The International Finance Corporation (IFC) will announce today a USD 653 mn debt package to finance the development of 13 solar power plants part of the feed-in tariff program in Benban, the IFC said in a statement this morning (pdf). The IFC is leading a consortium of nine international banks, which are backing Egypt’s renewable-energy sector for the first time, the IFC said, adding that “the project is the largest private sector financing package for a solar photovoltaic facility in the Middle East and North Africa.”

Consortium members: The African Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Arab Bank of Bahrain, CDC of the United Kingdom, Europe Arab Bank, Finance in Motion, FinnFund, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and OeEB of Austria. “Egypt’s reforms in its energy sector opened the door to private sector investments,” said IFC CEO Philippe Le Houérou. “For the Benban Solar Park project, those reforms and our innovative financial tools have helped attract a number of investors and financiers into the country for the first time,” he added.

The IFC’s announcement is the latest of some USD 1.8 bn in financing for the Benban complex which largely came from the IFC and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The latter has been providing funding under a USD 500 mn renewable energy framework to the Benban complex, which is expected to be the world's biggest grid-connected solar power park upon its completion and generating up to 1.8 GW of clean energy.

More energy investments to come? The ministers of investment and electricity will be signing a number of MoUs on energy cooperation today in Cairo with the IFC’s Vice President of New Business Dimitris Tsitsiragos, Youm7 notes.

The wave in renewable energy funding has helped a number of companies reach financial close on their projects. Elsewedy Electric expects reach financial close on the development of a USD 75 mn solar power plant in Benban in the next few days, company sources tell Al Borsa. The project, which the company is co-developing with EDF Energies Nouvelles, is being funded by both the EBRD and French development finance institution Proparco. Funding for the project was one of the 16 agreement signed during President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s state visit to France last Wednesday. Shahid Law Firm acted as local legal advisor on the transaction. Shahid also advised on financial close of Voltalia’s two solar power plants — another of the 16 agreements signed in France — and Scatec Solar‘s 400 MW plant. As of last Thursday, some 20 solar power companies have submitted their preliminary documents for financial close on their projects in Benban.

Is Baidu exiting Egypt? Chinese search giant Baidu is backing away from turning Egypt into its regional headquarters as it backtracks on its Middle East expansion, according to the Wall Street Journal (paywall). The company has been gradually laying off its more than 30 employees and has closed its Cairo office in the past few months after the business didn’t meet its targets, said several former employees and tech execs. The move comes after six years of expanding operations in Cairo with a focus on developing Arabic-language applications, advertising platforms for the MENA region and even testing an Arabic search engine. The products simply failed to catch on, company insiders said. Company reps in Beijing (the WSJ could not find any in Cairo) told the newspaper that Baidu was focusing on mobile apps and that it had “tens of mns of monthly active users in MENA.” The pullback appears to be part of a trend among Chinese big tech companies who have been struggling to compete abroad with more established US firms such as Alphabet and Facebook.

On the flipside, Facebook grew its MENA user base by 20% between July 2016 and July 2017, MENA Managing Director Jonathan Labin told The National. Facebook inaugurated new regional headquarters in Dubai Knowledge Village with a capacity of around 150 staff, up from 40 previously. The social network has 164 mn monthly active users in the region as of July, up from 136 mn a year earlier. “We are very excited about the region; we are investing in the region and we see huge growth potential,” Labin says pointing to high demand for video and mobile services.

IPO WATCH- DICE shares priced at between EGP 22.60 and EGP 27.10: DICE Sport and Casual Wear announced on Saturday an indicative price range (pdf) for an offering of up to 33.05 mn existing ordinary shares, representing 62.35% of its outstanding share capital listed on the EGX. The offering has been priced at between EGP 22.60 and EGP 27.10 per share. The offering received regulatory approval from the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority, DICE’s head of IR Victor Fakhry tells Al Borsa. 85% of shares on sale will be offered in an institutional offering, while 15% will be earmarked for local retail investors, said Fakhry. He added that the sale should start in the coming few weeks, without giving a precise date. The selling shareholders are National Textile S.A.E, which holds 56.0% of DICE’s share capital, and other minority investors who hold a combined 6.4% stake. EFG Hermes is sole global coordinator and bookrunner for the offering and Matouk Bassiouny is local counsel.

IPO WATCH- Amwal AlKhaleej planning to IPO ECPP, has two M&As in pipeline for 2018: Saudi investment firm Amwal AlKhaleej is planning to list the Egyptian Company for Propylene and Polypropylene (ECPP) on the EGX in 2018 with the aim of raising USD 300 mn to finance expansion plans, Amwal’s Egypt Country Head Karim Saada tells Al Masry Al Youm. The first phase of the two-part issuance is expected to take place in 1Q2018 and raise as much as USD 120 mn in capital, he added, without specifying a date for the second phase. The ECPP — of which Amwal AlKhaleej holds 16%, alongside other stakeholders including Oriental Weavers Chairman Mohamed Farid Khamis and the EGPC — is hoping to raise its production capacity to 500-550k tonnes a year.

Amwal AlKhaleej also has two acquisitions in the pipeline for 2018 worth a combined USD 100 mn. Saada did not delve into the details, but told the newspaper that the transactions will be in the healthcare and retail sectors.

M&A WATCH- Online grocery delivery specialist Knock Mart has presented an offer to acquire the Dina Farms supermarket chain from Qalaa Holdings’ Arabian Company for Services and Trade, Al Mal reports. Knock Mart is being advised by Haykala Investment Managers and Matouk Bassiouny is legal counsel. Knock Mart has plans to expand to have 100 branches nationwide.

Egyptian-Saudi Business Council pledges to help raise Saudi investments in Egypt to USD 51 bn: Investment Minister Sahar Nasr has reportedly gotten the Egyptian-Saudi Business Council to push for raising Saudi investments in Egypt to USD 51 bn, according to a ministry statement on Thursday. Nasr apparently lobbied for the investments to be geared towards agriculture, tourism, renewable energy, education and manufacturing. The news came out of Saudi’s Future Investment Initiative conference.

On a related note, Nasr signed an MoU with HSBC Egypt which would see the bank help promote investments in Egypt, according to a statement from the ministry.

Keep an eye on SME exposure: A number of small factories have shut down recently because of their inability to secure funding in the current interest rate environment, according to a report by Al Mal. Small producers also cite weaker demand and a slowdown in business activity following the flotation as problems they face. A representative of the Industrial Modernization Centre said they are currently reviewing a number of cases to consider the possibility of extending financing to struggling small businesses.

MOVES- President Abdel Fattah El Sisi appointed Gen. Mohamed Farid as new chief of staff of the Armed Forces yesterday, replacing Gen. Mahmoud Hegazy, who was made the president’s adviser on strategic planning and crisis management.

The Interior Ministry also announced a shakeup in its ranks yesterday, replacing “the head of national security, a handful of generals, and a dozen senior leaders.” While the statement doesn’t give a reason for the shakeup, news reports point out it comes one week after a deadly shootout on the outskirts of Cairo killed at least 16 policemen. The officials being replaced had been in charge of security in the area where the attack took place, the AP says, noting that “the move was not unexpected after officials publicly evoked potential intelligence failures, lack of coordination, or incompetence as playing a factor in the losses.” The story appears to be on the foreign press’ radar, with coverage on Reuters and the WSJ (paywall), and the Associated Press.

On a related note, the Supreme Media Council is considering placing certain restrictions on media coverage of terror-related events in an effort to contain the flow of ‘false’ and non-official news, council member Gamal Shawky said on Saturday, according to AMAY. New regulations would make it mandatory for the concerned government authorities and the council to sign off on news reports before they are published or broadcast to confirm their authenticity, Shawky explained. This comes a week after State Information Services criticized Reuters and the BBC for citing anonymous sources claiming that more than 50 policemen had been killed in the Wahat attack.

Trump administration places temporary restrictions on refugee cases from 11 MEA countries, including Egypt: US President Donald Trump decided on Friday to place additional restrictions on refugee admissions to the country, temporarily delaying the processing of refugee cases from 11 countries, including Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and North Korea. “US officials said the changes were aimed at protecting US national security, but refugee advocates said they amounted to a de facto ban on refugees from the 11 countries and were unnecessary, since refugees are already heavily vetted,” Reuters reports.

IPO WATCH- Saudi Arabia plans to float shares in its USD 500 bn sci-fi robot-infested city Neom, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) said over the weekend, according to Reuters. “Without a doubt, at the end of the day Neom will be floated in the markets. The first zone floated in the public markets. It’s as if you float the city of New York,” he said on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh. “The first capitalist city in the world … this is the unique thing that will be revolutionary,” added MbS. Neom will join Aramco as another major IPO of the Saudi reform agenda. On the latter, MbS confirmed that the Aramco listing was on track for 2018, but the listing details are still under discussion.

It turns out that Saudi Arabia had apparently signed an agreement with Egypt last year to develop an industrial zone in Sinai order to “link it with Neom,” according to statements by MbS picked up by Bloomberg. “Neom will have a lot of ports. Some of them in Saudi Arabia and some of them in Egypt,” he added. The agreement would have seen the establishment of a freezone in North Sinai which would be connected to Neom.

…MbS also said he is in talks with major companies, including Amazon and Alibaba, to invest in Neom. “We are talking with everyone … We have the ‘who’s who’ from around the world engaging in this,” he says. Swiss engineering group ABB is “confident” it will get a slice of the USD 500 bn project. Bloomberg apparently cannot get enough of the idea, running an interview with MbS in which he tells everyone that they can go booze in Egypt and Jordan and not in Neom (we wonder what the Bender the alcoholic robot from Futurama would say about that) and a few infographics on the city. Meanwhile, Reuters Breakingviews’ Rob Cox says the plan for Neom is “so bonkers it just might work.”

Other international news worth noting in brief this morning include:

• The US economy grew at 3% in 3Q17, outstripping projections of 2.5%, CNBC reports.
• Demand for the iPhone X has outstripped supply, with Apple calling pre-orders “off the charts.”
• A federal grand jury in the United States approved the first charges in the into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, according to Reuters.
• Catalonia’s parliament voted in favor of independence on Friday in defiance of the Spanish government’s imposed direct rule, BBC reports. Separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has called for peaceful protests.

CORRECTION- In Thursday’s issue we mistakenly said that the recently-passed Universal Healthcare plan is expected to cover all of Egypt in 2022. The scheme will actually cover all governorates by 2032. The entry has been corrected on our website.