…and we’re back, ladies and gentlemen. We took a publication break yesterday — as we are sure you noticed — for a much-needed retreat ahead of the official launch of EnterpriseAM UAE next week.
If you haven’t already: Sign up for the UAE edition here. Our report, produced in the UAE and in Cairo, is written for decision-makers in the UAE as well as executives, investors, and others doing business or deploying capital there.
EnterpriseAM UAE is available to you without charge thanks to the generous support of our friends at Mashreq and is published by 7am UAE time Monday through Friday.
** THAT’S NOT ALL: EnterpriseAM Saudi Arabia is launching later this month. You can sign up here to let us know you’d like to be on the list on launch day. More details soon.
THE BIG STORIES SINCE YESTERDAY
#1-New credit card restrictions: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and CIB have announced new monthly credit card limits for international transactions. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank clamped down on international monthly credit card purchases within Egypt to the equivalent of USD 50 — down from the equivalent of USD 250. CIB also took a double-whammy approach, reducing the international monthly purchase limit from within Egypt to the equivalent of EGP 2,000-7,750. Limits for monthly international spending are now determined by segment type, not by credit card class, CIB said. More details are on the banks’ websites here and here. Until we dispatched no other banks had publicly announced new limits.
#2- Headline inflation eased for the third consecutive month in Egyptian cities thanks to a favorable base effect. The consumer prices decelerated in urban areas to 33.7% y-o-y in December from 34.6% in November, according to data released yesterday by state statistics agency Capmas.
#3- ACWA Power + Hassan Allam Utilities secure land for their USD 1.5 bn wind farm in Egypt: A consortium led by Saudi’s Acwa Power and includes Egypt’s Hassan Allam Utilities, signed a 25-year land usufruct agreement with the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) for its 1.1 GW wind farm in the Gulf of Suez, according to a statement (pdf) released yesterday. The consortium is set to begin site studies for the USD 1.5 bn project, which is expected to begin commercial operations by the end of 2026.
THE BIG STORY ABROAD
The US Securities and Exchange Commission approving the first spot BTC ETFs is still driving the international news this afternoon. The SEC approved 11 ETFs from various sponsors, including Fidelity and Invesco, and they are set to trade with special tax treatment. This step marks a big move in the cryptocurrency market and could pull in investors since the risks of unregulated exchanges will be mitigated. Trading could come into effect as early as today after a months-long buildup featuring legal battles and some drama, as hackers posted about the approval prematurely through the SEC’s X account, causing a brief 1.5% spike in BTC's price. (Financial Times | Bloomberg)
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☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Expect sunny skies tomorrow with a high of 19°C in the daytime before dropping down to 12°C in the evening, according to our favorite weather app.
More western investors are dropping the term ESG investing as we progress through 2024. “Responsible business” is now the more preferred term as ESG is losing its status in corporate jargon, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Companies have trained CEOs on how and when they refer to ESG, but that doesn’t meanbusinesses are abandoning ESG programs, initiatives, or requirements. The only difference is that businesses are “not publicly touting them, or describing them in different ways,” the WSJ says.
The bottom line: When it comes to how you communicate about ESG, the WSJ says, “less is more” — be as precise as possible, with as few adjectives and adverbs as you can.
Even fund managers have purged their lexicon of ESG as newly debuted ESG-focused funds are dropped, the Financial Times says. Suspicious of what it entails, they have “baulked at increased scrutiny of sustainability claims by companies and asset managers,” continues the salmon-colored paper. In 2H 2023, only six funds cited environmental, social and governance criterions. This comes in contrast to the 55 in 1H 2023 and the near-double yearly average between 2020 and 2022, according to data from investment analysis platform Morningstar Direct cited by the Financial Times.
Beyond Utopia offers a look into the lives of those who have lived through the North Korean regime. The documentary combines interviews, first-person footage, and undercover filming to highlight the lives of those who choose to escape — and are able to do so when a brave pastor uses his connections to help them start new lives.
There’s no going back: Once the decision is made, North Korean families will face death if they fail to flee their homeland. Using no recreated footage, Beyond Utopia gives an earnest account of the fight for freedom that some are willing to risk everything for, coming from a place with tight control on religion, the press, and expression.
Said to be one of the best documentaries to come out of Sundance, it manages to deliver the first actual in-depth account of what these lives are like. But be wary of western propaganda, which some viewers have criticized the film for. Either way, this provides one perspective on the matter, using undeniably honest first-person accounts.
⚽ Barcelona faces Osasuna in the La Liga semi-finals hosted by Saudi Arabiatonight at 9pm and it has its sights set on qualifying for the final to play their long-time rival Real Madrid who knocked out Atletico Madrid in a heated match that went into extra time yesterday with a score of 5-3.
The European leagues are back: Most of them will return from their hiatus with at least one match tomorrow. Burnley and Luton Town will start gameweek 21 of the Premier League at 9:45pm on Friday. In La Liga, the gameweek 20 kicks off with Sevilla vs Deportivo Alaves at 10pm. Bayern Munich will play Hoffenheim at the start of the gameweek 17 of the Bundesliga at 9:30pm. As for Ligue 1, Marseille will face off against Strasbourg in gameweek 18 at 10pm.
Saturday’s matches in the Premier League: Newcastle and Man City will go head to head at 7:30pm after Chelsea and Fulham’s match at 2:30pm.
**We invite you to join the Enterprise Fantasy Premier League and compete against 200 of our readers by clicking on this link or using the code abd0f7.
The most important matches this Saturday in the major Euro Leagues:
Athletic Bilbao vs Real Sociedad (La Liga, 7:30pm)
Napoli vs Salernitana (Series A, 4pm)
Monza vs Inter Milan (Serie A, 9:45pm)
Augsburg vs Leverkusen (Bundesliga, 4:30pm)
Leipzig vsFrankfurt (Bundesliga, 4:30pm)
Darmstadt vs Dortmund (Bundesliga, 7:30pm)
The opening of the Asian Cup: Qatar, the host country, will play Lebanon in the first match of the Asian Cup tomorrow at 6pm. The championship will conclude on Saturday, 10 February.
… and for AfCON: The 2023 African Cup of Nations, hosted by Côte d’Ivoire, will begin on Saturday, 13 January to Sunday, 11 February. The games will begin at 10pm with the hosts facing Guinea Bissau. The opening ceremony begins at 8:30pm and will feature a performance by singer and actor Mohamed Ramadan.
The Pharaohs are in Group B, along with Ghana, Mozambique, and Cape Verde.
Related
? OUT AND ABOUT- (all times CLT)
MUSIC-
Another tribute night from CJC is dedicated to Nirvana and the Foo Fighters. Seattle the Band will be performing their homage to these grunge icons tonight from 10pm, opening their set with some classic Nirvana. They will be joined by Shady Ahmed to give you some of the Foo Fighters’ greatest hits. Get the deetz here.
Ready for some nostalgia? If you grew up watching Spacetoon, you won’t want to miss this. ElMashrou3 Band are performing the theme songs you belted along with growing up at ROOM Art Space at Garden City this Saturday. The band will also be playing originals that you haven’t heard yet, and have some surprises up their sleeves. Book your ticket here.
Warm up your vocal cords, gang. Karaoke Night is back at ROOM Art Space and Cafe. ROOM’s doors are open every Tuesday through to 27 February for you and your friends to belt out your favorite tunes, starting at 8pm and ending at 10pm. You can reserve your spot here.
Soothe your ears with the sound of harmonious music at the Harp classic concert with Manal Mohei Eldin on the string quartet playing pieces by Mozart and Boïeldieu. The performance will also feature Huda Abde Elazim on the flute as the guest of honor. This is a one-day concert at Cairo Opera House’s small theater on Sunday, 21 January from 8pm. Reserve your seats here.
The Cairo Opera House is reserving its Main Hall for a Rageh Daoud homage concert on Sunday, 21 January. The concert will be conducted under the tutelage of Maestro Ahmed Farag, and will kick off at 8pm. Before you book your tickets, note that there is a strict black-tie dress code for the night. Gentlemen, that means a full suit, tie included.
ART-
Practice your knitting and needling skills at a crochet workshop at the Monalisa ArtStudio. This three-hour course will teach you all the fundamentals from basic stitching shapes to making scarves. The course will be taking place every Saturday and Wednesday until Wednesday, 28 February from 1-4pm. Check out their Facebook page for more information.
Get ready, aspiring photographers: The Fujifilm festival starts on Thursday, 1 February, and ends on Sunday, 4 February. You’ll have four full days of activities, meetups, and talks, as well as a photography contest and an exhibition that you can partake in. You can bring your camera along to get a gratuitous CMOS and lens cleaning and check out the GFX 100 ii Studio on-site. Fujifilm X-Photographers and creators will be there too — don’t miss out on the networking potential. Check out their Facebook page for more information.
BOOKS-
The Cairo International Book Fair is starting on Wednesday, 24 January until Tuesday, 6 February. The event will be open to the general public on 25 January from 10am to 2pm, except Friday and Saturday, when their doors will close at 9pm. The fair will be in the Egyptian Center for Fairs and Conferences in the Fifth Settlement, New Cairo.
FILM-
For fans of Egyptian film nostalgia: watch the screening of Egyptian short film Ahl El Fan at Qahrawyastudio which reminisces on the golden age of Egyptian cinema and the unforgettable cinematic masterpieces that were produced. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with Hassan El Geretly, founder of the Wersha Theatre Troupe and actor in the film. The film will be showcased for one day only tonight at 8pm. Get your tickets here.
Ahimsa is treating you to a movie with a view. Sit back on the banks of the Nile and get ready to rewatch La La Land tonight. Popcorn is on the house, and if munching on that isn’t enough, there’s a whole menu to choose from that includes fetir bites and molasses-tahini dip. Grab a friend — the experience is worth sharing: It’ll reduce your ticket from EGP 450 per person to EGP 400. More details here. NOTE- Check our weather forecast before going and don’t forget to bundle up.
The Panorama Film Festival is back. Zawya’s collaboration with the European Union in Egypt and EUNIC Egypt is running from today, Thursday, 11 January to Saturday, 20 January. Instead of only showing at Zawya, the films will be screened in Cima Arkan and Point90 as well. You can find the schedule as well as other important information here.
Director Marwan Hamed will be joining Mahmoud Saad in an interview live on stage at the Falaki Theatre in Tahrir on Saturday, 13 January. Mohamed Mohsen will be providing some additional entertainment for the audience with the performance of some Arabic ballads to the tune of Maestro Aziz Al Masry. Keep in mind that this is a no-phone experience, and you will be asked to leave your devices with security. You can book tickets here.
Film aficionados, get ready to walk through 100 years of Egyptian cinema. On Saturday, Qahrawya will take you to famous shooting locations, old cinemas, and the film studios of yore, and to show you the film studios that are doing great work today. You can find the details here, but if you’re already sold on the experience, you can register to join the tour here.
Henedy hive, rise up. Cairo Jazz Club 610 is hosting a watch party dedicated to comedy icon Mohamed Henedy on Monday, 15 January. The double bill will feature Se3eedi Fi El Gam3a El Amrikeyya and Hamam Fi Amsterdam. Message CJC between 12-8pm anyday to secure your seats.
SPORTS-
The Cairo Half Marathon is taking place in a few months: Mark your calendars for Friday, 1 March, and start stretching. Cairo Runners is bringing back a fan favorite, offering the same distances as The TriFactory. Tickets are available until 27 February, giving you ample time to convince seven of your friends to join, which will get a 10% reduction in price when you register.
MARKETS + BAZAARS-
The Cairo Flea Market is back this Saturday at the Zamalek Fish Garden. There, you’ll have the chance to browse the products of more than 170 local vendors selling handmade products, antiques, secondhand items, and more. It only happens once a month so be sure not to miss it. The market runs from 11am to 7pm but we’d recommend getting there early to avoid the crazy crowds.
Related
? EARS TO THE GROUND-
Stuff the British Stole is focused on the British Museum’s “acquisition” of the artifacts it displays. This heavily contentious topic has become more popular in recent years as countries have sent requests to repatriate their artifacts and question the reasons why Britain transported and displayed parts of their history in the British Museum.
Award-winning journalist Marc Fennell’s podcast is a timely listen, in light of the most current controversy, where the museum reluctantly admits that some 2k items — including gold jewelry, gemstones, and ancient glassware, all belonging to different cultures — were stolen from their archive by a now-former employee and, thanks to poor record-keeping, likely lost forever.
The podcast dives deep into the hidden chapters of history. It sheds light on the far-reaching consequences of the British Empire’s plundering of cultural artifacts from indigenous communities across the globe. The podcast’s strength lies in its ability to not only catalog the stolen artifacts but to contextualize the impact of these thefts on the affected cultures through meticulous research and insightful interviews with historians and experts.
The EGX30 rose 0.2% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 3.8 bn (11.3% above the 90-day average). Regional investors were net sellers. The index is up 2.5% YTD.
In the green: B Investments (+3.8%), Oriental Weavers (+3.0%), and Abu Qir Fertilizers (+2.3%).
In the red: Beltone Holding (-2.5%), Madinet Masr (-1.9%), and EFG Holding (-1.7%).
Still grim, colorless, and oppressive: What art says about workplace reality: For those who have watched Barbie, one of the most dominant aspects of the film is the excess of pink in all shades. By contrast, the in-real-life corporate headquarters of Mattel Inc. — Barbie’s real-world creators — is a “gunmetal set of office cubicles… colorless and oppressive,” writes Julia Hobsbawm for Bloomberg. Barbie director Greta Gerwig told Insider that the box layout of the Mattel building is a reference to Jacques Tati’s sets from the 1967 comedy Playtime, a film about confusion in an age of high technology, which depicts the office as repeating rows of gray, boxed cubicles within a maze building of endless corridors, elevators, and escalators.
Historic origins: The term “office” is not some capitalist invention, writes Amanda Foreman in the Wall Street Journal, as their existence dates as far back as 3000 BC to when the temple cities of Mesopotamia employed teams of scribes to keep records of official business. Office, Foreman writes, “is an amalgamation of the Latin ‘officium,’ which meant a position or duty, and ‘ob ficium,’ literally ‘toward doing.’”
Portraying the corporate world as the space of dastardly executives and grim realities has been rife in other forms of popular literature — Rebecca F Kuang’s bestseller Yellowface describes an office culture “where the already-successful always have an unfair advantage over the lesser confident and lesser known,” says Hobsbawm, while Barbara Kingsolver sets her Pulitzer Prizewinner Demon Copperhead amongst the monotony and low-paid work of supermarket shelf stacking and mining communities.
Art’s obsession with economic hardship, declining industries, or even hustle culture is nothing new. Hobsbawm herself points to Billy Joel’s “Allentown,” which he performed for fans at New York and London gigs last year, forty years after penning the tune. Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” (listen, runtime: 2:33), Johnny Cash’s “Oney” (listen, runtime: 3:05), the Beatles’ “Hard Day’s Night” (listen, runtime: 2:38) or Merle Haggard’s “Workin’ Man Blues” (listen, runtime: 2:36) all tell tales of long hours, hard work and the stress of trying to make a living.
Comprehensible depictions of the rat race: English artist LS Lowry was a full-time rent collector who spent much of his life outside of work painting and drawing scenes of the working lives of mill and dock workers in northern England. In pieces like Going to Work or Mill Gates, workers scurry to and fro or stand in massed ranks against backdrops dominated by industrial landscapes of looming factories and smoking chimneys — the colorless buildings not dissimilar from Mattel’s interiors in Barbie. American artist Edward Hopper looks inside the workplace in his painting Office at Night captures the unease and isolation at being the only person left working in the office late in the evening, a feeling of not being in the right place as the dark draws in.
Don’t believe everything you see on screen: Filmmakers’ view of office spaces is an “unfair depiction” of reality, Mahmoud Riad, director and principal architect of Riad Architecture, told Enterprise. The intense isolation shown in the Barbie movie draws on caricatures that help to create an adverse reaction in the audience, the setting becomes more of a character, Riad said. Mattel’s gray, dimly lit, stifling office cubicles play into the idea of Mattel as the corporate villain, he said, adding that when media or tech companies are portrayed in films they are set in wide offices, full of conversation and activity, indicating their positions as places for ideas, creativity, and openness.
Work-life-automized productivity has already arrived: Google’s hybrid work-play-rest offices were hailed as the future of the creative workspace, The Guardian wrote in 2016, a time pre- ChatGPT and Midjourney. The offices decked out with pool tables and bowling alleys, food at no cost, gym membership — and the famous nap pods — supposedly create spaces that foster feel-good attitudes in employees, stimulate the creation and knowledge sharing, and ultimately boost loyalty, productivity, and workforce retention. Yet just as films tend to overplay the corporate villain, depictions of the Google work-play hyphenate office are also overplayed in the media and on-screen, Riad thinks. Productivity is still at the forefront of office and architecture design, he said, especially in Egypt.
Visuals play a real role inside our office spaces: Architecture and design play a role in productivity, with research showing that a well-designed office can increase productivity by up to 20%, writes AW Spaces. Bright and well-organized spaces contribute to higher energy levels and reduced stress, while stuffy and stifling areas can cause maladies such as Sick Building Syndrome when building occupants begin to experience acute health and comfort effects that appear to be linked to time spent in a building, but no specific illness or cause can be identified.
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