s body odor might either make mosquitoes more or less attracted to them and certain peoples’ inherent attraction to bugs appeared to be amplified by the fragrances of some soaps.

Specific scents and ingredients can be used to create effective mosquito repellents and attractants: Researchers created chemical mixtures that they believed would either attract or repel mosquitos and found that more than 95% of mosquitoes chose the blend designed to attract them, versus a nylon sleeve carrying natural human odor. The extent to which soap affected a person’s attractiveness to mosquitoes varied in the study, which suggests that they are attracted to the combination of chemical scents and natural body odors, one of the study’s co-authors said.

Feeling stupid in a world of “smart” acronyms? Let’s agree that some abbreviations actually hinder communication: In a world where people’s attention span is increasingly shorter, it makes sense to use acronyms like the Cares Act in lieu of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, Pilita Clark writes in the Financial Times. This not only facilitates conversations, but also helps make lasting, memorable impressions in contexts like Capitol Hill, where the alienating effects of tediousness can have important implications.

But where does it stop? While these “backronyms” invite clarity and “catchiness” to otherwise long and unimaginative titles, most acronyms have a counterproductive effect, Clark says. For instance, when referring to a PPP, what exactly do we mean by that? Is it purchasing power parity or public-private partnerships? Rather than advancing understanding, some of these alleged shortcuts are ineffective because “anything that requires an explanation inhibits communication,” Clark quotes Elon Musk as saying.

It wasn’t always like that. Abbreviations were first introduced for a reason. Back in Ancient Rome, during the lifetime of Cicero, the Senatus PopulusQue Romanus — the senate and people of Rome — was simply referred to as SPQR. And it’s not hard to see why. The issue arises, however, when acronyms are overused to the point of blurring meaning. Areas where acronyms are particularly tiresome are fields like those of climate finance or crypto — a feat that can be alienating and excluding in fields that people are only beginning to understand.

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ENTERPRISE RECOMMENDS

The Last Thing He Told Me: A disappearance unravels an intricate web of secrets

? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-
(all times CLT)

The Last Thing He Told Me is a gripping thriller limited series based on the 2021 novel of the same name by Laura Dave. The series follows the story of Hannah (Jennifer Garner), a devoted stepmother who is forced to team up with her estranged husband’s daughter, Bailey (Angourie Rice), after her husband (played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) disappears under mysterious circumstances. As they delve deeper into trying to uncover the truth, Hannah and Bailey uncover a web of lies and secrets that threaten to unravel their entire family. The series is available to watch on AppleTV.

⚽ Today in La Liga: Espanyol and Barcelona hit the field at 10pm for the Catalan Derby, with Barcelona hoping to officially snag the league title by locking down the three points from a victory, while Espanyol is trying to save itself from relegation. The club is currently second-to-last in La Liga and three points from safety, with five matches left to play.

There’s a similar battle between the top and the bottom playing out in the English Premier League, with Everton hosting Manchester City at 4pm today. Everton — currently in seventh place with 32 points — is working to avoid falling out of the league and widening its berth with its closest competitor, while maintaining an advantage of having played one fewer game. Manchester City, as per usual, has its eyes on the prize to defend its championship title.

Also happening in the Premier League:

Arsenal v Brighton (6:30pm)
Brentford v West Ham (4pm)
Elche v Atletico Madrid (5:15pm)
Juventus v Cremonese (9:45pm)

Over in the Egyptian League, we have just one match tonight, with Ceramica Cleopatra facing Ghazl El Mahalla at 8pm.

? OUT AND ABOUT-
(all times CLT)

Cairo Fashion Week is on its second-to-last day, after kicking off on Friday at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir.

The annual Flower Exhibition — which is typically held at the Orman Gardens — opened to the public at the Agricultural Museum in Dokki yesterday. The exhibition will run for one month.

You have until tomorrow to register for the TriFactory’s Somabay Endurance Festival, which is scheduled to take place from 25-27 May at Somabay. You can register online here.

Dive into Egypt’s infinitely rich contemporary art world: The “Traces of Egypt” Exhibition began in late March and will continue until this Thursday, 15 June, at the Grand Egyptian Museum. The exhibit is organized by Egyptian-German artist Susan Hefuna and celebrates the country’s Khayamiya tradition through 28 dresses celebrating local artisans and their craftsmanship.

Expressionist depiction of Egypt’s rural communities: Artist Omar Abdel Zaher’s latest art exhibition, Roots, is still running through Wednesday, 24 May. The exhibition is “a sincere, impassioned exploration and meditation on the modest and down-to-earth sanctities of Egypt’s rural communities.”

Start training for your next half marathon: The TriFactory is hosting another edition of itsMadinaty Half Marathon on Friday, 9 June at Madinaty. You can sign up for the event through the TriFactory website.

? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them is a captivating read for true crime aficionados. The book, penned by Neil Bradbury, a scientist and teacher, takes us through the fascinating ways our bodies react to lethal chemicals and substances. From the medical to the legal and historical, Bradbury paints a captivating — and oftentimes morbid — portrait where science and crime combine and real murders come into the light to teach us more about how our bodies are hurt by invisible molecules. From famous political assassinations using lethal substances and love feuds turned deadly, the book is equal parts entertaining and chilling. Luckily, Bradbury says, getting away with poisoning someone is nearly impossible today thanks to advances in science that can detect even the mildest of chemicals.

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GO WITH THE FLOW

What the markets are doing on 14 May, 2023

EARNINGS WATCH-

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Egypt reported a consolidated net income after tax of EGP 1.01 bn in 1Q 2023, up 126.6% y-o-y, according to anEGX disclosure (pdf). Its net income from funds rose to EGP 1.81 bn, up 85.9% y-o-y during the same period last year.

Credit Agricole’s net income grew 149% y-o-y to EGP 1.2 bn in 1Q 2023, according to anEGX disclosure(pdf). The banking group’s interest income, meanwhile, rose 69% y-o-y to EGP 2.3 bn.

B Investments is paying out a dividend of USD 0.13 per share on 31 May, the private equity firm said in an EGX disclosure (pdf). Dividends will be distributed to shareholders who purchase eligible shares before the end of the trading session on 28 May.

MARKET ROUNDUP-

The EGX30 rose 0.6% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.83 bn. Local investors were net sellers. The index is up 19% YTD.

In the green: Credit Agricole (+11.1%), ADIB (+8.9%), and CIRA Education (+7.7%).

In the red: Juhayna (-4.2%), Egypt Kuwait Holding (-3.0%), and Ibnsina Pharma (-2.4%).

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EGX Go with the Flow

Our weekly look at the issues, trends, and policies that are shaping Egypt's manufacturing industries.

Published every Sunday in EnterprisePM.

Read Inside Industry

INSIDE INDUSTRY

Explaining Egypt’s plans to develop transformative industries in FY 2023-24

Breaking down the gov’t’s plans on developing transformative industries next FY: Last week, Planning Minister Hala El Said laid out the government’s sustainable development plan for FY 2023-24 in an address to the House of Representatives, while Finance Minister Mohamed Maait presented the draft state budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The sustainable development plan — which the ministry issues every year to work towards Egypt Vision 2030 — covers planned government spending on several key sectors, including education, infrastructure, the green economy, and manufacturing.

The upcoming fiscal year’s plan sees the government spending EGP 100 bn on supporting transformative industries in the oil and non-oil sectors, in a bid to help increase local manufacturing, improve the competitiveness of local industries, and grow industrial exports. That’s a c.20% y-o-y increase from the current fiscal year, El Said noted in her statement.

IN CONTEXT- The state budget for the upcoming fiscal year sees Egypt’s economic growth remaining flat y-o-y at 4.1%, compared to 4.2% in FY2022-23. The Finance Ministry also expects our deficit to widen to 7.0%. The push to increase spending on growing local manufacturing comes as the Madbouly government has been working to reduce our reliance on imports while encouraging the localization of industrial production.

The development plan for transformative industries is comprised of four main programs, with each program focusing on a specific aspect of boosting industrial performance through sub-programs, according to El Said. The minister’s statement does not specify the spending allocations for each of the main programs under the development plan.

#1- Encouraging local manufacturing: This program will focus on expanding manufacturing across the value chain, including intermediary goods that are typically imported, as the government looks to cut back on import reliance, according to El Said. The program will also look to ramp up production capacity at local companies, in addition to working on expanding environmentally-friendly industries, such as producing electric vehicles, solar panels, green hydrogen, and water- and electricity-saving devices for residential, commercial, and tourist establishments.

There’s supplemental projects to go with that: This industrial development project includes setting up industrial complexes to serve high-tech industries, in addition to wrapping up doing something for the Roubiki leather city, and industrial zones in Sohag and Qena — with an eye to raising the operating capacities of these two governorates’ zones. The program also plans to work on pushing 2k factories operating in the informal economy to go legit, and move 300 of them to industrial complexes to act as supportive industries. Separately, another 80 idle factories are slated for revival under the program.

#2- Improving local industry’s competitiveness: The government plans to issue a set of 700 quality standards that are on par with global standards, El Said said, without providing further details on what the standards will be or how they will be implemented on Egyptian industry players. The development plan also aims to raise the number of ISO certifications in Egypt to 4200, in addition to securing quality assurance certificates for 260 locally manufactured products, the minister said.

#3- Growing industrial exports: The upcoming fiscal year’s sustainable development plan aims to boost industrial exports by expanding the scope of its export subsidy program to include new commodities and companies, with a specific focus on SMEs, the minister said. The government is also looking to ramp up efforts to organize exhibitions locally and abroad, and will prioritize tapping promising export markets in Africa. We’re hoping to export USD 10 bn worth of goods in 2024 — up from USD 6 bn now — with an eye to further raising that figure to USD 15 bn by the end of 2025, according to El Said. Skill and capacity building will also be a key pillar of ramping up industrial exports, with plans to offer vocational training to some 15k students and upgrading seven vocational training centers and their curriculums.

ALSO- Export subsidies are almost quadrupling and industry + agriculture are getting subsidized loans: The export subsidy will see the highest upward percentage change in next year’s budget to reach EGP 28 bn, while the government will spend EGP 19.5 bn on subsidizing loans to industrial and agricultural companies, according to the state budget. This will be the first fiscal year the state has picked up the tab for the subsidized loan program after it agreed to take the responsibility from the central bank at the request of the IMF. The central bank previously managed the programs by directing commercial banks to provide loans to qualifying businesses at lower rates.

#4- Expanding economic clusters: This component of the sustainable development program for industry so far has the fewest details available, with El Said telling the House that the government intends to focus its efforts on a handful of specific promising industries with a competitive advantage. El Said’s statement to parliament did not offer further information on what these industries could be, or specific action points the government intends to implement in the upcoming fiscal year, but this shift to focus on a handful of industries in which we have clear absolute or competitive advantages is exactly what we believe is the best route to build an export-led economy that could turn Egypt into an export hub and magnet for FDI.

Your top industrial development stories for the week:

El Nasr potentially has a new suitor on EVs: Ashok Leyland, a subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Hinduja Group, could partner with state-owned firm El Nasr Automotive to form a joint venture for locally-made electric vehicles.
Public-private silicon partnership: State-owned oil and metals companies have formed a silicon manufacturing JV with private sector players Libra Capital, a subsidiary of Enara Group, and Central Desert Mining Company.

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Hala El Said INSIDE INDUSTRY Manufacturing state budget

THE ENTERPRISE ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR

MAY

6-20 May (Saturday-Saturday): Cairo Film Society Festival for Egyptian Cinema at the Artistic Creativity Center at the Cairo Opera House.

12-15 May (Friday-Monday): Cairo Fashion Week at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir.

13 May-13 June (Saturday-Tuesday): Annual Flower Exhibition from 10am at the Agricultural Museum.

15 May (Monday): Last day to register for TriFactory’s Somabay Endurance Festival.

24 May (Wednesday): Last day of Omar Abdel Zaher’s Roots exhibition at the Safarkhan Art Gallery.

25-27 May (Thursday-Saturday): TriFactory’s Somabay Endurance Festival.

JUNE

9 June (Friday): TriFactory Madinaty Half Marathon.

10 June (Saturday): Thanaweya Amma examinations begin.

15 June (Thursday): Last day of the Traces of Egypt Exhibition at the Grand Egyptian Museum.

28 June-2 July (Wednesday-Sunday): Eid El Adha (TBC).

30 June (Friday): June 30 Revolution Day.

JULY

18 July (Tuesday): Islamic New Year.

20 July (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Islamic New Year (TBC).

23 July (Sunday): Revolution Day.

27 July (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Revolution Day.

SEPTEMBER

26 September (Tuesday): Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (TBC).

28 September (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (TBC).

OCTOBER

6 October (Friday): Armed Forces Day.

13 October- 20 October (Friday-Friday): The sixth edition of El Gouna Film Festival (GFF).

EVENTS WITH NO SET DATE

2023: The inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum.

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