Kingdom of gamers

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WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TONIGHT

THIS EVENING: Swiss private investment firm Smartenergy in talks to set up USD 1 bn green hydrogen facility in Egypt

Happy THURSDAY, ladies and gentlemen. For those of you reading us as you head up to the North Coast, we sincerely hope the roads are significantly less crowded than they were last weekend.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

Switzerland’s Smartenergy could invest USD 1 bn in green hydrogen facility in Egypt: Swiss-based private investment firm Smartenergy is reportedly in advanced talks with Egypt’s government to establish a USD 1 bn green hydrogen production factory, Asharq Al Awsat reports, citing Smartenergy CFO Rene Cotting. No further details were provided on when the company expects to sign agreements with the government, which Cotting said is “imminent,” or where the facility will be established.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

There are three stories picking up traction in the international press:

A coup in Niger is featured on the landing pages of the BBC and Reuters, as soldiers have stated that they “dissolved the constitution, suspended all institutions and closed the nation's borders” reports the BBC. The current head of state, President Mohamed Bazoum, has been held by troops from the presidential guard in his palace from the early hours of Wednesday.
Kyiv’s big push in the conflict with Russia is headlining the front pages of the Associated Press and Financial Times, as Ukraine works to “dislodge Russian forces from the country’s southeast” coming as a part of their extensive counteroffensive which appears to center in Zaporizhzhia, reports the Associated Press, citing a Western official.

Ukraine’s drone effort received some attention from the Wall Street Journal , as it illustrates how the use of cheap first-person-viewer drones has made significant strides taking out expensive Russian tanks in the journal’s in-depth video.

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

Expect blackouts until the middle of next month: The Electricity Ministry expects the ongoing rolling blackouts to continue until the middle of August as pressure on the country’s power generation infrastructure continues amid the summer heat.
CMA CGM has its eye on a state-owned shipping company: French shipping giant CMA CGM is in early-stage talks with the government to acquire a stake in state-owned shipping firm National Navigation Company (NNC).
Our hotels are busy: Hotel occupancy rates across Egypt climbed to 80% in 1H 2023 from 65% in the same period last year.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS- The Enterprise Finance Forum is taking place on 18-19 September at the St. Regis Hotel in Cairo. This flagship forum is the latest in our must-attend series of invitation-only, C-suite-level gatherings that allow senior members of our community to openly and frankly discuss critical issues in key sectors of the economy.

TAP OR CLICK HERE if you want to express interest in attending. We’ll be sending out the first batch of invitations soon.

Do you want to become a commercial partner? Ping a note to Moustafa Taalab, our head of commercial, or fill out this form and we’ll be in touch.

STAY TUNED for more detail about our agenda.

DID YOU MISS THE ENTERPRISE EXPORTS AND FDI FORUM? Tune in to the Enterprise Podcast and listen for yourself : The Enterprise Podcast is back with another installment of our forum series, where we bring you audio recordings of what was said on stage at the Enterprise Exports and FDI Forum, which took place in May.

WANT TO LISTEN? Head to: Apple Podcast | Spotify | Google Podcast | Anghami. We’re releasing a new episode every Sunday morning.

IN THIS WEEK’S EPISODE- We ask some of the biggest multinationals and suppliers operating here — namely, in logistics, e-commerce, and FMCG — what it is they’re looking for in a local partner, product or service and what are some of the pain points they’ve had to cope with. We were joined on that panel by Khaled Morsy, CEO of DB Schenker Egypt, Omar Elsahy, General Manager at Amazon Egypt, Tarek Kame l, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé Egypt and Sudan.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- To nobody’s surprise, we have another hot day coming up with the mercury peaking at 41°C in the daytime and dropping to a nighttime low of 25°C, as per our favorite weather app.

Next on Saudi’s economic diversification to-do list: Gaming + Med farmers are changing up their crop

Saudi Arabia is pushing into the world of gaming as part of its Saudi Vision 2030, which aims to open up and diversify the kingdom’s economy outside of the oil industry, the Associated Press says. The push is driven by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a fervent gamer himself, who set up the Savvy Games Group under the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund last year to invest USD 39 bn in the gaming industry. The company has since acquired Scopely, a mobile gaming player, in a USD 4.9 bn transaction and invested USD 265 mn in Chinese esports agency VSPO.

What’s in it for KSA? W atching video gamers compete is a thriving business supported by mns of fans, corporate sponsors, and even celebrity players. These events provide “prime advertising [potential], and of course, you are promoting the brand of your country as a cool, forward-thinking, interesting place to go on holiday,” a Gulf expert at Brussels-based thinktank European Center for International Affairs told the AP. The gaming industry as a whole generated some USD 184.4 bn in revenues last year — more than “the combined earnings of the global box office, music streaming and album sales, and the top five wealthiest sports leagues,” according to a 2021 BCG report.

Salty fields create a new farming reality in the Med: The Mediterranean’s climate is changing faster than any other place on earth, with average temperatures already up 1.5°C since the industrial age, feeding into a shift in agricultural practices in the region, reports the Wall Street Journal. The culmination of higher mercury readings, rising sea levels that reach deeper inland, lacking rainfall or freshwater to flush out fields, and prolonged droughts have created salty fields, depleting farmers of their usual harvests. Now farmers are reconsidering their options.

Changing lanes: Some farmers are looking to adapt their harvests to the new realities, switching out rice crops for soybeans, which require less water, or growing tropical fruits that enjoy the heat, like mangoes, avocados, and bananas. Others are modifying the crop to suit the environment with new breeds of apples that can withstand higher temperatures or drought-proof tomatoes in development. Yet, scientists aren’t optimistic with the UN reporting intensifying global warming in the Med in the coming decades. “You can fight it to some extent, but adaptation has its limit and at some point you can’t adapt any more, you have to change,” Carles Ibañez Martí, head of climate change at Eurecat.

TikTok is the latest app that’s trying to capitalize on the (impending) downfall of Twitter: TikTok rolled out text-based posts as a new feature earlier this week, coinciding with Elon Musk’s abrupt decision to change Twitter’s logo from the iconic blue bird to X. TikTok explained that the new feature is aimed at “expanding the boundaries of content creation” by allowing users to express their creativity, but the uptake on the social media platform has been relatively weak, the Associated Press notes. TikTok jumping on the text-based content wagon came just a couple of weeks after Meta’s Instagram rolled out Threads, essentially a clone of Twitter, where user posts can include photos, videos up to five minutes long, and can be shared directly to Instagram stories.

Becoming Warren Buffet reveals his climb to success

? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-
(all times CLT)

Get a glimpse into a b’naire’s mind: With a net worth of over USD 116 bn , Warren Buffett is considered a skillful investor and one of the world’s wealthiest men. Becoming Warren Buffett tells the story of the Oracle of Omaha, his childhood to becoming chairman of the fifth largest public company worldwide. In addition to detailing the steps and journey of his success story, the documentary also includes interviews with the man himself, along with many close friends, family, and business associates. Containing exclusive home videos, Becoming Warren Buffett gives us a glimpse into this extraordinary man’s surprisingly humble life.

Have you ever wondered what our lives would look like without certain things?Not big things like phones or the internet, but small and quietly important things like phosphorus or even coffee. This is the question Omar El Akkad asks in his podcast, Without, which delves into a world without things we take for granted. One episode discusses a world without sand, tracing sand’s importance and the (surprising) destructive consequences of its (also surprising) exploitation. Believe it or not, sand is the most consumed natural resource on Earth, second only to water. Without sand, we wouldn’t have asphalt, concrete, glass, or computer chips — all things we use on a daily basis. The scarcity of sand has led to the emergence of the so-called "sand mafia," a group willing to kill environmentalists, journalists, and government officials who obstruct their illegal sand mining activities. These intricacies make for a thought-provoking podcast that uncovers the significance of seemingly inconsequential elements in our lives. You can find Without on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audacy, and PodBean.

What happens when a dating reality show goes south? Ruth Kelly’s The Villa introduces us to a new reality dating show, where the viewers can monitor the contestants 24/7 through an endless livestream. To add another layer to the creepiness of it all, the viewers also have the power to control the contestants — their environment, who they’re sleeping next to at night, and the challenges they take part in. That all doesn’t sound too far from the reality of dating shows, except for the murder that takes place mid-competition. The novel is for all of us who secretly love binge-watching trash TV, raising questions about the ethicality of it all and how far some people would go for a monetary reward. Get this summer read on Amazon.

What the markets are doing on 27 July, 2023

The EGX30 fell 0.3% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 2.39 bn (24.9% above the trailing 90-day average). Local investors were net buyers. The index is up 18.8% YTD.

In the green: ADIB (+1.4%), Qalaa Holdings (+1.3%) and Ibnsina Pharma (+0.9%).

In the red: Cleopatra Hospitals (-3.1%), Elsewedy Electric (-2.6%) and Ezz Steel (-2.5%).

THE ENTERPRISE ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR

JULY

27 July (Thursday): Samar Tarek concert, ElSawy Culturewheel, Zamalek, Cairo.

27 July (Thursday): Cairokee mega-concert, Manara Arena, New Cairo.

27 July (Thursday): Ahmed Saad Concert, New Alamein Festival 2023, New Alamein, North Coast.

27-28 August (Thursday-Friday): Shorelines musical festival, Almaza Bay, North Coast.

28 July (Friday):Nancy Ajram and Raghab Alama Concert, the New Alamein Festival 2023, New Alamein, North Coast.

28 July (Friday):Ali Qandil stand up comedy show, ElSawy Culturewheel, Zamalek, Cairo.

28 July (Friday): Route Tech Summit 2023, Greek Campus, Tahrir, Cairo.

29 July (Saturday): Cairokee mega-concert, Manara Arena, New Cairo.

29 July (Saturday): Ali El Hagar concert, El Sawy Culturewheel, El Zamalek, Cairo.

AUGUST

2 -3 August (Wednesday-Thursday): Fintech Revolution Summit, Cairo Festival City.

3 August (Thursday):Massar Egbari concert, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria.

8 August (Tuesday): Jadal Concert, El Sawy Culturewheel, El Zamalek, Cairo.

10 August (Thursday): Jadal concert, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria.

11 August (Friday): Amr Diab Summer Concert, Golf Porto Marina, North Coast.

13 -19 August(Sunday-Saturday): El SawyCulturewheelbook fair, ElSawy Culturewheel, Zamalek, Cairo.

12 August (Saturday):Massar Egbari concert, El Sawy Culturewheel, Sheikh Zayed, Cairo.

21 August (Monday): Akher Zafeer concert, El Sawy Culturewheel, El Zamalek, Cairo.

22 August (Tuesday): Omar Khairat Live Concert, Royal Maxim Palace Kempinski, Cairo.

25 August (Friday): Russ Concert, New Alamein Festival 2023, North Coast.

SEPTEMBER

21-23 September (Thursday-Saturday) L’Etape Egypt by Tour de France, Sharm El Sheikh

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

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

OCTOBER

6 October (Friday): Armed Forces Day.

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

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

NOVEMBER

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

EVENTS WITH NO SET DATE

2023: The inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum.

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