Good morning, folks. You may be on your way to work or sitting at your desk wishing it was still the weekend. So if you need a little pick me up, you’ll be glad to hear that power outages will not be returning. We’ve got this and more to kick off the week in the issue, below.

BUT FIRST- We’re now only two days away from this year’s EnterpriseAM Finance Forum, taking place on Tuesday, 24 September.

Taking to thes stage at EnterpriseAM Finance Forum this year is Investment Minister Hassan El Khatib, who’s joining us to outline a vision for where we’re going as a community and as an economy. The keynote interview will get underway at 9am sharp, and you won’t want to miss our exclusive networking breakfast from 8am.

Among the topics on the agenda, which you can view here:

  • Welcome to the hot seat — top industry CEOs set the tone by addressing the biggest (and toughest) questions of the day.
  • Looking from the outside in — what foreign investors and strategics think about Egypt right now.
  • The only asset class in town — It’s real estate or nothing. We’ll get into the ins and outs of the industry, how it’s financing itself, which areas (and price points) are next, and more.
  • Gazing into that crystal ball — The outlook for dealflow in 2025, from M&A and IPOs to securitization, FX and more.
  • A once in a generation opportunity? — A deep dive into the promise and pitfalls of the emerging energy economy.
  • Do we really love banking SMEs? — With NBFIs and fintech players staking their claims, banks are starting to take the SME market seriously.
  • The NBFI panel — The resilience of the Egyptian consumer is the business story of the decade. How are banks and NBFS players building sustainable businesses? What are the opportunities — and credit worries — in the B2B space?

** IMPORTANT NOTE — If you’ve already received your invitation on email, you *must* click through to confirm you’re attending.

PSA-

WEATHER- It’s finally starting to feel like the summer weather is coming to an end in Cairo today, with a high of 32°C and a low of 23°C, according to our favorite weather app.

It’s a few degrees cooler over in Alexandria, with a high of 29°C and a low of 22°C.

** DID YOU KNOW that we now cover Saudi Arabia and the UAE?

** Were you forwarded this email? Tap or click here to get your own copy delivered every weekday before 7am Cairo time — without charge.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

#1- Is the state’s privatization program about to pick up a gear? The government is looking to sell an additional 10% of its stake in Telecom Egypt before the end of this year, a government source told Enterprise.

Remember: The 70% state-owned telecommunications giant was added in 2023 to the state’s list of 35 companies that the government is planning offload stakes for.

AND- The Madbouly government has resumed negotiations for the sale of the state’s remaining 20% stake in Alexbank to Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo Group, which currently holds the remaining 80% of the lender, the source added. If negotiations fall through once again, then the government will sell its stake to another strategic investor, the source said. Negotiations over the sale of the government’s remaining stake in the bank were brought to a halt over disagreements on its valuation.

PLUS- Brace for privatization shakeup: The state is revising its list of assets earmarked for privatization and has plans to bring in USD 1.5-2 bn from the program during the current fiscal year, another government source told us.

#2- A consortium of Egyptian, Saudi, and Emirati companies are planning to announce a “major” USD 800 mn industrial sector merger next month, Zilla Capital Managing Partner Moustafa El Shenety — whose investment bank will help orchestrate the merger — told Asharq Business.

#3- Emaar chief Mohamed Alabbar is planning to invest USD 2 bn by the end of 2025, he told CNBC Arabia. Alabbar added that he was interested in projects along the Red Sea and that he would also be open to a project in Ras El Hekma if land is offered up for a project.

#4- Could we see our third fuel price hike of the year? The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) has started its review of fuel prices and is expected to submit its findings to the fuel pricing committee by the end of this week, ahead of its meeting next month, government sources told Al Arabiya. The committee is scheduled to meet in October to review fuel prices for 4Q 2024 and the most likely scenario points to the committee leaving prices unchanged on the back of a dip in global crude oil prices.

(Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background as well as external sources.)

Remember: The government has hiked fuel prices twice this year — hiking petrol prices by 8-10% and diesel prices by 21.1% in March then again in July, when it hiked prices by up to 15%.

DATA POINT-

The government expects pharma exports to reach USD 1.5 bn during the current fiscal year, up from 1 bn the previous fiscal year, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly said during a televised address yesterday (watch, runtime: 12:12). The number is expected to reach USD 2 bn within two years and USD 3 bn before 2030.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

The news is sadly much the same as when we last gave a round-up of the international press before the weekend, with Israel continuing to pound Lebanon and Gaza and the depressingly familiar reports of children and civilians continuing to find themselves on the receiving end of attacks.

An Israeli strike on a residential building in a Beirut suburb killed at least 37 yesterday — including three children and seven women — in an attack purportedly directed at a meeting of some of Hezbollah’s top military leadership. Senior Hezbollah leader Ibrahim Aqil was killed in the attack, along with 15 other Hezbollah members, according to the Israeli military, with Hezbollah confirming the deaths of the nine members identified by Israel. Aqil is the most high-profile member of Hezbollah’s inner circle to be killed by Israel since Fuad Shukr was killed in July.

While attention has turned towards Lebanon, Israel has kept its bloody assault on Gaza, with an airstrike yesterday on a school housing displaced families killing 22 people — 13 of which were children and six were women.

OVER IN BUSINESS NEWS-.Qualcomm has reportedly approached Intel about a potentialtakeover bid in what would likely be the biggest tech acquisition in history considering Intel’s USD 93 bn market cap at the end of trading on Friday. The ailing chip-maker — which lost nearly USD 30 bn in market value in August after a disastrous earnings report saw CEO Pat Gelsinger announce a 15k job cut and the scrapping of dividends — saw its stock price jump 8% after the story broke on Friday.

ALSO- As one tech company struggles to survive amid the AI race’s choppy waters, another doubles down, with Microsoft inking a 20-year power supply agreement with Constellation Energy to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania in a bid to fulfill the rising energy demand of the company’s AI infrastructure while keeping emissions to a minimum.

PLUS- OpenAI’s latest funding round is set to raise at least USD 6 bn, bringing the company’s total valuation to USD 150 bn. But questions remain about whether the company will grow enough to provide the return on investment its new backers are hoping for. “How would you ever get to a venture-style return on an investment of this sort?” the chief investment officer of a US foundation asked the FT. “I’m not sure what the maths is there, or if there is any maths.”

Tags: