PM — Happiness isn’t our strong suit

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WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TONIGHT

THIS EVENING: B Investments signs off on investing up to EGP 500 mn in the SFE’s pharma + healthcare sub-fund

Good afternoon, wonderful people. We hope you’re basking in the last few hours before Ramadan and the caffeine withdrawal it brings to us all.

REMINDER- Enterprise is taking tomorrow off. Our AM, PM and Climate editions will all be off tomorrow. We’re going to recharge after delivering our new website and use the time to get caught up on some editorial work. (Longtime readers know we take a couple of editorial holidays a year; this is our first in 2023.) Enterprise Weekend will be in your inbox on Friday morning and we’ll be back to our usual publication schedule on Sunday morning.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

B Investments’ board signed off on investing up to EGP 500 mn in the Sovereign Fund of Egypt’s (SFE) healthcare & pharma sub-fund, according to a statement to the bourse (pdf). The SFE and B Investments inked two agreements in January to together invest more than EGP 2 bn into Egypt’s healthcare and pharma local businesses.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

There’s no single story leading the conversation in the international business press this afternoon. Among the headlines making the rounds:

UK inflation rate breaks 3-month stretch of declines with surprise rise to 10.4% (CNBC)
Russia hits Ukraine with drones, missiles after solidarity visit from Xi (Reuters)
Markets quiet ahead of Federal Reserve rate decision (Wall Street Journal)
Bundesbank chief says rate-setters must be “more stubborn” in inflation fight (Financial Times)

HAPPENING NOW-

Earthquake in Aswan: A 4.0 magnitude earthquake hit Aswan today, with no injuries or losses reported as of dispatch time, according to a National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics statement.

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

SFE’s pre-IPO fund to start asset sales after Ramadan -Soliman: The Sovereign Fund of Egypt will wait until the end of Ramadan to start taking companies in its pre-IPO fund to market, CEO Ayman Soliman said.
Eagle Chemicals ups bid for Pachin: Eagle Chemicals yesterday increased its offer for Paint and Chemical Industries (Pachin) on the same day that National Paints Holding’s (NPH) rival mandatory tender offer (MTO) opened to shareholders.
valU closes fourth securitized bond issuance: EFG Hermes Holding’s consumer finance arm valU has issued EGP 856.5 mn worth of securitized bonds.

FOR TOMORROW-

It’s the first day of Ramadan tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen. We’re going to have until4:29am to caffeinate, hydrate, and eat before fajr, and will break our fast at 6:08pm CLT.

? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Our next holiday is coming up next month — and it’s going to be a bunch in a row: Sham El Nessim is on Monday, 17 April, followed by Eid El Fitr, which is expected to land on or around Friday, 21 April. The following Tuesday, 25 April is Sinai Liberation Day, for which we’ll likely have a day off on Thursday, 27 April.

GAFI pushing back the launch of its electronic platform to set up businesses? GAFI will reportedly delay the launch of an electronic platform to make it easier to set up a business, Amwal Al Ghad reports, citing GAFI head Hossam Heiba. The platform, which was originally set to launch in April, will now be rolled out in early July, Heiba reportedly said. The platform will provide investors with the services to establish companies, authenticate contracts at notary offices, and register using electronic signatures among other services.

PSA- Need funding for a green project? You can now apply to the second round of the Smart Green Projects Initiative until the end of May, according to a Planning Ministry statement. Eligible projects must use technology solutions to address environmental issues, present evidence of feasibility or innovation, and provide a written acknowledgement that no awards have been received during the initiative’s first round, among other requirements. You can view the full list of criteria here and apply here.

☁️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- The sun will give way to cloudy skies, although the temperature will be just a bit higher than it was today. Expect a daytime high of 29°C and a nighttime low of 18°C, our favorite weather app indicates.

Don’t let our jokes fool you — Egypt isn’t a particularly happy country + The story of the women who saved the Abu Simbel Temple

We might have a great sense of humor, but Egypt is trailing behind on the happiness index: Egypt came in 121 in the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s 2023 World Happiness Report’s (pdf) ranking of 137 countries. Egypt is joined by Lebanon (136) and Jordan (123) as the index’s lowest-ranking MENA countries. The index looks at life evaluations in 2020, 2021, and 2022, with these evaluations based on income, health, social support, freedom to make life choices, life expectancy, generosity, perception of corruption, and outlooks on the future.

Where are the happy people? The top five spots are occupied by Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Israel, and the Netherlands, in that order. Gulf countries, including the UAE (26), Saudi Arabia (30), and Bahrain (42), are the highest-ranked Arab countries in the index.

It takes a woman — or two: The Abu Simbel Temple — along with 20 other temples in Egypt — would have probably been underwater archeological sites if it weren’t for the efforts of Christine Desroches-Noblecourt and former US First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, according to National Geographic. With the onset of the building of the Aswan High Dam, Desroches-Noblecourt, then the acting chief curator of Egyptian Antiquities at the Louvre Museum, campaigned for salvaging these massive archeological treasures. Her pleas eventually reached UNESCO, former Egyptian Culture Minister Tharwat Okasha, and Kennedy. She pushed her famous husband to step in during a time when US-USSR relations were tense and anti-Nasser sentiment was at its height. Nevertheless, he successfully appealed to congress to earmark funds towards this mission, in turn, enabling the rest of the world to pitch in to support this venture. Desroches-Noblecourt’s efforts ultimately led her to raise more than USD 80 mn — equivalent to USD 813 mn today — for the daunting task of moving the fragile temple out of the cliff in which it was carved and reassembling it on higher ground.

Are algorithms robbing us of autonomy? Software algorithms and AI increasingly dictate the content we see, music we listen to, and tastes we acquire, giving this technology vast socio-political influence and power over our lives, psychologist and behavioral scientist Gerd Gigerenzer tells the Wall Street Journal. He argues that the impact of tech extends to the realm of our social and political behavior, cautioning us to “pay attention that we aren’t running into a situation where tech companies sell black-box algorithms that determine parts of our lives.”

Surveillance by governments and tech companies is a salient issue. “But people don’t read privacy policies anymore, so they don’t know,” Gigerenzer laments, adding that these policies are set up to be long and complex so that users can’t really read them. The policies grant tech companies access to personal data, which are used to generate the personalized ads that underpin their revenue streams. In this context, he says, the user becomes the product rather than the customer. Gigerenzer hopes for a future in which users take responsibility for decisions pertaining to their personal data and are enabled to pay for registration so that they can assume their rightful place as customers.

La Reina del Sur: A record-breaking telenovela with a captivating plot

? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-
(all times CLT)

Latin America like you’ve never seen it before: Telemundo’s La Reina del Sur — which is available on Netflix — follows Teresa Mendoza (Kate del Castillo), a money exchanger on the streets of Sinaloa, who falls in love with Guero Davila, a pilot engaged in substance smuggling. Though it seems like Mendoza is a typical narco’s morra — quiet, doting, and submissive — the telenovela soon turns everything on its head and turns Mendoza from a poor woman from Sinaloa into the most wanted and powerful druglord in the south. The telenovela is an adaptation of the novel La Reina Del Sur by Arturo Pérez-Reverte Gutiérrez, a Spanish novelist and ex-journalist. The series broke records for Telemundo when it premiered in 2011 (and led to an English-language adaptation that ended its five-season run The Queen of the South last year). It also marked an international breakout for del Castillo, a veteran Mexican American actress.

⚽ Egypt’s Olympic team faces off against Zambia in the qualifiers for the U-23 Africa Cup of Nations at 6pm tonight at the Air Defense Stadium. Egypt’s away game on Zambian turf is scheduled for next Sunday, 26 March. The team that comes out of the two matches with the highest aggregate score will qualify for the U-23 African Cup of Nations, which Morocco will host from 24 June through to 8 July. The championship also acts as a qualifier for the Olympic Games, with the top three teams in the championship set to compete in the 2024 Games in Paris.

? Outside the (currently quiet) world of football, the Miami Open begins in earnest today with the women’s and men’s singles first round, after the qualifying round wrapped up yesterday. Egypt’s Mayar Sherif didn’t make it past the first round, after losing to Germany’s Laura Siegemund yesterday evening. Keep an eye out for Andy Murray v Serbia’s Dušan Lajović, who is currently ranked 76th worldwide, at 7:35pm tonight.

The Comedy Bunch’s “Make’em Laugh 16” at Art Room Space in New Cairowill be stirring some chuckles on Saturday, 1 April. Want to have your shot at stand-up? This will be your chance as there will be an open mic during the evening. Visit their Facebook page to learn more details and register.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche’s Purple Hibiscus is an ode to growing up in Nigeria as we go through the social, economic, and cultural turmoil that Kambili and her brother Jaja — children of an influential and privileged businessman — experience. Living under the watchful and oppressive eye of their father, who aims to prevent them from experiencing true Nigeria by denying his culture and non-Christian beliefs, the children grow in a wealthy household rich with everything except love and freedom. A military coup turns their lives upside down as their domestically abused mother smuggles them to live with their aunt, a university professor who is on strike. With her, they share a cramped apartment with their cousins and estranged grandfather, who provides them with mythical tales under a kerosene light as power outages plague the nation. Despite the hardships, they have a bustling experience full of questions and discussions in an environment full of liberty and a sense of cultural identity.

What the markets are doing on 22 March, 2023

The EGX30 fell 0.5% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.43 bn (0.9% below the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is down 0.5% YTD.

In the green: Egypt Kuwait Holding - EGP shares (+3.0%), Eastern Company (+2.5%) and e-Finance (+0.9%).

In the red: Cleopatra Hospitals (-6.1%), Telecom Egypt (-4.2%) and Talaat Moustafa Group (-3.9%).

THE ENTERPRISE ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR

MARCH

23 March (Thursday): First day of Ramadan (TBC). Maghreb will be at 6:08pm CLT.

APRIL

16 April (Sunday): Coptic Easter

17 April (Monday): Sham El Nessim.

21-26 April (Friday-Wednesday): LaLiga Egypt Football Camp, Xanadu Hotel, Makadi Bay, Hurghada.

22 April (Saturday): Eid El Fitr (TBC).

25 April (Tuesday): Sinai Liberation Day.

27 April (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Sinai Liberation Day (TBC).

MAY

1 May (Monday): Labor Day.

1 May (Monday): Backstreet Boys at 7pm, ZED East, New Cairo.

4 May (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Labor Day (TBC).

JUNE

10 June (Saturday): Thanaweya Amma examinations begin.

28 June-2 July (Wednesday-Sunday): Eid El Adha (TBC).

30 June (Friday): June 30 Revolution Day.

JULY

18 July (Tuesday): Islamic New Year.

20 July (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Islamic New Year (TBC).

23 July (Sunday): Revolution Day.

27 July (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Revolution Day.

SEPTEMBER

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 October- 20 October (Friday-Friday): The sixth edition of El Gouna Film Festival (GFF).

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