M&A WATCH- Our friends at the Egyptian American Enterprise Fund (EAEF) are reportedly planning to invest in Orchidia Pharma, sources close to the matter tell Al Borsa. While EAEF is hoping to acquire up to 100% of the company, it would settle on a majority stake of 55%, the sources told the newspaper, adding that due diligence is already underway ahead of presenting the company with a formal offer. Orchidia, which holds a 30% market share of the domestic eye drops market, is majority owned by its chairman Osama Abbas, who holds a 62% stake in the company. Investment firm Swicorp owns 38% of the company through its Intaj Capital II fund and had reportedly been looking to sell its stake. The newspaper also reports that Orchidia had been an acquisition target for Jordan’s Hikma last year. Acquisition talks failed on a buyer-seller price disconnect, as Hikma was offering c. EGP 400 mn against a demand of EGP 450 mn from shareholders.
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M&A WATCH- Swiss firm Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) will bid for another food company in Egypt after the winner of the bidding war for National Company for Maize Products is made clear,according to Al Borsa. We had previously covered the ongoing contest for NCMP, and now it looks like the firm is looking to expand even further into Egypt. ADM intends on announcing the investment in the second half of this year, the newspaper suggests. The company is being aggressive with its Egypt strategy with the unannounced acquisition being the third such investment after NCMP and their 50% stake in Medsofts. Pharos Holding is sell-side advisor to NCMP owner Misr Capital Investment, while Al Tamimi & Co. is legal advisor.
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M&A WATCH- The Saudi Egyptian Industrial Investment Company (SEIC) is looking to acquire an unnamed, privately-held food manufacturer, CEO Ahmed Ata tells Al Mal. Ata expects the transaction to be completed by the end of 2017. SEIC has tapped Cairo Financial Holdings as advisor on transaction, he added. SEIC — an investment company set by the governments of Saudi Arabia and Egypt — has invested around EGP 1 bn in Egypt, and its investments includes stakes in medical disposables producer Farco Make and in Alexandria Carbon Black.
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Count this more as “consolidation of state assets” than “M&A”- The Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority exempted the government’s National Investment Bank from presenting a mandatory tender offer after it submitted an offer to acquire a 40.06% stake in the Egyptian Satellite Company (Nilesat), according to a filing with the EGX. NIB already own 10% of the company; other shareholders include Egyptian Investment Projects at 8.8%, National Bank of Egypt at 7.5% and Banque Misr at 7.5%. EGX rules state that any tender for over 33% of shares outstanding demand that the buyer bid for 100% of shares, but exceptions can be made with shareholder approval.
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INVESTMENT WATCH- Silicon Valley-based VC fund 500 Startups invested USD 200k in Egyptian online food delivery platform Mumm, Al Mal said on Tuesday. Mumm is an online portal that sells home-cooked meals prepared by local housewives and refugees. Mumm aside, 500 Startups picked eight other MENA-based startups to invest in through its 500 Falcons early-stage fund. The VC firm had said in 2015 that it would invest USD 30 mn in MENA through 500 Falcons.
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The Tourism Development Authority has revised the bank of land it will allocate forinvestment opportunities in the industry, according to Al Borsa. The total number of land plots allocated has dropped to 115 from 135, taking about 30 mn sqm out of potential circulation. The new allocations have been sent to the Ministry of Investment for review as the latter prepares its Egyptian investment map. The TDA will reportedly price land plots in EGP “to make them more attractive for investment,” the newspaper says.
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So we guess Svetlana’s BFFs still aren’t coming for a beach holiday: Russia has again deemed our airport security unsatisfactory, says Svetlana Sergeeva, an adviser to the head of Russia's Federal Agency for Tourism (Rostourism), according to Sputnik. The results of Russia’s most recent airport security inspection revealed that “the Egyptian side has not yet resolved all issues related to aviation security,” she said, without further clarification. Sergeeva added that “the recent attack on tourists on the beach in Hurghada” is a cause of great concern.
So we’re somehow able to get off the US in-flight laptop-ban list, but Russia’s security demands elude us?
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New controversy around clauses on central bank oversight of non-bank financial sector in proposed amendments to the CBE and banking acts: The financial sector is in a modest uproar over proposed amendments to the Central Bank and Banking acts that would give the central bank oversight on non-bank financial institutions and brokerages. (That uproar would be more intense were half the community not on Sahel or in Europe / the US / Canada at the moment.) Article 21, which as we noted on Monday would give the CBE more sway over non-bank financial services by granting it the authority to issue licenses, would also give the central bank a say in regulating the sector, a role currently reserved to the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA).
The Federation of Egyptian Banks (FEB) has reportedly called into question the constitutionality of the article, arguing that it infringes on the authority of EFSA, according to Al Mal. Egyptian Capital Markets Association board member Ayman Sabry took to the pages of the newspaper to also denounce the proposed changes, calling them an “unnecessary imposition of the CBE’s authority” on capital markets. The FEB has previously said it won’t accept changes that would give the CBE the power to impose term limits on bank managing directors.
EFSA is playing it cool: Unnamed officials from EFSA dismissed the current draft of the amendments as merely “preliminary,” saying they can only be taken as “suggestions.”
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Egypt and the EU agreed on a new cooperation framework that outlines the two sides’ priorities for 2017-2020 on Tuesday, according to the EU’s External Action Service. The framework states that the EU and Egypt will cooperate “in all fields including Egypt's sustainable economic and social development, good governance, the rule of law, human rights, migration, security and counterterrorism.” The pact was signed during a meeting in Brussels after a meeting between Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and EU High Representative of Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, where discussions centered on strategic issues, including the economy, migration, and security.
Migration paid lip-service? The EU downplayed talk on migration, with Mogherini simply stating, “We talked and we will talk about migration.” There had been some hope that previous talks between Egypt and EU members Germany and Austria could have seen Cairo sign a Turkey-style agreement under which Egypt would receive development aid for ensuring the safe residency of third-country migrants that had been bound for Europe. This comes as the EU’s top official for relations with neighboring states said the Turkey agreement appears to be working well.
NGOs, human rights, terrorism remain a sticking point: Shoukry called on the EU to “seriously reconsider its passive approach” to terrorism and countries that support it, according to a Foreign Ministry statement. Meanwhile, Mogherini voiced “the EU's concerns about the consequences of the new NGO law” on civil society, stressing that “sustainable security and stability can only be achieved when human rights are fully available, implemented and upheld.” Amnesty International had called on the EU to consider Egypt’s human rights record as it looks at the state of relations between the two sides, and Mogherini had met earlier on Tuesday with Amnesty International Secretary-General Salil Shetty.
The Qatari smackdown was also on the agenda, with Shoukry statingthat there will be no compromise — Doha must accept demands issued by Egypt, Saudi Arabia the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to end the dispute. .
On a related note, the government will be signing an MoU with the EU on energy cooperation this fall, EU sources tell Al Mal. The MoU does not cover direct funding for energy projects or extend to the private sector, the sources add.
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President Abdel Fattah El Sisi handed down policy decisions designed to spur investment in the Western Desert and West Delta regions and away from the over-populated Nile basin, Al Ahram reports. El Sisi directed that the cabinet complete plans to redraw the borders of governorates and have the new map ready for the upcoming session of the House of Representatives, which will begin in September. He also ordered that the government complete a roadmap to develop Egypt’s western regions which will include new urban communities, investment zones, and logistics centers. Other key decisions, which came yesterday at the closing ceremony of the Alexandria youth conference, included:
- Establishing an agricultural commodities exchange in Beheira Governorate in one year;
- Setting a deadline of two years to complete the industrial zones of Beheira;
- Ordering the formation of a ministerial committee to complete a strategy to develop the desert regions of Gharbiya Governorate;
- Tendering projects in the 10,000 feddans investment zone in Kafr El Sheikh before the end of the year;
- Ordering a number of development projects for Alexandria, including increasing the city’s built up area by 18,000 feddans and upgrading road and tram networks.
El Sisi also called yesterday on the media to launch a week-long public education campaign focusing on the government’s economic reform program, Al Masry Al Youm reports.
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Chambers of Commerce appears to discourage med price hike: There’s no need to raise med prices for the second time this year, says Tamer Qarmany, a member of the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce’s pharma division. He tells Al Masry Al Youm that since the EGP float, the FX exchange rate has stabilized at around EGP 18 to the USD 1, a rate that had helped determine the previous med price hike back in January. The Health Committee of the House of Representatives is planning to hold a meeting in August with the government, pharma companies, and industry associations to determine whether to recommend another price hike in meds.
On a related note, the rising cost of both domestic production inputs and finished medsproducts is hurting export sales, according to Youm7. Medical Industries Export Council head Maged George suggests that this has led export revenues to drop to USD 220 mn in 1H17, down from USD 260 mn in 1H16. He tells the newspaper that the council is renegotiate the pricing scheme of Egyptian med exports with GCC importers.
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EgyptAir is expected to lower ticket prices that it had already set for Hajj season, according to Al Shorouk. This comes as EgyptAir Chairman Safwat Musallam came under pressure to reduce costs for pilgrims this year. EgyptAir had previously angered tour companies by pricing their Hajj season tickets too high and driving them to look to other airlines when offering packages. Saudi Airlines have yet to price their Hajj season tickets but they are expected to come in much lower than the initial prices EgyptAir put out.
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Libyan factions agree to ceasefire, could hold spring elections: Rival Libyan leaders Prime Minister Fayez Al-Serraj and General Khalifa Haftar agreed yesterday to a conditional ceasefire and to hold elections in the spring under UN supervision, Reuters reports. The agreement came after peace talks in Paris brokered by French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron’s mediation has drawn the ire of critics and allies alike, including Italy, which “sees Libya, its former colony, as part of its sphere of influence,” Bloomberg says. Analysts also “warned the French intervention could only make the situation in Libya worse by giving legitimacy to General Haftar,” who commands eastern Libya, according to the Financial Times. Haftar is a staunch Cairo ally.
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Israel will remove the metal detectors it had in Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque, which had led to violent clashes that culminated in the death of eight Palestinians, the BBC reports. Israeli authorities said they will opt for “less obtrusive surveillance” measures to prevent weapons from being smuggled into the holy site.
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In regional investment news, Saudi Arabia has reportedly hired Goldman Sachs to manage the sale of a stake in Riyadh airport, sources told Reuters. “The Saudi Civil Aviation Holding Co plans to sell a minority stake in the Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport, the sources said, adding the stake size could be significant” and the move could be the first major privatization of an airport in Saudi Arabia. “The estimated size or value of the stake was not immediately known,” Reuters says.
Is Abu Dhabi Ports also looking at an IPO? Bloomberg reported yesterday the firm could be poised to raise over USD 1bn from equity markets and would join an ever-growing list of sovereign companies out of the UAE doing the same including Emirates Global Aluminum and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. ADP said this morning is has no “immediate plans” to list.
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