Here’s the plan on the next eurobond issuance: The government is planning to issue USD-denominated eurobonds between January and February 2018, followed by a EUR-denominated issue later, Finance Minister Amr El Garhy said, according to Reuters. El Garhy says the USD-denominated issue will be worth EUR 3-4 bn and the EUR-denominated bond around EUR 1-1.5 bn. “We’re studying whether there could be a chance for something in November, but I think it would be between January and February. We may begin with the USD-denominated eurobond followed by the EUR one,” El Garhy says. Bloomberg’s Ahmed Feteha and Mirette Magdy confirmed that El Garhy’s plan for the issuances was leaning away from the holiday season in December.

The timing for EM bond issuances remains optimal as Abu Dhabi raised USD 10 bn in bonds on Tuesday, pushing MENA bond sales this year to a record USD 89 bn, according to Bloomberg. The emirate sold USD 3 bn of five-year notes, USD 4 bn of the 10-year tranche and USD 3 bn of the 30-year offering, people familiar with the matter said. The transaction raised total demand from investors of around USD 30 bn, they said.

Separately, El Garhy also announced yesterday that tax revenues increased 31.8% y-o-y to record EGP 464.4 bn in the fiscal year that ended in Egypt, up from EGP 352.3 bn in FY 2015-16. Total government revenues also increased by 34% y-o-y to record EGP 659.2 bn FY 2016-17, up from EGP 491.5 bn a year earlier. Interest rate hikes will dive the government’s borrowing costs up to EGP 410 bn in FY 2017-18 from the targeted EGP 380 bn, he added.

Meanwhile, the government is targeting export revenues of USD 23 bn by the end of the year, said Shereen El Shorbagy, head of the Trade and Industry Ministry's Export Development Authority. Exports from 9M2017 had already reached USD 14 bn, or 60% of the target, she tells Al Borsa. The ministry hopes to raise the annual export target by 10% in 2018 to USD 25.3 bn.

Companies in Egypt are strongly optimistic about their growth prospects, according to September’s reading of the Emirates NBD PMI compiled by Markit. The index overall slipped to 47.4, a three-month low, because of reductions in new orders and output and accelerated job losses. A potentially worrying sign is that new export orders declined for the first time since March, which panelists said was partly driven by political and economic uncertainty in neighbouring countries. “Improving export demand had been the one bright spot in the PMI surveys over the last few months, but unfortunately this seems to have reversed in September, with new export orders declining for the first time in six months. Both output and total new orders fell at a faster rate in September as domestic demand remained weak. However, businesses were more upbeat about the outlook for the coming year, with expectations for as a more stable currency and lower inflation,” Head of MENA Research at Emirates NBD, Khatija Haque, commented.

CBE raises required reserve on local currency deposits to 14%: The central bank will raise the required reserve ratio on local currency deposits for domestic banks to 14% from 10% as of 10 October, a statement picked up by Reuters says. The bank said it was an “appropriate” time to bring the ratio back to its pre-2012 levels “in light of Egyptian banks’ strong financial indicators and improving performance and profitability.” The CBE had cut reserve requirements to 10% “in order to provide banks with more cash to lend to the government and businesses,” the wire notes.

These are the people who will be moving the Ismail government’s business agenda through the House of Representatives this fall: The House of Representatives elected the chairs of some 25 standing committees yesterday, Al Shorouk reports. Rep. Amr Ghallab from the pro-government Support Egypt Coalition — the largest political bloc in parliament — held onto the leadership of the key House Economic Committee, Al Ahram reports. This makes him the House’s point man on everything from the Bankruptcy and Capital Markets Acts to the Central Bank and Banking Act, and the committee will also likely have a voice in the drafting of government bills on universal healthcare and other pieces of interest to business.

Among the other committee chairs elected yesterday and of interest to the business community, culled from a thorough rundown by Ahram Online:

• Budget and planning — Hussein Eissa (Support Egypt), professor of commerce and former president of Ain Shams University.
• Industry — Ahmed Samir (Support Egypt), industrial engineer
• Energy and environment — Mohamed Rashwan (may be subject to re-vote after business leader Talaat El Sewedy filed an appeal against the result of the vote)
• Tourism and civil aviation — Sahar Talaat Mostafa (Support Egypt), the Alexandria business figure.
• Healthcare — Mohamed El-Amari (Support Egypt), professor of surgery
• Transport and communications — Hesham Abdel-Wahed (Future of the Homeland)
• Agriculture — Hesham El-Shiini (Free Egyptians)
• Housing and public utilities — Moataz Mahmoud (independent)
• Labour — Gibali El-Maraghi, head of the General Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions
• Telecoms and IT — Nidal El Said (Future of the Homeland)
• Media, culture and antiquities — Osama Heikal (Support Egypt), former information minister and head of Media Production City.

Hot tickets: The economic, transport, local administration, energy and environment, and telecoms committee chairmanships were particularly contested, the media reports.

Do overs: Parliamentary Speaker Ali Abdel Aal also agreed to hold fresh elections for the African affairs, energy and environment, and defense and national security committees on Sunday, after the results of the first elections were appealed, Al Masry Al Youm reports.

M&A WATCH- BPE Partners and MTI acquire Bee: BPE Partners and MM Group for Industry and International Trade (MTI) have together acquired 60% of TBE Egypt for Payment Solutions and Services (Bee) for EGP 156 mn along with the company announced in a statement on Tuesday. The transaction was executed through Ebtikar for Financial Investment, a 50-50 joint venture between BPE Partners and MTI. Bee provides bill payment solutions through a secure network and has more than 35,000 outlets across Egypt. “We envision a great expansion plan for Bee as it ventures into more services and adds more clients,” said Aladdin Saba, chairman and CEO of Ebtikar and co-founder of BPE Partners. The transaction will go forward through the purchase of Bee’s shares, extending a convertible shareholders loan to the company, and a capital increase, MTI said in a statement.

M&A WATCH- The Sawiris family’s Gemini Holding has sold microfinance player Reefy to CI Capita. CI Capital reached an agreement to acquire a majority stake in microfinance provider Reefy from Gemini Egypt Holding for Financial Investments, CI Capital said in a statement (pdf)yesterday. The company did not disclose details on the size of the transaction. CI Capital aims to integrate Reefy onto its platform of non-banking financial services, which includes Corplease, the statement added. Beltone Financial, the Sawiris-owned investment bank, had previously kicked the tires at Reefy. CI Capital’s acquisition will now await regulatory approval from the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority.

Orascom Construction added USD 750 mn to its project backlog in 3Q2017 in the Middle East, mainly Egypt, and the United States, the company said in a statement issued yesterday (pdf). USD 550 mn of the total is in projects related to infrastructure and select buildings work in Egypt, while the rest is comprised mostly of commercial and federal infrastructure work for Weitz and Contrack Watts in the US. “We had indicated that we are pursuing an active bidding pipeline in MENA and USA, and remain confident that we will continue to sign more projects that fit our criteria,” CEO Osama Bishai says.

SODIC’s strategy rests on building communities in urban areas recently slated for development, helping further the development goals of the government, CEO Magued Sherif told Al Mal in an interview. To that end, the company is targeting the acquisition of some 650 feddans before the end of the year, including 300 feddans of land on the North Coast to co-develop with existing landowners. The company is also eyeing new land in Sheikh Zayed, Sherif tells the newspaper. We had previously noted that SODIC has earmarked EGP 750 mn for new land purchases in 2H2017. Sherif noted that SODIC’s strong liquidity position supports its plan to grow its 5 mn sqm land bank. EGP 1.5 bn of the EGP 3.3 bn it has in reserves have been spent so far, he said.

Is the Russian Industrial Zone back on? Cairo expects to sign an agreement with Moscow on the Russian Industrial Zone before the year is out, Trade and Industry Minister Tarek Kabil said on Tuesday. Kabil’s statements following a meeting with Russia’s Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Georgy Kalamanov. Early last month, Russian Trade Minister Denis Manturov surprised us all with the announcement that Moscow had postponed the signing of the agreement to establish an industrial zone in Port Said until early 2018 pending further review and amendments. Recently, Kalamanov said that his government has finished drafting the “executive work plan” for the project, according to a ministry statement picked up by Reuters. The USD 190 mn project is hoped to bring in around USD 7 bn in investments, said Kabil.

The National Payments Council will authorize a payment card framework with a national trademark that would give holders, mostly the unbanked, access to financial services, according to an Ittihadiya statement. The decision is originally part of a central bank initiative to enhance financial inclusion and came during the council’s second meeting yesterday, where members decided as well to continue offering discounts on mobile payment fees until June 2018

The Ismail government is adamant that ticket prices on the Cairo Metro will rise as soon as an in-progress overhaul of the mass transport system is completed in a year or two, Transportation Minister Hisham Arafat said at a forum on the logistics sector held by the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt. He said that doubling the price of Metro ticket prices earlier in the year did not dissuade users, and that the number of commuters had in fact jumped 10% since, Al Shorouk reports.

Speaking on the role of the private sector in the national railway overhaul plan, Arafat said both the Safaga-Abou Tartour and the Aswan-Luxor-Hurghada lines were both being put up for the private sector to develop, according to Al Borsa. The ministry also plans to open more ports to private sector developments under the EPC+Finance, public-private partnership, and build-operate-transfer frameworks.

The Council of State signed off yesterday on amendments to the Criminal Procedures Act, which among other things seeks to expedite the prosecution of terror cases judicial sources tell Youm7. The bill — which is also expected to safeguard suspects’ rights to a phone call, a lawyer, and fair treatment — is being sent back to the Ismail Cabinet for review and, once approved, will go to the House of Representatives.

As we noted yesterday, the Ismail Cabinet also received the Universal Healthcare Act, which the Council of State sent back with a single reservation regarding the gradual rollout of the law across governorates, which that would violate constitutional clauses the equality of all citizens. The Health Ministry had planned to roll the new system out in phases with the goal of achieving nationwide application by 2030, starting with canal governorates. The act is expected to improve the public’s access to quality healthcare by expanding coverage to bread earners and their families. It could also carry the seeds of price control and stricter regulation of the non-pharma end of the healthcare industry.

First signs of trouble in Palestinian reconciliation emerge as cabinet holds first meeting in Gaza: The Egypt-mediated Palestinian reconciliation ran into its first hurdle yesterday when Hamas rejected Fatah’s call to dismantle its military arm, theAssociated Press reports. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh told Amr Adib in an interview that the group would not lay down its arms “as long as there is occupation” (watch, runtime 23:04). This came as Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah held the first cabinet meeting in Gaza yesterday “in another symbolic step toward reconciliation.”

Egypt will soon host both factions in Cairo for talks, according to an Ittihadiya statement. General Intelligence boss Khaled Fawzi — President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s special envoy to the reconciliation talks — also arrived in Gaza yesterday to meet with the unity government, after having sat down with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, Wafa News Agency reports.

King Salman’s visit to Russia legitimizes Putin as a force in the region: King Salman will become the first Saudi Arabian monarch to visit Russia and the latest of Middle East rulers to attempt to strengthen diplomatic ties with Vladimir Putin, Bloomberg reports. Topping his agenda for the trip later this week was attempting to isolate Saudi’s regional rivals Iran — a close ally of Russia’s. The move represents a paradigm shift in regional politics in a region where the US was the sole arbitrator. “Putin has succeeded in making Russia a factor in the Middle East. That’s why you see a constant stream of Middle Eastern visitors going to Moscow,” says said Dennis Ross, the US’ former chief Mideast peace negotiator. Energy and other economic agreements appear to be in the offing. Saudi Arabia is considering investing in Russia’s largest oil drilling contractor, Eurasia Drilling Co., and Novatek PJSC’s proposed Arctic LNG 2, according to officials with knowledge of talks. While discussions are at an early stage, some framework accords could be signed during King Salman’s trip, one of the officials said.

A blast outside Manama injured five Bahraini policemen on Monday, according to Reuters. The policemen were protecting a Shiite procession celebrating the ‘Ashura festival, and local investigators are treating the attack as a terrorist act.

The European Commission plans to slam Amazon today with overdue tax bills “worth several hundred mn EUR,” according to the Financial Times (paywall). The move follows a nearly three-year long investigation alleging “that the US online retailer benefited from a sweetheart tax deal that granted it almost a decade of illegal state support from Luxembourg, the hub of its EU operations.” It also comes as part of a wider EU crackdown on multinational corporations for tax evasion, being the Commission’s fourth case in around half a dozen tax probes it has launched since 2013.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen defended her position in voting to release AIG from its status as a company “too big to fail,” saying that the insurer is a changed business from the one that needed a USD 185 bn taxpayer bailout,according to the FT (paywall). Yellen said that while AIG needed the regulation after the financial crisis, it no longer poses a systemic threat. Yellen’s vote strikes a deregulatory tone that the Trump administration will favour and we can’t help but think that with her seat up for grabs in 2018 this might be an effort to curry favour before a decision is made.