Inflation surges in July: The annual urban headline inflation rate increased to 33% in July from 29.8% in June with the m-o-m rate also rising to 3.2% from 0.8%, according to CAPMAS. The annual rate is the highest since the EGP float last November. Core inflation also shot up to 35.26% on an annualised basis from 31.95% in June, Reuters notes.
Blame subsidy reform, VAT: The government had implemented new fuel and electricity price increases as well as increasing the value-added tax rate to 14% from 13% Pharos Holding head of research Radwa El Swaify tells Bloomberg.
It could get worse before it gets better: El Swaify believes inflation could rise to 36% in August and September “because it takes about three months for the full pass-through of the subsidy cuts into the economy,” but that the rates should see a significant drop in the annual rates starting November because of base effects. Tap here to read Pharos’ Thursday research note on the topic (pdf), including breakdowns on contribution to inflation by category and of non-food items specifically.
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Short selling coming to the EGX? The EGX and Misr for Central Clearing, Depository, and Registry (MCDR) plan on introducing upgrades to the bourse’s trading systems that herald the coming of short-selling and an options market, newly-appointed EGX boss Mohamed Farid said on Saturday, Al Borsa reports. The announcement comes more than a decade after regulations were put into place to regulate shorts, the newspaper notes. Farid agreed with MCDR Chairman Mohamed Abdel Salam yesterday that they would begin developing the new system next week, but gave no indication as to when it could be implemented. The EGX has been the belle of the ball in the region since the November float. If implemented, the measures would spark new interest in our market, so we can expect some added volumes from foreign traders. This would also propel the EGX out to the front of the regional pack in terms of trading capability.
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Egypt has pulled in USD 40 bn worth of inbound investment and transfers from abroad since the EGP float in November, said CBE Deputy Governor Rami Aboul Naga on Thursday. The influx comes from receipts from exports, the carry trade, and de-USDization (either on the local market or through remittances) he added according to Bloomberg.
The country managed to attract USD 15 bn to government debt since the float, said Finance Minister Amr El Garhy on Thursday in remarks to a team from ratings agency Moody’s, which was in town for one of its periodic check-ins, according to a ministry statement. The Moody’s team also met with other senior government officials; the ratings agency affirmed Egypt’s B3 rating with a stable outlook last month.
Meanwhile, average yields on six-month and one-year T-bills fell further on Thursday, following a downward trend since the CBE announced a surge in international net reserves to USD 36.036 bn, Reuters reports. Yields on one-year bill have fallen 2.25% since reserves were announced, while six-month T-bill yields fell by 2.34%.
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CBE breathing life back into FX bureaus? The central bank plans to allow up to 24 FX bureaus it had shuttered last year at the height of the FX crunch to come back to life, according to statements by CBE Sub-Governor Tarek Fayed on Saturday. The move comes as FX reserves have been shored up, reaching USD 36 bn in July. By Al Masry Al Youm’s count, up to 27 bureaus were given temporary suspensions or saw their licenses revoked for engaging in black market FX transactions.
On a related note, the National Bank of Egypt plans to open a foreign exchange company sometime this week, said the head of the new company, who explained it will operate outside banking hours and could open 50 branches nationwide.
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Zulficar & Partners has been tapped as legal advisor on three M&As in the healthcare and retail sectors, senior associate Hegui Taha tells Al Mal. Zulficar & Partners will be advising on an acquisition of an unnamed Egyptian retail chain by a foreign bidder in a transaction worth EGP 700-800 mn. Taha added that the firm will also advise on acquisition of a hospital by a multinational but did not elaborate. The firm is also advising on the acquisition of a hospital with a ticket size of EGP 40-50 mn, Taha said.
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MOVES- Prime Minister Sherif Ismail appointed Investment and International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr as chairperson of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI). Nasr, meanwhile, announced that Mona Zobaa was appointed as the full-time Managing Director of GAFI. Zobaa has been the acting head of GAFI since May. Ismail’s decision also included appointing Mohamed Abdel Wahab as Zobaa’s deputy. Incoming GAFI board members include Banque Misr head Mohamed El Etreby and Tarek Tawfik, who will represent the Federation of Egyptian Industries. The newly appointed board will hold office for three years.
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MOVES- Orange Egypt has appointed Ashraf Halim as deputy to CEO Jean-Marc Harion, according to the company’s website. The changeup in management also includes hiring Etisalat's head of corporate sales, Abdelfattah Faizy, as Orange’s new VP of sales. Vodafone Egypt veteran Maha Nagy joins to head communications, according to Al Mal. The moves come about a month after board-level changes that saw Bruno Mettling become chairman after the sudden resignation of Atef Helmy.
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EARNINGS WATCH- Palm Hills Developments reported a 114% y-o-y increase in net profit after tax and minority interest to EGP 137 mn in 2Q2017. New sales grew by 156% y-o-y to EGP 2.5 bn in 2Q2017. The company also reported a 51% y-o-y increase in revenues to EGP 1.6 bn.
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Egyptian cotton is making a comeback: Exports of Egypt’s long-staple cotton are expected to rise 19% y-o-y to 38,000 tonnes in the 2016-17 export season which ends this month, according to Reuters. This follows a six-year slump marked by lax enforcement of quality measures on cotton. After strict measures on cultivating long-staple cotton were enforced last year, production has been scaled up to about 220,000 acres this year and is expected to hit up to 500,000 acres in the next two to three years, according to cotton traders. That, coupled with a weaker EGP since the float, has led to growth in exports. Modern Nile Cotton, Egypt's largest cotton trading company, expects to more than double its exports to about 16,000 tonnes this year from about 7,000 in the season that ends this month, chairman Ahmed El Bosaty tells Reuters.
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Two trains collided on Friday in Alexandria killing 42 and injuring 133, according to the latest tally by the Health Ministry. “Human error” was likely behind the crash, Transportation Minister Hisham Arafat said on talk show appearances last night. “To avoid it, we have to develop the infrastructure,” he said. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi ordered an investigation into the accident, according to Reuters, and Chief Prosecutor Nabil Sadek has appointed a committee to take up the task. Egypt sees more than 1,000 train accidents on average each year, according to CAPMAS statistics picked up by Egyptian Streets.
Word from the House of Representative rumor mill is that Arafat might sack the head of the Egyptian National Railways, Medhat Shousha, who was called into an “urgent” meeting with the minister yesterday after a fire broke out in another train on the Cairo-Aswan road when the engine overheated, sources tell Al Mal. There were no reports of casualties from the fire. The House’s Transportation Committee has asked both Arafat and Shousha to testify on the incident.
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Sudan has been invited to join Bright-Star, the premier US-Egyptian military exercises, Reuters reports. The news is doubly significant: The US has eased sanctions against Khartoum, and the invite comes at a time when Egypt and Sudan seem to be looking for footing to move forward.
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The uneasy calm that prevailed through the Kenyan elections has broken with the results that President Uhuru Kenyatta was victorious, The FT reports. Opposition leader Raila Odinga has rejected the results and accuses Kenyatta of tampering even though no evidence has been presented. Most of the unrest has been in Odinga strongholds and the death toll now stands at 24, unfortunate that the last two rounds of elections have seen much higher numbers than that. More from the Guardian, CNN and the BBC.
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