Counting down the days

1

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TONIGHT

Egypt’s first retail bond market incoming

Good afternoon, friends, and happy hump day. The news cycle seems to be picking up, and at home, we’re counting the days till the grand opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, with festivities kicking off on Saturday, 1 November at 5pm.

Want a look behind the curtains? EnterpriseAM has you covered. The first of four weekly special issues about the GEM will land in your inbox tomorrow at 10am, charting the museum’s journey from the launch of a record-breaking international design competition to the final stages of completion and capturing the challenges, milestones, and unwavering ambition that brought it to life.

THE BIG STORY TODAY-

? The country’s first retail bond market should go live in Q1 2026 or even before the end of 2025, a senior government official told EnterpriseAM. The upcoming launch will be accompanied by an awareness campaign to attract tempted investors, the source added.

The bonds will be issued in partnership with Egypt Post, offering a competitive interest rate that will help keep pace with inflation, we were told. Variable returns will be paid out either every three or six months.

The Finance Ministry is eyeing middle income individuals as their key target demographic for the product, but it is also eyeing Egyptian expats with EGP- and USD-denominated bonds that will be part of the market at some point.

Having a retail bond market will let individuals, non-professional investors — essentially, the public — buy and sell bonds. At present, it is only banks and financial firms that can buy up these loans to the government, which they often do in large big-ticket transactions. Letting individuals join in will open up a practical and low-risk way to diversify investments and add more stable interest paying assets to their portfolios.

But arguably more important, is that it will significantly shake up the dynamics of the bond market, leading to an uptick in demand and liquidity, a more diverse and stable investor base that tends to buy and hold, and potentially lowering issuing costs for the government.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

? It’s a busy afternoon in the global press, with the digital front pages dominated by the latest updates on Trump’s trip to Asia and Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica.

USA and Japan ink new agreements: US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi have signed a new rare-earth materials trade agreement. Both leaders agreed to “support the supply of raw and processed critical minerals and rare earths crucial to the domestic industries of the United States and Japan,” a statement published by the White House earlier today reads.

The agreement comes as the US moves to curb dependency on China, which holds a near-monopoly on rare-earth minerals and has recently tightened its exports. The agreement between Trump and Takaichi comes days before a scheduled meeting between the US president and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

Following his meeting with Takaichi, Trump was accompanied by the prime minister aboard the USS George Washington at the Yokosuka Naval Base, where he addressed US naval troops. "Unlike past administrations, we will not be politically correct. You don't mind that, do you? When it comes to defending the United States,” he said. Takaichi later joined Trump on stage, emphasizing that both countries would join forces to ensure peace in the region, which he noted faces an “unprecedented security environment.”

Trump also said that Japanese carmaker Toyota is planning to invest in the US, advising his troops to simply “go out and buy a Toyota.” (Guardian | Reuters | CNN | BBC | Washington Post)

ELSEWHERE IN THE WORLD- Hurricane Melissa — a category 5 storm reportedly thought to be the most dangerous of the year globally and the most devastating on record to hit Jamaica — is set to make landfall on the island today, with “catastrophic destruction” expected. Despite government-ordered evacuations, most residents are reportedly sheltering in place. Thus far, seven storm-related deaths have been reported across the northern Caribbean, with three in Jamaica, and four in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. (CNN | BBC | Reuters | Guardian)

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- We’re in for another warm day in the capital tomorrow, with an overcast high of 31°C and a low of 20°C, according to our favorite weather app.

The profitability (and fragility) of the gaming goods market

? Anyone can create an investment vehicle by artificially restricting the supply of a high-demand asset — whether that’s rare metals, cryptocurrency, or the less obvious but equally lucrative virtual goods market. This is an entire world that video game fans know all too well, made up of all the items that exist in games’ digital environments. And this market, worth over USD 112 bn in 2025, has been toppled by a single update. The culprit? Popular video game Counter-Strike 2.

Last Thursday, video game publishing company Valve introduced a seemingly minor update to Counter-Strike 2 that fundamentally altered the game’s item economy. Players could now exchange one rare item for five common ones in-game — a dramatic shift from the previous mechanics that fuelled the virtual goods market. Previously, rare items entered circulation through randomized loot boxes or secondary market purchases, with some items trading for hundreds or thousands of USD. What began with trading skins — cosmetic customization features — evolved into speculative assets with continuously appreciating value.

Immediate chaos in the marketplace: By democratizing access to rare items, the virtual monopoly held by early adopters and lucky players broke. The fallout was swift. Counter-Strike 2’s market capitalization plummeted from nearly USD 6 bn to USD 4.2 bn within hours of the announcement — a 30% drop that wiped out substantial investor positions. A collection owned by one of the game’s most prominent players dropped in value from USD 58k to just USD 18k in less than a day, according to his livestream. The biggest reported individual loss was from a trader known as Coco, who lost almost USD 550k.

Easy money: Item scarcity created perfect arbitrage chances that attracted speculators seeking high-yield returns. They acquired rare items through the official Steam marketplace or informal trading networks, then would scalp them at significant markups. And why not? The market reached its peak in June when a single item — a coveted AK-47 — sold for almost USD 1 mn, making the largest transaction in the game’s history. But the recent update has crushed any future small investor’s dreams, effectively eliminating the scarcity premium they relied on.

What was Valve thinking? The Steam owner’s decision seems counterintuitive from a business perspective. As proprietors of the go-to platform for buying and selling games, skins, and everything else game-related, having speculation and scarcity around items in their hit game naturally pushes prices up. Even if the company doesn’t necessarily get a cut from sales on external platforms, higher prices on Steam meant more revenue from each transaction, according to The Guardian. Even if the goal was to control speculative markets, Valve is risking its game’s primary appeal. The company has not issued any official statement explaining the policy change.

Trading game items in the virtual goods market is extremely (and concerningly) popular among teenage boys. The UK Department for Culture, Media, and Sport revealed that boys aged 11-14 engage in gaming-related gambling at twice the rate of 22-24 year olds. This suggests that games are serving as early entry points into speculative behaviour and gambling mechanics, particularly in competitive, chance-based trade activities. Early exposure correlates with a higher risk of developing problematic gambling behaviors later in life.

Previously, skin investments created a dangerous illusion of control, with promises of sustained returns. For adolescent participants, repeated exposure to these reward mechanisms can establish addictive behavior patterns tied to gambling. But the Counter-Strike update is a good example of the dangers and inherent volatility of the activity — sudden policy change can eliminate accumulated value in an instant. Beyond market risk, young traders face higher exposure to fraud and data security vulnerabilities, as they operate in a largely unregulated space where underage participation occurs at scale without adequate consumer protection frameworks.

A taste of Bosnia in New Cairo

? The Bosnian Kitchen keeps things simple — and that’s exactly what makes this spot stand out. The menu isn’t packed with endless options — in fact, there are only two main dishes: the Bosnian kebab (ćevapi) and the Bosnian-style burger (pljeskavica). But don’t let that fool you — both are bursting with flavor, and are unlike anything you’ll find at your typical burger joint.

The pljeskavica is a standout. Instead of a bun, it’s nestled in soft, fluffy pita bread that perfectly complements the fillings. Inside, you’ll find tender, well-seasoned beef, two contrasting sauces, and onions — all coming together in a medley of rich, balanced flavors. It’s hearty, comforting, and just different enough to feel exciting without being unfamiliar.

The ćevapi offers a similar experience, but swaps the burger patty for juicy, flavorful beef kebabs — reminiscent of Egyptian kofta, but with a distinctive Bosnian twist. The sauce is different from our traditional tehina but equally delicious, perfectly harmonious with the meat and pita for a flavor-packed bite every time. It’s the kind of simple, honest food that relies on quality ingredients and solid execution.

Pair your meal with their ayran, a creamy, salty yogurt drink that cuts through the richness of the sandwiches and rounds out the experience perfectly.

WHERE TO FIND IT- The Bosnian Kitchen is located in New Cairo. You can order it via Talabat for a taste of something refreshingly different but deeply satisfying.

Cup clashes on our radar tonight

⚽ We’re in for a sports-packed evening with a slew of cup clashes: Most European leagues are taking a breather this evening to make way for cup competitions — some of which may just prove unpredictable, despite still being in the early stages.

Borussia Dortmund will be paying Eintracht Frankfurt a visit in an early clash in the Round of 32 of the German Cup (DFB-Pokal). The match kicks off at 8:30pm.

Over in the English League Cup, Brentford and Grimsby Town will go head to head at 10:45pm. At the same time, Wycombe will be facing off against Fulham. Both matches are part of the Round of 16.

More matches on our radar tonight:

Mersana vs. Valencia (Copa del Rey, 10pm);
Cottbus vs. Leipzig (DFB-Pokal, 10:45pm);
Toledo vs. Sevilla (Copa del Rey, 11pm);
Negreira vs. Real Sociedad (Copa del Rey, 11pm);
Wrexham vs. Cardiff (English League Cup, 11pm).

MEANWHILE- The Italian Serie A is still going strong, with Matchday 9 kicking off tonight and running until Thursday.

Napoli and Lecce will face off at 8:30pm. Napoli has its eyes set on a victory to secure all three points and maintain the lead, breaking the tie with Roma — which currently shares its top spot at 18 points.

AC Milan will be heading over to face Atalanta at 10:45pm. It’s a high-stakes match for both clubs, as they seek to inch closer to the top of the scoreboard. Milan is currently in third place with 17 points, followed by Atalanta in seventh with 12 points.

Calling all comics lovers

MARK YOUR CALENDAR-

? This year’s Cairo Comix Festival is celebrating a century of Egyptian comics. Running from Friday, 7 November to Sunday, 9 November, the festival is bringing its comic flair to Zamalek’s Mahmoud Mokhtar Museum with a packed program of immersive gallery events, book talks and signings, workshops, and a comic souk. Entry is at no charge.

HAPPENING THIS WEEK-

CJC 610’s Komedy Koshk is back to brighten up your week with quality humor and infectious energy. Catch Ahmed Magdy, Mohamed Farghaly, the Zalabya Musical duo, and Paula Rizk this Tuesday, 28 October. You can get your tickets on CJC’s website.

Rock out to a Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute night with Funkazine live at Room Art Space on Tuesday, 28 October. Tickets for the event are available on EasyKash.

Honor the 50th anniversary of Umm Kulthum’s passing with a musical produced by El Adl Group Studios at The Theater. Experience the legend’s life story through this special musical showing on Thursday, 30 October and Friday, 31 October. Tickets are available on Ticketsmarché.

HAPPENING LATER-

Get ready for your favorite summit: Sync Summit is back for its fourth year, taking place at O West for three consecutive days on Thursday, 30 October, Friday, 31 October, and Saturday, 1 November. This year’s theme Creative Range brings impactful talks, workshops, curated portfolio reviews, and hands-on labs, with leading voices from all creative industries. Don’t miss out on the chance to learn and grow as a creative — get your tickets on Ticketsmarché.

Jazz enthusiasts, gather ‘round. This year’s Cairo International Jazz Festival kicks off on Thursday, 30 October, and runs until Friday, 7 November. Don’t miss out on live concerts, masterclasses, and film screenings across venues in Cairo and Alexandria. You can purchase tickets from the Cairo Jazz Festival website.

Carerha Summit returns to empower women on Saturday, 15 November, taking place at Sheikh Zayed’s Majarrah. Under the theme Herizon, this year’s summit celebrates women’s professional journeys through an exciting lineup of panels, workshops, and mentorship and career-coaching sessions. Secure your spot through Ticketsmarché.

What the markets are doing on 28 October 2025

The EGX30 rose 0.4% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 5.2 bn (11.7% above the 90-day average). Regional investors were the sole net sellers. The index is up 28.8% YTD.

In the green: Eastern Company (+4.3%), Qalaa Holdings (+2.5%), and Egypt Aluminum (+1.3%).

In the red: Emaar Misr (-2.1%), GB Corp (-2.0%), and Egypt Kuwait Holding -EGP (-1.4%).

Meet our founder of the week: Kenzz’s Ahmad Atef

? OUR FOUNDER OF THE WEEK — Every Tuesday, Founder of the Week looks at how a successful member of Egypt’s business or startup community got their big break, asks about their experiences running a company, and gets their advice for budding entrepreneurs. Speaking to us this week is Ahmad Atef (LinkedIn), co-founder and CEO of Egyptian e-commerce platform Kenzz.

My name is Ahmad Atef, I’m the co-founder and CEO of Kenzz, an Egyptian e-commerce platform built to bring a simple, relevant, and rewarding online shopping experience to the mass majority of Egyptians. I’m originally an engineer, and I graduated from Ain Shams University. I started my career off as a VAS quality engineer at Vodafone given my engineering background, but I was dying to move to the commercial department. I soon moved on to CVM — customer value management — where I was building customized offers for consumers based on their usage and behavior.

On the back of this success, I was offered to move to Romania. In Vodafone Romania, it was completely different. It wasn't about minutes and megabytes — it was about selling phones. This is where I was able to gain experience in e-commerce. The market in Romania was very similar to Egypt, and that is where the idea behind Kenzz began to bubble up. I realized there was great potential for e-commerce in Egypt and the Middle East, but it wasn’t being tapped, as everyone was following the conventional e-commerce model.

In Egypt, everyone has access to the internet, but when you look at e-commerce, it pales in comparison to the offline market. There are two ways to buy online: one of them is reliable e-commerce that gives you a proper experience, good product selection, and so on. You hear global names, but it's alienating the majority of the population. It's centralized in Cairo, Giza, and the big cities. The second way is through social media, which is more relevant to the masses and illustrates that you can buy something and get it delivered. But it's unreliable, scattered, and fragmented.

We wanted to build a local and entirely Egyptian e-commerce platform that catered to the masses. Kenzz is built to resemble social media shopping — it’s browsing-centric, features a TikTok-style video shopping experience, and only requires users to sign up with their phone number. Some 60-70% of Kenzz’s users come from outside the big cities.

Our journey has been a rollercoaster thus far. One of the times I felt that we were successful is when we were hosting a focus group, and we came to find out that three out of five users’ first-ever online purchases were through Kenzz. This is when we knew we were building what we envisioned. In five years, I see Kenzz being a household name. We see it as part of Egyptians’ social media rotation. It’s not just about shopping — we’re keen on having people opening the app every day, looking up different products, and browsing through the offers.

When we started Kenzz in 2022, there were quite a few challenges. During those early days, what really helped was the team we’d built and the strength of our vision. When faced with economic challenges, we quickly realized that they were actually in our favor. Kenzz is all about good prices, and we saw a lot of customers directing to Kenzz from other platforms to find them. It’s definitely still challenging, but sometimes things end up in your favor.

It’s all about building trust. In Egypt, most consumers are what I would call late-early adopters. They’re aware online shopping exists, but the hindrance to their usage is usually trust, confirming the website is legitimate, believing that you’ll receive support in case of any hiccups, and trusting that the product shown is what’s received in a timely, reliable manner. To address this, we launched Kenzz TV — a video shopping experience where customers can see the products in action. We also encourage user-generated content instead of traditional reviews, which we then feature on our products page.

I’d like to see more trust throughout the industry in general. Lack of trust is a common initial phase, even in countries where the market has since matured. As the years passed, people started trusting the process, putting their cards online, and paying digitally. I see Egypt heading in this direction, but one of the roles we see Kenzz playing now is accelerating this transition so that it happens sooner. We don't have to wait 10 or 20 years for Egypt's e-commerce market to mature. So, accelerating that sentiment and trust is a key point.

Another, more complex issue is the prevailing sentiment that e-commerce is a cashburning business. People in offline markets buy and sell, make good earnings, and consumers still get good value. This took some time to achieve in e-commerce, but I think it's also changing. The goal here is to reach sufficient scale with reliable service, which allows you to start realizing the benefits of efficiencies in areas like logistics.

The most rewarding aspect of my job is knowing that people depend on what you do — whether suppliers, consumers, or colleagues. Making a real, evident impact is what matters. On the other hand, the most difficult part is never being able to switch off. It’s not about working a lot, it’s about having running thoughts about the people, the next big challenges, the revenues, and all that. You never get to switch off and you bring things home.

Balancing work and personal life is hard, and I think I got very lucky with my family being very understanding and even very passionate about what I do — it was actually my wife that came up with the name Kenzz. But it’s not just about switching off, it’s about finding peace and knowing when you need to stay focused, and when you can take some time for yourself.

One book that I’ve read multiple times is The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz. It’s a brutally honest book about entrepreneurship. Every time I've read it I’ve done so from a different perspective as I find myself in a different part of my journey. It’s not this flashy, romantic view on startups — it’s about all the suffering and struggles. You get to understand that this is normal.

If I hadn’t founded Kenzz, I’d still be out there building something. That is where my passion lies and I lose track of time. If it hadn’t been e-commerce, it would have been fintech. If I could go back in time, I’d tell my younger self to go easy on myself. As time passes by, you understand that it’s okay to make mistakes, it’s okay when you can’t figure it out — that’s part of the journey. What matters is that you show up every single day, try, fail, and try again.

My advice for up-and-coming entrepreneurs would be not to fall in love with the idea of entrepreneurship, the shiny LinkedIn profiles or the crowning achievements of others. The challenges you face will put an end to the honeymoon phase quickly, and you need to be ready to do some hard work.

THE ENTERPRISEPM ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR

?️ OCTOBER

12 October - 16 November (Sunday- Sunday): Cairo International Art District (CIAD) in Downtown Cairo.

28 October (Tuesday): Komedy Koshk at CJC 610.

28 October (Tuesday): Red Hot Chili Powders tribute night at Room Art Space.

30 October - 7 November (Thursday-Friday): Cairo International Jazz Festival.

30-31 October (Thursday-Friday): Sync Summit at O West.

30-31 October (Thursday-Friday): Umm Kulthum Musical at The Theater.

31 October (Friday): Daylight saving time ends.

31 October (Friday): Wust El Balad at AUC Tahrir Square.

31 October (Friday): Cairokee at El Malahy Arena.

31 October (Friday): Disco Misr X Halloween at CJC 610.

NOVEMBER

1 November (Saturday): Sync Summit at O West.

4 November (Tuesday): Leffi Beena Ya Dunya stand-up show at CJC 610.

7 November (Friday): Homage to Ziad Rahbani at AUC Tahrir Square.

7-9 November (Friday-Sunday): Cairo Comix Festival at Mahmoud Mokhtar Cultural Center.

11 November - 6 December (Tuesday-Saturday): Forever is Now at the Great Pyramids of Giza.

14-24 November (Friday-Monday): Art Decoratifs Exhibition by Art D’Egypté at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir.

15 November (Saturday): Amr Selim at Theatro Arkan.

15 November (Saturday): The TriFactory’s El Gouna Half Marathon, El Gouna.

15 November (Saturday): Carerha Summit at Majarrah, Sheikh Zayed.

21-22 November (Friday-Saturday): Traverse Summit at Hydeout, Hyde Park.

21-29 November (Friday-Saturday): Cairo Design Week.

DECEMBER

13 December (Saturday): Marakez Pyramids Half Marathon by The TriFactory.

19 December (Friday): DJ Tiësto at the Giza Plateau.

20 December (Saturday): Ibrahim Maalouf at Concert Hall, New Capital.

December: Al Rawi Awards submissions open.

JANUARY

30 January (Friday): Cairo Marathon normal registration ends.

FEBRUARY

6 February (Friday): Cairo Marathon at Heliopolis, Merryland Park.

Sections

About

Privacy & Support

Get EnterpriseAM daily