Foreigners invested a net amount of EGP 7.4 bn (USD 414 mn) in the Egyptian stock market in 2017, according to Reuters. Since the EGP float in November 2016, foreigners have injected EGP 13 bn into the EGX. The EGX30 has increased 19% this year and “annual trading has exceeded EGP 292 bn,” EGX Chairman Mohamed Farid told reporters yesterday, according to the Associated Press. “Farid says the index has been the driving force behind making the Egyptian Exchange the top market in the Arab world.”

IPO WATCH- Some 14 real estate and tourism companies are preparing to offer shares on the bourse next year, EGX Chairman Mohamed Farid told the press yesterday, Al Borsa reports. The 14 IPO contenders are subsidiaries of eight larger companies, according to Farid, who added that another six companies in the financial and petrochemicals industries are still in the early phases of their respective IPO plans and currently looking into the requirements and conditions. As we noted yesterday, EFG Hermes expects to hold three IPOs next year, including Unionaire Group and Oriental Petrochemicals Company. Meanwhile, the long-awaited IPO of Banque du Caire is expected sometime during 4Q2018, according to EFG Hermes’ Co-Head of Investment Banking Mostafa Gad.

IPO WATCH- The state-owned Al Ahram is planning to list 25% of its shares on the EGX as part of its restructuring plan, Chairman Abdel Mohsen Salama said yesterday, Al Mal reports. The initial public offering, the timeline for which Salama doesn’t provide, is expected to generate around EGP 25 bn in proceeds, as the organization is currently valued at EGP 100 bn, he said. He also said that Al Ahram has accumulated some EGP 1.6 bn in debts and proceeds will be used to reduce the organization’s deficit by 80% by 2020.

A subsidiary of El Sewedy Electric signed an EGP 477 mn contract with the New Urban Communities Authority to construct the Badr City power transformers station, according to a bourse disclosure. The project will be developed over 12 months.

INVESTMENT WATCH- Longreen Capital Advisors is planning to invest EGP 300-400 mn in Egypt over the next two years, Founding Partner Ahmed Farouk tells Al Borsa. Longreen plans to close two or three agreements within that time period in the food and beverage, retail, export, and production sectors, according to Farouk. The firm had announced earlier this month its acquisition of Egyptian International Restaurants Company, operator of the El Omda restaurant chain. Longreen plans to increase the company’s branches to 30, up from 12 currently, within three to five years.

Saudi Arabia temporarily bans imports of Egyptian guavas: Saudi Arabia issued yesterday a temporary ban on imports of fresh Egyptian guavas over concerns of high levels of residual pesticides, according to the Saudi Press Agency. The ban was issued after test results proved that shipments of Egyptian guavas contained “pesticide residues at a rate higher than the internationally recognized permitted limit.” It remains unclear when the ban will come into effect. Saudi Arabia had banned Egyptian peppers last December — prompting the UAE and Kuwait to follow suit — and then slapped a separate ban on Egyptian strawberries in July, after both products were found to contain high levels of residual pesticides. The Agriculture Ministry had previously moved to impose stricter regulations on exports to the GCC after the successive bans, and said in July that Egyptian guava exports would be subjected to Global Good Agricultural Practices standards as of this season.

North America-Far East shipping lines granted 50% discount on fees at Suez Canal ports: Suez Canal Authority (SCA) Chairman Mohab Mamish issued a decision yesterday slashing port fees by 50% for ships traveling from North America to the Far East via Egypt, an unidentified source tells Al Mal. The discounts are applicable to long-haul cargo ships that stop at the East Port Said or Ain Sokhna ports for transit services or commercial operations. Officials had announced in August that the government would be granting breaks as high as 50% on Suez Canal port fees, with the discounts being proportionate to the volume of cargo being shipped. The Transport Ministry had started implementing unified port fees nationwide in October, after Minister Hisham Arafat and Mamish agreed on the measure back in June. A number of major shipping firms had decided to quit the East Port Said port to protest Egypt’s move to hike port fees.

LEGISLATION WATCH- The House of Representatives’ Economics Committee is expected to finalize its review of the amended Capital Markets Act “soon” and pass it along for a plenary session vote, Investment and International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr said yesterday, according to Al Mal. The amended act is expected to bring a basket of new financial instruments to the market, including futures trading and a commodities exchange, in addition to introducing penalties for financial crimes and new rules governing taxes for the sector.

Also yesterday, the House Economics and Industry committees agreed on extending the deadline for importers to comply with amendments to the Importers Registry Act until the end of June 2018, Al Borsa reports. The deadline had been set for end of December this year. The General Authority for Export and Import Control had agreed in November to grant importers temporary licenses until they were able to fulfill the new requirements, which increase the minimum required capital for importers.

Elsewhere in the House, the Tourism Committee gave a preliminary nod yesterday to amendments to the Civil Aviation Law, while the general assembly signed off on a EUR 225 mn loan agreement with German development bank KfW that Egypt had signed last October. The facility is meant to support economic and social reforms and will be repaid over nine years at an annual interest rate of 2.88%, according to deputy head of the House Planning and Budgeting Committee, Yasser Omar.

Also on the agenda, MPs at the Housing Committee are planning to begin deliberating on a new Social Housing Act “within days,” according to Al Masry Al Youm.

World Bank to join GERD talks as a neutral fourth party mediator? Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan could call on the World Bank to help mediate talks over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry suggested during a visit to Addis Ababa yesterday. Discussions between the three countries recently reached an impasse after Ethiopia and Sudan refused to acknowledge the results of environmental impact studies proving the dam would negatively impact Egypt’s Nile Water Supply. Shoukry said that the World Bank would act in a purely technical capacity as an objective fourth party mediator to help end the stalemate, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

Ethiopian Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu “did not comment on the Egyptian proposal” at the press conference that followed his meeting with Shoukry yesterday, Reuters reports. Shoukry, however, stressed yesterday that the trilateral Declaration of Principles signed in 2015 requires consensus over the results of the studies before Ethiopia can fill up the dam’s reservoirs.

The minister further discussed the issue with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn in a separate meeting.

Veg oil reserves are enough to meet consumption for three months, sugar for five: Egypt’s strategic vegetable oil reserves are enough to meet consumption needs for more than three months and those of sugar are equivalent to five months of consumption, the Supply Ministry announced yesterday, according to Reuters. “Egypt also has enough locally produced rice to feed demand for the next 12 months, Supply Ministry spokesman Mamdouh Ramadan added.

MOVES- Al-Ahram journalist Ezzat Ibrahim has been appointed as Ahram Online’s new editor-in-chief, the paper reports. Ibrahim is the current editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram's print publication Ahram Weekly.

Correction- Our friends at EFG Hermes got in touch to tell us they are targeting the production of 1,000 MW from renewable energy sources in Egypt by 2020, not 2,000 MW. The entry has been corrected on our website.