Egypt might sign an export agreement to ship East Med gas to Europe as early as mid-2018: Egypt will sign a memorandum of understanding with the EU to export gas from the East Mediterranean through its liquefaction plants before mid-2018, said Oil Minister Tarek El Molla at the International Petroleum Week conference in London on Thursday, according to a ministry statement.

Egypt is also closing in on an import agreement with Cyprus and Greece: El Molla said a preliminary agreement to import gas from Cyprus had been reached. Last week, Cypriot Energy Minister Georgios Lakkotrypis said that “Cyprus is close to selling natural gas to Egypt’s liquefied natural gas plants, and we could reach an agreement in the coming weeks.” El Molla also noted that Egypt and Greece are in talks to establish a framework for further energy cooperation.

PM Ismail sees last week’s USD 15 bn gas import agreement as part of int’l arbitration compromise: Prime Minister Sherif Ismail appears to see that the agreement signed last week, which would see Alaa Arafa-led Dolphinus Holding import USD 15 bn-worth of gas from Israel’s Delek and Noble, as part of a compromise to withdraw the USD 1.76 bn international arbitration ruling against EGAS, EGPC and East Mediterranean Gas (EMG). “We reached an agreement to receive part of the gas in Egypt via its pipelines and this is part of the resolution to the arbitration,” Ismail told reporters on Thursday, according to Bloomberg. He said an understanding had also been reached with Israeli Electric Company, but declined to give more details. The agreement would also help resolve the USD 1.03 bn arbitration ruling awarded by a Cairo arbitration court to EMG, he added, AMAY reports. “The goal is not the import of gas from Israel. We opened up the Egyptian market. We are strongly seeking to receive Cypriot gas, too,” Ismail also said.

Private-sector solution to arbitration hurdle? This comes as sources close to the agreement told Mada Masr on Friday that Delek and Noble Energy have begun talks with shareholders of EMG to acquire the company. The sources added that the pipeline, which had been used to export has to Israel, would be reversed if the transaction goes through.

Last week’s agreement also opens the door to resolving a USD 270 mn arbitration case with Spanish Egyptian Gas Company (SEGAS), which runs the Damietta liquefaction plant and is 80% owned by Spain’s Union Fenosa, the anonymous sources said. While the status of the case is unclear, High Council for International Arbitration commissioner Judge Moustafa El Bahabety had told Enterprise in 2016 that the case would be resolved soon. Union Fenosa Gas had filed a complaint with the ICC in 2013 alleging that “its state partner had failed to comply with contracts by halting gas supplies in 2012 and not making payments.” The company itself had been pushing to import gas from Israel over the years.

The source also added that last week’s agreement to import 64 bn cubic meters of gas from Israel was only one third of the total amount of gas Egypt plans to import from Israel.

Turkey continues to bully Cyprus, shooting itself in the foot and winning Cyprus support from the US and EU in the process: Now that Egypt, Israel, Cyprus and Greece have finally gotten the ball rolling on gas exports, Turkey is resorting to even more outlandish gunboat diplomacy. Cyprus accused Turkey on Friday for a second time of threatening to use force against a drillship chartered by Eni, according to Reuters. Turkey has vowed to prevent Greek Cypriots from exploring for oil or gas around the ethnically-split island. Ankara’s flexing of muscles led the US and the EU to signal support for Cyprus. The US supports the right of Cyprus to explore for natural gas and develop its resources in its Exclusive Economic Zone, a US State Department spokesperson told Ahval. At the same time, the EU threatened to cancel a summit with Turkish potentate Erdogan next month as a result of the aggression. “These actions contradict Turkey’s commitment to good neighborly relations,” EU President Donald Tusk told reporters in Brussels on Friday, according to Bloomberg.

Egypt’s potential to become the region’s energy hub continues to capture the imagination of the international press. The Financial Times’ Ed Crooks suggests that Egypt is well on its way to being a regional gas hub after the signing of the agreement, which he paints as being as significant as the Camp David Accords.

LEGISLATION WATCH- Bankruptcy Act now the law of the land: The Bankruptcy Act, which passed in the House of Representatives last month, is now officially the law of the land after it was published on the Official Gazette on Thursday. The Act effectively decriminalizes bankruptcy by abolishing prison sentences and allows companies more time and options for restructuring by introducing mechanisms to help settle commercial disputes outside the courtroom and simplify bankruptcy proceedings. Special bankruptcy courts to arbitrate on these cases are now being formed.

LEGISLATION WATCH- “National dialogue” on pricing of medical services under universal healthcare act: The Health Ministry will reportedly begin holding “national dialogue” sessions next month to discuss the pricing of medical services offered under the new Universal Healthcare Act with different stakeholders from the public and private sectors. Sources tell Al Borsa that a ministry committee is almost done putting together a proposed pricing guide that is meant to ensure patients’ access to treatment and set a fair profit margin for hospitals. Implementation of the Universal Healthcare Act, which President Abdel Fattah El Sisi signed into law last month, is expected to begin in July, starting with Canal cities. Health Minister Ahmed Rady had said last week that Cabinet would receive the executive regulations to the act before the weekend.

INVESTMENT WATCH- Is Abdul Latif Jameel returning to Egypt’s renewables sector after a near two-year absence? Saudi conglomerate Abdul Latif Jameel is reportedly among 18 companies bidding on a 600 MW solar power plant in the West Nile area, sources close to the matter told Al Borsa on Thursday. The company was among severalpulled out of Benban solar park during the back-and-forth over phase one of the feed-in-tariff program in 2016. Abdul Latif Jameel also reportedly backed away a 200 MW solar plant in Kom Ombo, a 200 MW wind power plant in the West Nile area, and a 250 MW solar plant in the same area.

The company has reportedly placed a USD 500 mn bid for the 600 MW West Nile project and is open to forming a consortium to go after, the sources added. Toyota Tsusho, Orascom, a Scatec Solar and Azuri Power consortium, GCL New Energy, a Masdar-Genco consortium, NTPC Limited, and EDRA were among the 18 companies competing with Abdul Latif Jameel for the solar plant tender issued last week.

INVESTMENT WATCH- Phanes Group eyeing potential solar power projects in Egypt worth USD 200 mn: Dubai-based solar energy developer Phanes Group is eyeing new projects in Egypt in the first phase of a plan to invest USD 200 mn in the region’s renewable energy sector, CEO Martin Haupts tells The National in an interview. The company is looking to develop projects with a combined capacity of 150 MW. “‘We’re looking at Egypt from two perspectives — one is we have a number of [agreements] that are advancing in the pipeline and the second round of programs could be interesting once we see how the first phase pans out,’” he said. “‘You have a lot of industry in Egypt, which is good. So we’re looking at the [critical national infrastructure (CNI) segment. It's interesting and feasible in the country.”

MOVES- Osama El Sheikh submitted his resignation as chairman and CEO of Egyptian Media Group (EMG) after a brief run, Al Shorouk reports. El Sheikh will be succeeded by Tamer Morsi at the Eagle Capital-owned group. Eagle Capital Chairperson Dalia Khorshid said Morsi will bring over 25 years of media and advertising experience to EMG.

MOVES- Khaled Bichara has stepped down from the board of Orascom Telecom and Media Technology, according to a company statement. Bichara currently serves as the chairman of Dada.it and the co-CEO of Accelero Capital.

MOVES- Banque du Caire has appointed Hazem Hegazy as deputy chairman starting March, sources tell Al Masry Al Youm. Hegazy joins Banque du Caire from the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), where he was the head of retail banking and SMEs.

EARNINGS WATCH- The National Bank of Kuwait Egypt reported a 77.07% y-o-y jump in net profit to EGP 1.5 bn in FY2017, according to the company’s earnings release (pdf).

EARNINGS WATCH- Global Telecom Holding (GTH) reported a net loss attributable to shareholders of USD 133 mn in 4Q2017, down from a net profit of USD 7 mn in 4Q2016. GTH’s total revenues decreased to USD 724 mn during the period from USD 768 mn a year earlier.

Four consortia of domestic and Arab investors are competing for contracts to build cooling plants in the new administrative capital with a total capacity of 120k tonnes per day, sources tell Al Borsa. The bidding consortia are Orascom-Engie, Elsewedy-Unicool, Gas Cool-Petrojet, and a Hassan Allam-led consortium. The New Administrative Capital Company for Urban Development is reviewing the offers and will decide on the winning bid within two months, the newspaper says.

Our friends at CIB received the UNDP’s Energy Efficiency Award for being the first organization to use efficient lighting systems across all its branches in Egypt, AmCham announced last week.

INFRASTRUCTURE WATCH- European funding in the pipeline for Cairo Metro Line One, dry ports, desalination plant and Alexandria tram: The Transport Ministry expects to sign in May a EUR 600 mn loan agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the French Development Agency (AFD) to finance the infrastructure of Cairo Metro Line 1, Al Mal reports. According to the agreement, the National Authority for Tunnels will contribute an additional EUR 100 mn for the project.

The EBRD is also planning to fund six dry ports and a desalination plant in Egypt this year under a plan to invest EUR 1.5 bn in the country in 2018, Managing Director for the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region, Janet Heckman, told Al Mal, without elaborating.

The Transport ministry will sign a separate EUR 237 mn loan agreement with the EIB and AFD to finance the Alexandria tram project in September. The AFD has also facilitated a EUR 8 mn grant to fund the technical studies for the project, and is expected to sign the contract for the funding next month.

Russian media wants Egypt to get the message that the US doesn’t want us to have Rafale jets: “The US government doesn't want a country like Egypt to possess such technology," Alexandre Vautravers, an official at the Geneva Center for Security Policy (GCSP), told Russian state-owned outlet Sputnik on Saturday. He is referring to reports, which we noted last week, that suggest a US ban on component sales of the Rafale’s Scalp missiles was behind floundering talks between Egypt and France over the sale of 12 Rafale jets. Vautravers says this is a deliberate move by the US as “this type of missile could influence power dynamics in the whole Middle East and create a problem across the region if it was used against a country like Israel.”

The number of passengers traveling to Egypt from German airports rose 69.1% y-o-y in 2017 to 1.39 mn passengers, according to the German Federal Statistics Office. The increase comes as Germany’s outbound tourism reached a new all-time high in 2017, driven in part by a 35.2% boom in air traffic to African countries, including Morocco.

Abraaj undergoes restructuring following allegations of “misuse” of health fund: Emerging markets private equity giant Abraaj Group announced on Friday that it is undergoing a management restructuring and corporate reorganization that will see Omar Lodhi and Selcuk Yorgancioglu promoted to co-CEOs alongside the firm’s founder Arif Naqvi, effective immediately. The reorganization will see the spinoff of Abraaj Investment Management Limited (AIML) from Abraaj Holdings, which will be independently managed. “The fund management business will continue to oversee the operations of all of Abraaj’s funds globally on behalf of leading institutional investors and manage a portfolio of investee businesses across Asia, Africa, Middle East, Turkey and Latin America,” a company statement said.

“AIML has commissioned a comprehensive review of its corporate structure with areas of focus to include governance and control functions. Independent specialist consultants have been retained to carry out this review,” the statement says. This change follows reports first printed in the Wall Street Journal that a number of top investors in the firm’s Abraaj Growth Markets Health Fund had sought an independent review of an alleged delay in deploying capital called by the fund. The firm shot back at the reports (pdf), calling them inaccurate and explaining the delay.

“The key now is to fix the plumbing and the backbone, and that is what we are really focused on doing right now” for the fund management business, Naqvi said in an interview with Bloomberg on Friday. “This has got to be the right time to create the transitionary moment when we create an entity that is fit for purpose going forward,” he added.

Sources confirm North Korea hacked OTMT: North Korea’s hacking units did attack desktop computers and laptops at Orascom Telecom Media and Technology (OTMT), people familiar with the matter tell Bloomberg. Hackers gained access through emails laced with malware that exploits a security hole in Adobe Flash. The vulnerability has since been patched by security experts, the sources added. The anonymous statements appear to confirm reports last week citing cybersecurity firm FireEye that the state had indeed hacked OTMT after a reported business dispute with the company pertaining to its telecom JV with the Kim Jong Un regime Koryolink. The dispute between OTMT and North Korea appears to revolve around the Pyongyang government forming its own competing network to Koryolink. OTMT boss Naguib Sawiris has been under US pressure to divest Koryolink.

The US plans to open its embassy in Jerusalem this May to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel’s founding, US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Friday. The embassy will initially be comprised of the ambassador and limited staff and will be working out of the US consulate in Jerusalem. The US is in the meantime searching for a permanent site for the embassy. The inauguration of the Jerusalem embassy in May seems to be an acceleration of the initial plan that set the date of the move at the end of 2019, Reuters notes.

Meanwhile, Egypt and Hamas have reportedly reached an agreement to ease restrictions on the Rafah border crossing, The Times of Israel says. The agreement would allow more goods to pass between the two sides to improve living conditions in Gaza, but its implementation is contingent on Israeli approval.

The United Nations Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire in Syria to allow aid deliveries and medical evacuations, Reuters reports. The vote came after hundreds of civilians were killed in the past week as the government bombarded the Eastern Ghouta rebel enclave near Damascus.