Make Millennials happy again

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WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TONIGHT

THIS EVENING: valU concludes seventh bond issuance

Welcome, friends, to what we think will be the third-slowest news day of 2023, a target set to be eclipsed by Western Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

That doesn’t mean someone won’t be “taking out the trash”: That’s when corporate PR types figure folks like us (and our readers) are too preoccupied by visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads to pay attention to the news cycle.

The result? They try to release news they’d rather nobody notice on exactly a day like this. (Thursday / Friday afternoons before a long weekend — depending on where you sit in the world — are also popular choices to engage in some janitorial work of the same nature…)

THE BIG STORY so far today? That would be valU closing its seventh securitized bond issuance. The EFG Holding fintech platform closed the sale of EGP 953.1 mn worth of securitized bonds, the company said in a statement (pdf) today. The issuance, which is part of an extended EGP 9 bn securitization program, brings valU’s total securitizations to seven and follows an EGP 922-mn issuance in September.

Advisors: EFG Hermes acted as the sole financial advisor, sole transaction manager, book-runner, and arranger. Our friends at ALC-Alieldean Weshahi & Partners acted as legal advisor, Baker Tilly as auditor, and AAIB as the custodian bank.

Sound smart: The nation’s market for securitized bonds is booming, up 85.6% this year over 2022 as players in the fast-growing consumer finance industry (for the most part) tap the market for growth capital.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

Dominating the conversation in the international press this afternoon is Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza. The IDF claims to have almost total control of Northern Gaza, specifically in Jabalia, where it continued to drop bombs overnight, according to Reuters. The Palestinian death toll has risen above 20k, with tens of thousands wounded and many are still lost in the rubble. Meanwhile, Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem are canceled this year, which the Associated Press says will impact the city’s economy, as tourism — usually during Christmas holidays — accounts for some 70% of its income.

Over in the Indian Ocean, the US is blaming Iran for a drone attack on the Chem Pluto, a Japanese owned chemical tanker with a Liberian flag, Bloomberg reports. Tensions between Washington and Tehran are continuing to rise, particularly as and the US holds Iran responsible for backing Yemen’s armed Houthi group in its attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

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

Egypt faces the prospect of mns in lost FX receipts — and businesses and consumers around the world are staring at spiraling prices and snarled supply chains as Yemen’s armed Houthi group shows no signs of standing down in the Red Sea.
The Central Bank of Egypt left interest rates unchanged at its last policy meeting of the year on Thursday.
European and international lenders have lined up USD 455 mn in financing for a second cargo terminal at Damietta port.

COME WORK FOR OUR ADVISORY ARM- 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, but native-level verbal and written English fluency is a must.

WHO YOU ARE- We're looking for gifted storytellers with a minimum of four years of work experience in investor relations, finance, banking, economics, or a related field to develop cutting-edge products and maintain relationships with a portfolio of clients. Candidates should have a bachelor's degree or higher in finance, accounting, economics, business administration, or a related discipline. We're looking for someone whose passion for storytelling is matched with strong analytical and problem-solving skills, as well as the ability to interpret and present financial data — with a keen eye for details and accuracy.

INTERESTED IN APPLYING? To apply for the position, drop us a line at jobs@enterprisemea.com and mention “Enterprise Advisory” in your subject line. Please send a solid cover letter telling us a bit about who you are and why you’re a good fit for our team. We want to see your CV, but the most important thing is a cover letter that makes us want to pick up the phone and give you a call.

?️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Tomorrow will be partly cloudy with a high of 23°C coming around midday, and dropping to a cool 15°C in the evening, according to our favorite weather app.

Millennials are freaking out over the enshittification of the interwebs

?️?From the dumpster fire that is our socials:

Do not go gently into that goodnight, Millennials: It wasn’t enough that Millennials are freaking out about (a) Gen Z and (b) entering middle age — one of their own is now suggesting they’re aging out of the thing on which they have hung their identity: The internet. (Not convinced? Throw “Millennials age out” into a search on Threads or Twitter X and see for yourself.)

Where it started: Max Read’s The year millennials aged out of the internet, in the New York Times, hit the interwebs at the perfect time, catching Millennials on a Christmas long weekend. The combination of well-spiked eggnog / edibles / whatever and the kids already being in bed caught them unawares.

The claim: “For my entire professional life, I have started nearly every weekday morning with an extremely important productivity ritual: I make a coffee, I sit down at my computer, and I mess around on the internet for an hour or so. … But recently I find the task of wasting time online increasingly onerous. The websites I used to depend on have gotten worse, and it seems as if there’s nowhere else to look. … Something is changing about the internet, and I am not the only person to have noticed. Everywhere I turned online this year, someone was mourning.”

Evidence of enshittification:

Why the internet isn’t fun anymore (The New Yorker)
Social media is doomed to die (The Verge)
The tragedy of Google search (The Atlantic)
The junkification of Amazon (New York magazine’s Intelligencer)

The bottom line: “There was a time in my life when it was trivial to sign up to a new social network and pick up its patterns and mores on the fly. Now, I feel exhausted by the prospect.”

The NYT isn’t the first to suggest it — it’s just that Mr. Read’s take was really well-timed, we think. Our evidence: Are you sure you’re not guilty of the ‘Millennial Pause’? in The Atlantic, published in August 2022.

Bradley Cooper + Carey Mulligan make Maestro a memorable watch this season

? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-
(all times CLT)

With Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan at the helm, Maestro keep Hollywood’s biopic trend alive and well: Directed by (and starring) Cooper, the film looks at the life of late American conductor, composer, and pianist Leonard Bernstein.

The movie delves into the dark side of fame and success and how it affected the conductor extraordinaire. The son of Jewish-Russian immigrants, he evaded the family hair business, the Samuel J. Bernstein Hair Company, and chose the art of being a conductor. Bernstein made his name by conducting, composing, and contributing to ballet, opera, and Broadway productions, creating some of the modern timeless pieces we know and love today. The film also shifts its focus on the relationship with his wife — and other intimate relationships on the side — with the occasional outbreak of songs.

The ensemble cast says enough about what to expect: Aside from Cooper, we have Mulligan as his wife Felicia Montealegre, Matt Bomer as David Oppenheim, Maya Hawke as Leonard and Felicia’s daughter Jamie Bernstein, and Josh Hamilton as John Jonas Gruen.

It already secured a lot of favorable reviews, calling for Cooper to continue his directing streak. Cooper also manifested “The most powerful use of music …” in his rendition of Bernstein conducting Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No 2 “with a fervor that is exultant,” and illustrated his ability to completely immerse himself into the character.

If you’ve ever wondered whether you’d make a good detective, here’s your chance to find out.Tahqiq is carried out by a group of actors staging an unscripted and interactive murder-mystery at Theatro Arkan. It’s up to you to figure out this whodunnit, which you can do this Tuesday from 8pm. Book your tickets here.

Enter the improv world in 2024. Starting Friday, 5 January, Ramsi Lehner will be hosting a ten-class improv workshop to help you improve your public speaking skills, expand your range as an actor or performer, help you develop your standup comedy, or even just make you better at communication. The classes will take place every weekend on Fridays and Saturdays from 6:30pm to 10pm. Register here to claim a spot.

ART-

See the tale of three women through art at the A Tale of an Ethereal City exhibition by Khadiga Abou Hussien in collaboration with Rasha Arous & Sara Kouedi at Bibliothek Art Gallery. The exhibition opened its doors last Saturday and will continue until Tuesday, 2 January from 7-10pm.

Get ready, aspiring photographers: The Fujifilm festival is just over a month away. You’ll have four full days of activities, meetups, and talks, as well as a photography contest and an exhibition that you can partake in. You can bring your camera along to get a gratuitous CMOS and lens cleaning, and check out the GFX 100 ii Studio on site. Fujifilm X-Photographers and creators will be there too — don’t miss out on the networking potential. Check out their Facebook page for more information.

MUSIC-

Warm up your vocal chords, gang. Karaoke Night is back at ROOM Art Space and Cafe. ROOM’s doors are open every Tuesday through to 27 February for you and your friends to belt out your favorite tunes, starting at 8pm and ending at 10pm. You can reserve your spot here.

Get ready for the season with the Cairo Opera House which will be hosting a series of events celebrating Christmas and New Year’s Eve:

For Disney fans: The Disney Classics concert will be held at the Opera’s Main Hall tomorrow. The concert will start at 8pm. Tickets are available here.
Don’t miss the Nutcracker ballet shows. The performances will be presented by the Cairo Opera Ballet, along with the Cairo Opera Orchestra. The first show will be held this Tuesday and will continue until this Thursday, 28 December. Tickets are available here.
The orchestra will also put on another concert on Sunday, 31 December celebrating New Year’s Eve. Click here to book your ticket.

Are you ready to rock? December is rife with rock and metal concerts that you can headbang to to your heart’s content. Don’t miss the Castle of Rock concert at Elsawy Culture Wheel tonight at 7pm, featuring Paranoid Eyes, Catharsis, and Alexers.

Too short notice? You’ve got two more concerts to choose from on the 30th: Metal Night at Cairo Jazz Club 610, also featuring Catharsis (alongside Crescent and Mythos). You can just show up to Castle of Rock tonight, but contact CJC610 to reserve a spot for Metal Night.

Double Dose of Rock at ROOM Art Space is another one for fans or rock, where Paranoid Eyes will also be playing, alongside Hues, a Muse tribute band will also be bursting the speakers. Book your ticket to Double Dose here

SPORTS-

Heads up, football fans. Raz3 El Gomhoor is coming to The Marquee on Friday, 5 January to host a two-and-a-half hour in-depth discussion about the forthcoming football season, player transfers, and general analysis of all of your favorite leagues. Both platinum ticket tiers are sold out, but if you act fast, you can still snag yourself a gold. Reserve your spot here.

The Cairo Half Marathon is taking place in a few months: Mark your calendars for Friday, 1 March and start stretching. Cairo Runners is bringing back a fan favorite, offering the same distances as The TriFactory. Tickets are available until 27 February, giving you ample time to convince seven of your friends to join, which will get a 10% reduction in price when you register.

CHRISTMAS EVENTS-

Get into the Christmas spirit with these festive events all around the capital.

Kazoku is hosting a Christmas Dinnertomorrow in celebration of the festive season. Head on over at 9pm and enjoy the great food we’ve come to expect. Mira Cassisseya will be performing throughout the evening.

Looking for something a bit more intimate? Villa Belle Époque cordially invites you to dinner on Christmas Eve tonight. Live entertainment and a five course dinner… What more could you ask Santa for? Don’t forget to reserve ahead of time.

The classic Christmas staple The Nutcracker Ballet will be performed at the Cairo Opera House by the Cairo Opera Ballet Company everyday starting this Tuesday up until Saturday.

FILM-

Zawya cinema will be screening five movies for the late director Ali Badrakhan until this Tuesday. You can check out the schedule here.

Eins Christmas Bazaar is bringing you some handmade goodies, kicking off this past Friday and continuing until Sunday, 1 January, 2024. The bazaar is being held at the Gallery, in Maadi.

We’ve curated a list of the best podcasts of the year, so you don’t have to do the work yourselves: It’s that time of year when everybody and their mother is out with a “best of” list — and we’re no different. To save you the trouble of running through all the top lists, we bring you a shortlisted version of choices from the New York Times, New Yorker, Time, Vulture, and The Guardian.

#1- The King of Pop continues to reign, as Think Twice: Michael Jackson is in the leaderboards of the best podcast. Journalists and hosts Leon Neyfakh and Jay Smooth revisit MJ’s complex and controversial story. Despite the series of serious allegations waged against him, to this day he remains a cultural icon. Neyfakh and Smooth use original interviews with people close to the matter to try and answer some questions about the singer’s life and what we should make of it.

You can listen for yourself on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible.

#2- Classy with Jonathan Menjivar: In this podcast, Menjivar tries to reconcile his blue-collar upbringing with his luxury, cashmere-ridden present life. His episodes detail stories and investigations into class consciousness, dynamics, and how it shapes perspectives on life and the world. He’ll bring on guests to collect diverse views to add to the narrative. The host looks to inspire vulnerability in his listeners and push them to reflect on their own stances and experiences with classism and the nuances of economic status.

You can find it on Apple Podcasts andSpotify.

#3- The Retrievals: Produced by Serial and The New York Times, The Retrievals explores the shocking details of a corrupt fertility clinic in Yale. The five-part series tells the tragic story of dozens of women who wanted to manage their infertility through IVF and suffered inexplicable excruciating pain during egg retrieval at the clinic. What made the issue more dire was that the medical staff administering the procedure didn’t know why — and would only figure it out months later. Susan Burton, author and part of This American Life, tells us the tale of what really happened.

Check it out onSpotify and Apple Podcasts.

#4-Search Engine: Hosted by PJ Vogt, this podcast’s theme is … that there isn’t one. True to the host’s motto — that no question is too big or too small — he provides answers to all sorts of subject matter from black market fish sales, to the fentanyl crisis, to why cannibalism is a no-no. This show is for everyone who goes on late night googling spirals and now has an arsenal of random facts that would keep their dinner guests entertained.

You can find this podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Substack.

#5- You Didn’t See Nothin: Yohance Lacour, the host, investigates the brutal attack on 13 year-old Lenard Clark in 1997 that put him in a coma by the hands of older white teens solely on the basis of him being a black teenager living in a predominantly white neighborhood. One of Lenard’s attackers came from a powerful family in Chicago and was able to reframe the narrative to one of racial reconciliation and cooperation, but Lacour was not satisfied. Growing up in similar conditions, he felt a connection to this story and wanted to bring justice to the hate crime and give us honorable journalism as opposed to the disappointing coverage the tragedy received.

You can listen in on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and NPR.

What the markets are doing on 24 December, 2023

The EGX30 fell 2.0% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 3.2 bn (1.8% below the 90-day average). Local investors were net sellers. The index is up 63.2% YTD.

In the green: Mopco (+5.8%), Alexandria Containers and Goods (+4.3%) and Edita (+2.7%).

In the red: GB Corp (-5.8%), Heliopolis Housing (-5.4%) and E-Finance (-5.1%).

THE ENTERPRISE ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR

DECEMBER

24 December (Sunday): Christmas Eve at Villa Belle Époque.

24 December (Sunday): Castle of Rock concert at River Hall, Elsawy Cultural Wheel.

24 December (Sunday): A Christmas Special ft. Tune-Up and The Sinatras at Cairo Jazz Club.

24-26 December (Sunday-Tuesday): Ali Badrakhan’s cinema at Zawya Cinema.

24 December-10 January (Sunday-Wednesday): ARD Art Exhibition by Eman Ezzat at Gallery Misr.

25 December (Monday): Walt Disney concert at Cairo Opera House.

25 December (Monday): Christmas Dinner at Kazoku.

25 December (Monday): Christmas Salsa Night with Soulmotion Studio at Cairo Jazz Club 610.

26 December (Tuesday): Karaoke Night: Xmas Edition at Cairo Jazz Club 610.

26 December (Tuesday): Tahqiq interactive murder-mystery performance at Theatro Arkan.

26-30 December (Tuesday-Saturday): The Nutcracker at Cairo Opera House.

27 December (Wednesday): Mahmoud Ellithy concert ft. DJ Saddam at Cairo Jazz Club 610.

27 December (Wednesday): Shereet Cocktail ft. Anis at Cairo Jazz Club.

28 December (Thursday): Saad ElOud concert at Theatro Arkan.

30 December (Saturday): Metal Night with Crescent, Catharsis, and Mythos at Cairo Jazz Club 610.

30 December (Saturday): Double Dose of Rock concert at Room Garden City.

31 December (Sunday): The Cairo Symphony Orchestra New Year’s Eve concert at Cairo Opera House.

31 December (Sunday): Ringing in the New Year with Ehab Tawfik at Cairo Jazz Club 610.

31 December (Sunday): New Year’s Eve dinner at Lucida.

EVENTS WITH NO SET DATE

2023: The inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum.

Q1 2024: Opening of the newly developed Pyramids Plateau in Giza.

2024

JANUARY

5 January (Friday): Raz3 El Gomhoor live show at The Marquee.

5 January-2 February (Friday-Friday): Intro to Improv with Ramsi Lehner.

7 January (Sunday): Coptic Christmas.

13 January (Saturday): Saad ElOud concert at Cairo Jazz Club.

25 January (Thursday): Revolution Day.

26 January-6 February (Friday-Tuesday): Cairo International Book Fair.

FEBRUARY

1-4 February (Thursday-Sunday): Fujifilm Egypt Festival at Consoleya.

MARCH

1 March (Friday): Cairo Half Marathon by Cairo Runners.

11-12 March (Monday-Tuesday): Creative Industry Summit.

APRIL

9 April (Tuesday): Eid El Fitr (TBC).

25 April (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Sinai Liberation Day (TBC).

MAY

1 May (Wednesday): National holiday in observance of Labor Day (TBC).

5 May (Sunday): Coptic Easter.

6 May (Monday): Sham El Nessim (TBC).

JUNE

15-19 June (Saturday-Wednesday): Eid El Adha (TBC).

30 June (Sunday): June 30 Revolution Day (TBC).

JULY

7 July (Sunday): National holiday in observance of Islamic New Year (TBC).

23 July (Tuesday): Revolution Day (TBC).

SEPTEMBER

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

OCTOBER

6 October (Sunday): Armed Forces Day.

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