Good morning, folks. Four stories on the docket today, so let’s lock in — new regulations for credit guarantee companies, an Emirati company launching a big expansion into Egypt, a construction contract worth a pretty penny, and a loan for Ezz Elarab Elsewedy.

The CBE has finally put a regulatory framework around credit guarantee companies, six years after the law first handed it that authority. The rules set capital ratios, liquidity requirements, concentration limits, ownership restrictions, and a formal licensing process for the first time. We spoke to industry insiders — some say it will cause short-term friction, but others say it’ll have a long-term payoff.

Majid Al Futtaim is about to spend more in Egypt over the next five years than it has in the previous 27 combined. The group built its local footprint on malls and supermarkets, and now it’s putting in around USD 3.4 bn primarily targeting residential units. CEO of Majid Al Futtaim Asset Management tells us he is optimistic that the company can succeed at homebuilding, despite the market’s challenges.

Hassan Allam has handed its construction arm a USD 1 bn contract to build Grova Westfields in Sheikh Zayed with the same vertically integrated playbook it used with EastHills and is now running in Riyadh. The project puts Grova into West Cairo for the first time, an area that’s increasingly becoming more of a hospitality/mixed-use zone.

Bank NXT has lent Ezz Elarab Elsewedy EGP 2.1 bn to expand its automotive factories and build a new paint plant. The deal has been in the making since the company flagged a USD 100 mn local manufacturing push in early 2025, and now the financing is catching up.

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We’re delighted to welcome Todd Wilcox as a guest speaker at the 2026 EnterpriseAM Egypt Forum.

Todd Wilcox is the deputy chairman and CEO of HSBC Bank Egypt, bringing more than 30 years of international banking experience. He joined Egypt from HSBC China, where he served as Senior Executive Vice President, Deputy CEO, and Executive Director of the Board.

Todd has held a series of senior leadership roles across HSBC, including CEO of Brunei for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, CRO for Asia-Pacific overseeing 11 markets, and COO for Risk across all Asian markets. He also served as head of retail banking and marketing at HSBC Bermuda, and began his career with HSBC in Canada. Prior to HSBC, Todd worked at Royal Bank of Canada across a range of business and functional roles.

Join us on 5 October in Cairo. Attendance is by invitation only, and we’ve reached full capacity.

Request your invitation here to join the waitlist.

Inside the NBFI firestorm with Hazem Moussa: For a few months, alarms have sounded across the board, cautioning of an impending credit bubble. Are they warranted?

On this episode of Making It, Hazem Moussa, co-founder of Contact Financial Holding, joins Patrick to break down how a bubble in the credit industry actually forms, what regulators should watch out for, the risks on both sides, and the responsibility that lies on the client side — us, the consumers.

Listen to the episode on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anghami | YouTube

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Juniors go north for money

Two explorers in Egypt’s Eastern Desert are going to Toronto for money. Ankh Resources and Red Sea Resources, a Canadian company focused on Egypt, are both moving beyond private funding for public listings, and both have picked the TSX first.

Ankh’s preparing for a possible IPO in 2H 2027, CEO Mostafa Talaat told EnterpriseAM on the sidelines of the Egypt Mining Forum yesterday. Toronto came first, he says, as “the largest global centre for attracting mining exploration investment.” Ankh has spent more than EGP 500 mn in Egypt to date and expects to put in over EGP 1 bn across 2027 and 2028, drilling and evaluating to prove up reserves at its gold and copper deposits.

Some 70% of Ankh’s existing shareholders doubled down in the latest funding round, putting in more once phase-one drilling results came in, Talaat tells us. Phase two started three weeks ago in Area B, on the southwestern side.

Red Sea Resources is aiming for January. Chairman Al Fabbro tells us it will sell 20% to strategic investors and through a TSX listing, raising up to CAD 25 mn (c. USD 17.6 mn), with a prospectus and an internationally certified technical report on current drilling results (NI 43-101) ready beforehand. Red Sea has spent around USD 10 mn on drilling and geophysical survey and has another USD 10 mn pencilled in for 2027 alone, pending board sign-off. An early find at one concession holds 300-400k oz of gold on the company’s estimate, and it won’t commission feasibility studies for two years, “until the full size of the find is established.” And both companies are bidding for ground next to their existing concessions, which reads as the open bid rounds doing their job: keeping exploration capital in Egypt rather than watching it leave.

Why it matters: This would mark the first time juniors model in Egypt graduating from angel money to capital markets since. With both players still a few years away from proven reserves and production feasibility, TSX-listing would be remarkable because it would put tradable numbers on their operations while they are still building up their resources — a positive signal for other junior players mulling an entry into Egypt.

ICYMI- We went deep on Ankh’s Wadi Dara concession back in July, walking the exploration site with the company’s leadership and geologists. The piece laid out why juniors are the load-bearing layer of any mining boom for Egypt: Their work accounts for some 60% of the world’s mineral discoveries, and majors only show up on the back of the ground work they do.

What’s next: Ankh files for new blocks within two weeks, Talaat tells us. Red Sea spuds its southern concession in November, Fabbro says. Both boards sign off on final 2027 exploration budgets over October and November.

Making taxes pay

The government’s inaugural tax-backed sukuk will be offered for subscription on the EGX under an agreement between the Finance Ministry and the bourse, a government official tells EnterpriseAM. Subscriptions are expected to open in November at around EGP 50 bn, with the final size determined by market demand and total issuance capped at EGP 100 bn on a one-year tenor, the official says. The central bank reviewed the issuance procedures. The move is designed to drive more secondary-market trading and add to the exchange’s market cap at a time when the EGX is preparing to receive more state-owned company IPOs in October and November.

20% tax-exempt yield: The sukuk will be fully exempt from taxes and fees, with an expected return of around 20% net of taxes, as we previously reported. That compares with a net of around 16% on T-bills after the 20% levy, and around 17% net on one-year CDs and deposits.

Only taxpayers will be eligible to subscribe, though companies won’t need to be listed on the exchange to take part, according to the official. Each subscriber will be capped at 15% of their outstanding tax liabilities, a ceiling that was still under consideration when we last reported the story and is now confirmed. The cap is meant to keep the instrument from denting other tax revenues. The sukuk will apply against liabilities due the following year, settling at year-end against income-tax revenues for the subsequent tax season.

REFRESHER- Tax sukuk lets taxpayers prepay part of what they owe the state in exchange for a return credited when the liability is finally settled, pulling future tax revenue forward for the treasury. The instruments were first announced last month after President Abdel Fattah El Sisi approved activating a dormant 2005 tax-law provision and will come in four denominations — between EGP 10k and EGP 10 mn — with the rollout staggered through annual issuances. Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk was expected to issue the program’s implementing rules by end-August, but the Egyptian Tax Authority was still finalizing them in mid-September, pointing to a launch “within weeks.”

The Egyptian government locked in enough LNG and crude to carry the country through peak demand this summer, and the real question now is who pays for it and for the rebuild ahead.

PowerTrip, our new four-part signature series, follows the money behind an energy sector that went from exporting gas to importing it in just five years.

Over the four issues this autumn, we’ll look at how the lights stayed on and what that cost, who will own the next generation of power, how fast renewables can really scale, and whether Egypt’s claim to be the region’s energy hub still holds.

Issue I looks at how Egypt avoided rationing this summer, how the country went from gas exporter to importer in a decade, and what keeping the lights on actually cost us.

Coming straight to your inbox today.

PSA-

#1- Property owners now have until 31 December to file their real estate tax returns and benefit from the new incentives, according to a statement from the Finance Ministry. The extension follows complaints over the ministry’s mobile app and calls for more time that we flagged earlier this week, when the ministry said an extension was under review.

There’s more time to settle disputes too: Taxpayers now have until 2 April 2027 to apply to settle existing property-tax disputes and secure waivers of late-payment charges.

#2- WEATHER- Cairo is serving up pleasant autumn weather today, with a high of 30°C and a low of 21°C, according to our favorite weather app.

It’s cooler and breezy on the coast in Alexandria, with a high of 28°C and a low of 22°C.

The big story abroad

Some of the world’s most powerful tech CEOs met US President Donald Trump at the White House, where the executives signed the White House Accord on Super Intelligence, referring to AI, to adopt safety regulations. The agreement includes internal controls to monitor AI models during training and deployment in critical areas like cybersecurity, biosecurity and chemical threats, along with audits by external parties to conduct assessments. Among the signees are the chiefs of Google, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, XAI, and Anthropic.

AI safety concerns take their toll: Open AI CEO Sam Altman said that the startup will not go ahead with its public listing until it can confidently guarantee its safety practices. This follows a lawsuit filed against OpenAI by a public interest law group over an incident in which the startup's AI agents allegedly went rogue and “knowingly” accessed tech company Hugging Face despite lacking permission.

Scaling back. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is set to announce a 20% reduction in general and admiral positions during an address to service members today. The cuts will double the 10% reduction ordered last year and must be completed by the start of next year, officials said.

*** It’s Hardhat day — your weekly briefing of all things infrastructure in Egypt: EnterpriseAM’s industry vertical focuses each Wednesday on infrastructure, covering everything from energy, water, transportation, and urban development, as well as social infrastructure such as health and education.

In today’s issue: We follow the EGP 40 bn Nile water line to the New Capital, which ACUD is paying for on its own, at tariffs the Cabinet sets.