Ice baths for NARPs

Sunday, 24 Sep 2023

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Today at a glance

The Big Story Today

We now know the Gulf firms that will be redeveloping the NDP’s former headquarters.

INSIDE INDUSTRY

Is Egypt becoming a regional hub for smartphone production?

FOR YOUR COMMUTE

Do athletic treatments hold the fountain of youth?

FOR YOUR COMMUTE

Archaeologists uncover ruins showing ancient Egyptian + Greek trade.

ON THE TUBE TONIGHT

The Dig: A true retelling of the extraordinary excavation of a Viking ship.

Sports

Al Ahly takes on Ethiopia’s St. George + Arsenal and Tottenham match kicks off.

OUT AND ABOUT

Look for your next painting Image and Narrative + Nancy Ajram, Tamer Hosny among others are performing this weekend.

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TONIGHT

THIS EVENING: We now know the Gulf firms that will be redeveloping the NDP’s former headquarters

Good afternoon, friends, and a very happy Sunday. We have a reasonably brisk start to the week here in Omm El Donia as we wrap up the last few days of the month — and the quarter.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

Meet the Gulf firms helping to redevelop the former NDP HQ: A consortium of Saudi Egyptian Developers (SED) and the UAE’s Al Shafar General Contracting (ASGC) Group is set to join the company established to redevelop the former National Democratic Party (NDP) headquarters in central Cairo, Asharq Business reports, citing three sources it says are in the know.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

There is no unifying theme or story in the international press this afternoon, but one story getting traction is Armenians from the Nagorno-Karabakh region are on their way to Armenia:The area that is located in Azerbaijan has been one of dispute since the Soviet era and more recently it has seen the population face a defeat at the hands of the Azerbaijanis, leading 120k Armenians in the region to leave out of fear of ethnic cleansing. (Reuters | CNBC)

ALSO WORTH YOUR TIME- Why are private equity firms taking their hands out of the mega buyout bucket and looking at private credit? The Financial Times dives into how the global monetary tightening cycle has accelerated that shift, and how economists view the outlook.

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

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) kept interest rates unchangedon Thursday.
We’re looking for more funding from the UAE to fund wheat imports: Egypt is in talks with an unnamed Emirati bank to finance wheat purchases from Kazakhstan.
We sat down with Vice Minister of Finance Ahmed Kouchouk to talk about the Asian International Infrastructure Bank (AIIB), its role in promoting investment, and the importance of engaging with the private sector.

*** It’s Inside Industry day — your weekly briefing of all things industrial in Egypt. Inside Industry focuses each Sunday on what it takes to turn Egypt into a manufacturing and export powerhouse, ranging from initial investment and planning to product distribution, through to land allocation to industrial processes, supply chain management, labor, automation and technology, inputs and exports, regulation and policy.

In today’s issue: Over the past five years — since Sico Technology brought the first locally-made smartphone to the market — Egypt’s local smartphone production landscape has seen an uptick in activity. Today, we get a lay of the land of what’s been happening in the past several years.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Expect a high of 36°C during the daytime and a drop to 26°C in the evening, our favorite weather app tells us.

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state privatization program WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TONIGHT

FOR YOUR COMMUTE

Do athletic treatments hold the fountain of youth? Plus: Ancient Egyptian and Greek ruins discovered

You may not be an Olympic athlete, but some of their medical treatments could help improve health for the normals among us: Medical experts are looking into treatments typically used by top athletes for improved performance and recovery to determine their potential applications for non-athletes to improve healthspan, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing a sports cardiologist and other researchers. For athletes, the rationale behind these treatments is: Recovery and performance enhancement. For non-athletic regular people (NARPs), this translates into fewer morning pains, fewer migraines, better clarity, and higher endurance.

Some of the treatments being looked at: Photobiomodulation, LED helmets, and… mittens? Photobiomodulation relies on the use of particular red or near-infrared light wavelengths in order to expedite the healing process. This treatment can also increase collagen to stimulate hair growth, decrease inflammation, and enhance cognitive function. For our brains: Helmets with LED emissions are proven by MRI scans to enhance functional connectivity and oxygenation. Also, thermal regulation can decrease muscle temperature, as cooling mittens can guide blood to veins that are now cooled down by the water available in their plastic lining. Meanwhile, pulsed electromagnetic field processes re-energizes cells post-fatigue and lowers stress by re-adjusting the nervous system. The process could also work for bone healing, wound care, and migraine headaches.

An archaeological team has uncovered ruins that give us a view on ancient Egyptian-Greek trade, near Alexandria, according to the Tourism Ministry . Remnants of the Ancient Egyptian temple — discovered in the sunken city of Thonis-Heracleion near Alexandria — dedicated to the god Amun and a sanctuary for the Greek goddess Aphrodite were discovered last week. The structures that date back to c.200 BC held several treasures, such as silver ritual instruments, gold jewelry, and alabaster containers used for perfumes found in Amun’s temple. Meanwhile, the findings from the Aphrodite sanctuary were bronze and ceramic artifacts imported from ancient Greece. These discoveries confirm a historic trade relationship between the two ancient civilizations.

A quick history lesson: Thonis-Heracleion was ancient Egypt’s primary port until the establishment of Alexandria in 331 BCE.The city’s submergence was caused by earthquakes, tidal waves, land liquefaction, and rising sea levels. Since its discovery in 2000, the sunken city has yielded various treasures, including ships, anchors, gold coins, statues, and the remains of a colossal temple dedicated to Amun. Previous missions in 2021 have uncovered ancient shipwrecks and a sunken military vessel in the vicinity.

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ENTERPRISE RECOMMENDS

A true retelling of the extraordinary excavation of a Viking ship

📺 ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-
(all times CLT)

The Dig is a period piece that combines historical drama, archeology, and human relationships. The film is based on a historical novel of the same name that will take you back to the late 1930s and the eve of the World War II era. Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan), a British wealthy landowner and widow enlists the services of Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes), an amateur archaeologist, to explore what lies beneath the enigmatic mounds on her property in rural England. What unfolds is a remarkable tale of discovery, as Brown and his team stumble upon an extraordinary Viking ship burial. The discovery of the ship’s burial is the film’s crowning glory, providing a sense of awe and reverence. Pretty is portrayed as a determined and curious widow, who defies societal expectations by entrusting the excavation to a self-taught archeologist like Brown. Brown and Pretty create an endearing duo with Brown’s passion for archeology and Pretty’s unwavering support. The film displayed high-quality cinematography beautifully capturing the English countryside, enhancing the sense of time and place.

⚽ Al Ahly begins its CAF Champions League campaign against St. George of Ethiopia at 8pm today. This match is the first leg of the 32nd round of the tournament whose title Al-Ahly holds. The matches are scheduled to be held in Cairo, as stadiums in Ethiopia are yet to reach the African Union’s specifications.

There are a handful of exciting matches in the English Premier League tonight, led by the face-off between Arsenal and Tottenham at 4pm today.

Don’t miss the following:

Liverpool v West Ham (4pm)
Chelsea v Aston Villa (4pm)
Brighton v Bournemouth (4pm)
Sheffield v Newcastle (6:30pm)

** The Enterprise Fantasy Premier League has been having all the fun from the start of the season. Want a piece of the action? Subscribe with us by clicking on this link or entering this code abd0f7.

Real Madrid is seeking to regain the lead in La Liga — after losing it momentarily to Barcelona. Real Madrid will meet with Atletico Madrid in the Spanish capital derby at ten in the evening to regain their crown.

The most important matches of the major European leagues today:

Bayer Leverkusen v Heidenheim (Bundesliga — 4:30pm)
Rayo Vallecano v Villarreal (La Liga — 5:15pm)
Bologna v Napoli (Serie A — 7pm)
Torino v Roma (Serie A — 9:45pm)
Paris Saint-Germain v Marseille (Ligue 1 — 9:45pm)

🎤 OUT AND ABOUT-
(all times CLT)

Head over to Diwan’s Zamalek branch for the book signing and discussion of These Impossible Things by Salma El-Wardany this Tuesday, September 26th, at 7 pm.

Superstars Nancy Ajram and Tamer Hosny are set to perform on Thursday, 28 September at Al Masa Hotel at 9:30 pm. Tickets are available through their hotline 19720.

Mohamed El Ganouby’s solo exhibition, Image and Narrative , is open everyday until Thursday, 28 September from 6-10 PM at TAM Gallery’s branch in District 5.

Ramy Ashour is performing at El Sawy CultureWheel this Friday, 29 September from 8-10 pm. Get you tickets here.

Samar Tarek, Muslim and Molotof are all set to perform on Friday, 29 September at the Greek Campus. Tickets are available on Ticketsmall here.

Medhat Saleh will be performing at the Cairo Opera House on Friday, 29 September at 8:30 pm. Get your tickets on Ticketsmall.

Get your running shoes ready for the 2023 edition of the El Gouna Half Marathon, which is scheduled to take place on Saturday, 11 November. You can sign up for the marathon from here — and catch the lowest registration price with the early bird special which starts today and ends Saturday, 30 September.

Omar Khairat is set to perform at Cairo Opera House on Tuesday-Wednesday, 3-4 October from 8:30-11:30 pm.

Italian opera Teatro Di San Carlo is coming to Egypt for the first time with a showat the Pyramids of Giza on Wednesday, 11 October. You can book your tickets from Ticketsmarche here.

Cairo Opera Ballet Company is bringing Cinderella to Cairo Opera House’ s stage on October 12, 13, 15, and 16 from 8:30 pm. Tickets are available on Ticketsmall.

Egyptian singers Ruby and Ahmed Saad are performing together at Misr University on Wednesday, 18 October at 8pm. Get your tickets at Ticketsmarche.

DJs Kygo , Tiësto, Kungs and Frank Walker are performing on Saturday, 28 October at the Giza Pyramids. The concert will be part of the next edition of the four-day Palm Tree Music Festival (PTMF) which will be held from Thursday, 26 October until Sunday, 29 October.

Jim Gaffigan’s Barely Alive Tour will hit the Marquee stage at Cairo Festival City on Thursday, 16 November. Get your tickets with Ticketsmarche.

Canadian pop star Charlotte Cardin will be performing at CJC 610 on Saturday, 20 January at 9 pm. Get your tickets here.

💡 UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

Adam Biles’s dystopian novel, Beasts of England , is a sequel to George Orwell’s 1945 classic. In this ambitious satirical novel, the author packs seemingly endless features of our modern world and the ailments that plague it into Manor Farm. Now a petting zoo in South England, the farm swarms with pigs and foxes as they vye for power while other beasts and birds are entangled in a myriad of political intrigues, rumors, corruption, greed, xenophobia, and diseases that claim the lives of many, and the wellbeing of most. Through sinister events where the farm gradually descends into mayhem, we are able to recognize events like the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit, partygate, and other major disruptive events and scandals that have wreaked havoc in the past few years. The writing, however, remains almost bubbly, which contrasts sharply with what unfolds. This stylistic choice successfully permeates the novel with both a heaviness and a sense of restlessness that befit any observer of the majority of today’s global socio-political and economic landscapes.

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GO WITH THE FLOW

What the markets are doing on 24 September 2023

The EGX30 rose 0.7% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 2.1 bn (0.1% above the 90-day average). Local investors were net sellers. The index is up 38.5% YTD.

In the green: Abu Qir Fertilizers (+7.5%), Mopco (+4.7%) and Talaat Moustafa Group (+2.3%).

In the red: GB Corp (-4.9%), EFG Holding (-2.5%) and Madinet Masr (-1.9%).

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INSIDE INDUSTRY

Is Egypt becoming a regional hub for smartphone production? Part I

The local smartphone industry is picking up steam: We’ve come a long way since the first locally manufactured smartphone made its debut on the market in 2018, courtesy of Egyptian electronics firm Sico Technology. The government has been working over the past several years to localize the country’s electronics manufacturing industry, launching a number of measures and incentives including the Information Technology Industry Development Agency’s (ITIDA) Egypt Makes Electronics(EME) initiative, the elimination of development fees for imported smartphone components, and tech parks. In response to an improved industrial climate, several multinational phone makers have hit the local scene. In the first part of this two-part story, we’ll take a look at the players shaping the industry and what we’ve achieved so far.

The newest manufacturer on the block: Chinese electronics company Xiaomi has completed the construction of a factory in Sixth of October City and is working on some final touches, Diaa El Shaarawy (LinkedIn), Chief Operations Officer at Al Safy Group — Xiaomi’s local distributor — told Enterprise. The factory has been in the works for nearly a year and could be officially inaugurated as soon as next month, a private sector source familiar with the matter told us. Details about the factory’s cost and capacity are under wraps until the inauguration, which will bring together governmental delegations from Egypt and China alongside representatives of Xiaomi and Al Safy Group, said El Shaarawy. However, local media had reported in February that the factory would cost at least EGP 1 bn.

Egypt-made Xiaomi phones have been on the market for over a month: Xiaomi started selling the Redmi 12C — the only product it currently manufactures locally — to Al Safy at the beginning of August, our private sector source told us.

Exports are in the cards: The company wants to kickstart its operations here by meeting local demand for Xiaomi phones and plans to export phones and smart displays to other markets in the Middle East and Africa at a later stage, El Shaarawy said, adding that the company sees Egypt as a strong “starting base” for exports to the region.

Business as usual: “Xiaomi didn’t sign any agreements with ITIDA before setting up a factory here, which means the business environment is mature, and it’s becoming business as usual for smartphone manufacturers to start local production,” said a source at ITIDA. “Our aim is to attract investors in electronics manufacturing and design in Egypt and some companies go directly to the General Authority for Investment and Freezones (GAFI) and begin procedures to set up a factory at any of a number of well-known industrial areas, such as the Tenth of Ramadan or the 15th of May.”

Xiaomi is following in the footsteps of a handful of phone makers. Below is a list of all the other international and local players taking their phones to market:

#1- South Korean electronics giant Samsung last month received the golden license to establish a mobile phone factory at its industrial complex in Beni Suef. The company started manufacturing smartphones here last year using resources at its USD 270-mn TV and tablet factory.

#2- Chinese phone manufacturer Vivo began producing phones here in June 2022, six months after it started building its factory in the Tenth of Ramadan City, CEO Alex Zhan told us. The company started out with models Y21A and Y33A before moving on to other models in the Y and V series. It currently produces around 2 mn phones per year, Zhan said.

#3- Finnish phone maker HMD Global, also known as Nokia, last year started using Etisal for Advanced Industries’ (EAI) factory in Sixth of October City to assemble 1 mn mobile phones. The company said in March that it plans to significantly increase its production capacity in Egypt and start exporting phones to North Africa this year.

#4- Chinese firm Oppo signed an agreement with ITIDA last year to build a USD 20 mn mobile phone factory in Egypt with a production capacity of 4.5 mn phones annually. The company is expected to bring the factory online in H1 2024, our source at ITIDA said.

#5- Homegrown electronics company Sico Technology debuted the country’s first locally manufactured smartphone on the market back in February 2018. In addition to Sico phones, the Sico factory produces phones for Chinese companies Infinix, Itel, and Benco, Indian company Lava, and France-registered company Ace, CEO Mohamed Salem told us. The company produces smartphones, feature phones, and tablets.

#6- Chinese smartphone company Infinix in 2020 started manufacturing phones at Sico’s factory in Assiut’s tech zone.

Quick figures: Samsung, Vivo, and Nokia have so far invested a combined EGP 2 bn to set up their factories, which have a total production capacity of 20 mn mobile phones and tablets annually, according to a CIT Ministry statement. Xiaomi sold 1 mn phones in the local market during 2022 — before it started local production — according to El Shaarawy.

IN PART TWO- We’ll get into why all these companies decided to set up shop in Egypt and what the road ahead looks like for smartphone producers.

Your top industrial development stories for the week:

A new tire factory: Rolling Plus Chemical Industries has signed a contract to establish a EUR 1 bn (c USD 1.1 bn) tire factory in the Ain Sokhna industrial zone.
Localizing semiconductor chip manufacturing: Communications Minister Amr Talaat was in California last week for talks with tech industry leaders on localizing semiconductor chip manufacturing and boosting tech outsourcing projects here, according to a ministry statement.
Incorporation goes online-only: Companies must register their establishment through GAFI’s online portal starting from today, the investment and freezones authority said in a statement.

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THE ENTERPRISE ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR

SEPTEMBER

24- 28 September (Sunday-Thursday): Mohamed El Ganouby’s solo exhibition, titled “Image and Narrative,” at TAM Gallery’s branch in District 5.

26 September (Tuesday): Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (TBC).

26 September (Tuesday): Salma El-Wardany book signing and discussion of ‘These Impossible Things’ at Diwan Zamalek branch.

28 September (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (TBC).

28 September (Thursday): Tamer Hosny and Nancy Ajram are performing at AlMasaHotel.

29 September (Friday): Ramy Ashour performing at El Sawy Culture Wheel.

29 September (Friday): Samar Tarek, Muslim and Molotof LitOne concert, Greek Campus, Tahrir, Cairo.

29 September (Friday):Medhat Saleh will be performing at the Cairo Opera House

OCTOBER

3-4 October (Tuesday-Wednesday): Omar Khairat is set to perform at Cairo Opera House

6 October (Friday): Armed Forces Day.

11 October (Wednesday): Teatro Di San Carlo performance, the Pyramids of Giza, Giza.

12-16 October (Thursday-Monday): Cairo Opera Ballet Company Cinderella at Cairo Opera House.

13-20 October (Friday-Friday): El Gouna Film Festival (GFF).

18 October (Wednesday):Ruby and Ahmed Saad at Misr University

28 October (Saturday): DJs Kygo, Tiësto, Kung and Frank Walker concert, Giza Pyramids.

NOVEMBER

11 November (Saturday): El Gouna Half Marathon 2023, El Gouna.

15-24 November (Wednesday-Friday): Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF).

16 November (Thursday): Jim Gaffigan’s Barely Alive Tour at The Marquee, Cairo Festival City.

JANUARY

20 January (Saturday): Charlotte Cardin performing at Cairo Jazz Club 610

EVENTS WITH NO SET DATE

2023: The inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum.

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