Good afternoon, folks, and happy Monday. After a packed start to the week, we’re keeping things light this afternoon. Today, we look at the upcoming Egypt Coffee Festival — running this weekend — what’s on, how the festival reads the state of Egypt’s coffee industry, and what it’s trying to do. We also tune into Mike Flanagan’s latest horror adaptation, Carrie, and have the football lineup for tonight.

First up, the news…

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

🌐 Getting top billing this afternoon is a dispute over an energy ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, announced earlier by US President Donald Trump, who said both sides agreed to the arrangement. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the announcement came as a surprise and accused Russia of violating the proposed truce by continuing drone attacks, including striking a thermal power plant in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv immediately after the announcement. Zelenskyy urged the US to keep pressure on Moscow to stick to the agreement.

A Kremlin spokesperson says Russia rejects a temporary ceasefire and wants a long-term peace agreement instead. Russia is yet to comment on Trump’s energy truce, which was announced days after the US made an agreement with Moscow to import Russian diesel for the US and global markets. The diesel agreement, aimed at easing rising fuel prices, has drawn criticism from Ukraine and raised questions about Washington’s approach to the war.

Reversing earlier losses, oil prices rose as markets weighed the potential impact of the Russian diesel export agreement on global fuel supplies. Brent crude climbed to USD 105.7 per barrel, while WTI rose to USD 92.7 per barrel at the time of publication.

^^Read more on: BBC, CNBC, CNN, Reuters, and The Guardian.

MNT-Halan’s IPO has been the talk of the market for a few weeks.

So on this episode of Making It, Mounir Nakhla, the founder and CEO of MNT-Halan, joins Patrick to talk about why his company is going public, and why now is the right time. He makes the case for returning FDIs, that the so-called Egypt discount is over, and he tells us what it would take for this IPO to “pop.”

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

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** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• BdC just gave the EGX’s IPO revival some weight: Banque du Caire (BdC) will hit the stock market just weeks after MNT-Halan, following yesterday’s intention-to-float notice for 30% of the state-owned lender. Banque Misr is offloading 4.575 bn of its shares in the bank and pocketing all the proceeds. The notice sees subscriptions wrapping up in late October with a November trading debut;
• The government is considering routing idle public-business-sector property to Mostakbal Misr after a new law turned the authority into a standalone entity reporting to the presidency. The plan would be limited to unused land and real estate belonging to companies that are not headed into the EGX offering pipeline, as part of the authority’s efforts to diversify its portfolio;
• Non-bank lenders Aman Holding, Bokra, and Erada Finance signed on to pilot venture debt (VD) for Egyptian scaleups under the Scale It Forward program, with 30 scaleups set to be selected this month. Co-developed by German development agency GIZ and enpact, the program gives each selected scaleup EUR 5k in non-repayable de-risking support to make lenders comfortable taking the risk;
• Alexandria is getting a dry port to help its seaports handle a surge in transit cargo. El Amreya Dry Port, Alexandria’s first and Egypt’s second after Sixth of October, opens tomorrow, 13 October. Container traffic through Alexandria and Dekheila rose 14% to 2.59 mn TEUs in FY 2025/26. Transit led the growth as shippers leaned on Mediterranean gateways while geopolitical tensions affected Red Sea ports.

The gas crunch gave Egypt every reason to speed up its energy transition, and the question now is who builds it and who pays for it.

Power Trip, our four-part signature series, turns this week to the transition and the private developers now building much of Egypt’s new power.

Issue II looks at how the deals behind these projects work, who is lending to them, and why the country is building a nuclear plant at El Dabaa alongside its solar and wind farms. We also look at whether the regional crisis has finally pushed industry toward renewables, and at the factories Egypt is counting on to build its own panels, batteries, and turbines.

Coming straight to your inbox on Wednesday, 14 October.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Pleasant conditions continue in the capital tomorrow, with temperatures set to peak at 32°C under sunny skies and high clouds, before dipping to a partly cloudy 21°C overnight, according to our favorite weather app.