Good afternoon everyone, and happy almost-Thursday. The news cycle shows no signs of slowing down even as we barrel toward the weekend, with news of fresh investments — and content — keeping us on our toes.

MASHREQ BRINGS GLOBAL CLEANUP CAMPAIGN TO EGYPT

Mashreq’s Climb2Change environmental cleanup initiative is coming to Egypt this month: Our friends at Mashreq are set to begin clean-up of three designated zones in Wadi Degla in November, as part of their wider Climb2Change global ESG initiative focused on sustainability-linked financing and environmental preservation, the bank said in a statement (pdf). The initiative aims to scale and clean up 14 mountain sites around the world, reaching seven peaks and seven base camps, including — most recently — Pakistan’s K2. Led by esteemed Egyptian adventurers Omar Samra and Manal Rostom, the project will focus on waste management and conservation promotion in one of Cairo’s natural wonders.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

New aluminum foil factory to be established in SCZone with USD 80 mn in investments: Suez Canal Authority subsidiary Port Said for Engineering Works is set to establish a USD 80 mn aluminum foil factory in the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone), in partnership with an unnamed Chinese investor, Al Borsa writes. The project — which received its feasibility studies two weeks ago — will kick off in 1Q 2025 with an expected initial production capacity of 60k tons and plans to increase capacity to 100k tons by the end of the factory’s first year of operation.

Turkish and Chinese investors are also set to pump USD 50 mn into sanitary wares manufacturing: The Cairo Chamber of Commerce’s sanitary wares division has secured some USD 50 mn from Turkish and Chinese investors for three sanitary wares factories, division head Fawzy Abdel Galil told Al Mal. The two Chinese-owned factories slated for investment began production earlier this month, while the third Turkish-Egyptian factory will begin operation in early 2025.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

Major lenders pledge a 60% increase in annual climate funding by 2030 at COP29: A number of development banks including the World Bank have pledged to increase annual financing for low- and middle-income countries’ climate adaptation to USD 120 bn by 2030, up 60% from 2023. While a marked increase from previous goals, the pledge — which was announced on the sidelines of COP29 in Baku — doesn’t rise to the multi-tn commitment developing countries say they need. This year’s COP has already seen a particularly strong outpouring of pressure on wealthy nations to up their contributions, as participants hash out new, high-stakes contribution targets set to come into effect next year. (Reuters | Bloomberg | CNBC)

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

• Locally assembled Proton models will soon be hitting Egyptian streets: An EGP 3 bn factory to assemble Malaysian automaker Proton’s Saga model officially opened yesterday.
• Another big-ticket Saudi investment in the works: Saudi Arabia’s Zamil SteelConstruction — a subsidiary of Zamil Industrial — is planning to set up a new heavy metal structures factory in Egypt, with final investment costs expected to be decided early next year.
• GlobalCorp has some big plans in the pipeline: Non-banking financial services firm GlobalCorp plans to expand its portfolio “beyond B2B leasing and factoring solutions” to become a “comprehensive NBFI platform catering to both B2B and B2C clients,” with plans to increase its issued and paid-up capital to drive its expansion.

⛅ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- We’re expecting much the same weather tomorrow, with a high of 27°C and low of 15°C in the capital, according to our favorite weather app.