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Tuesday, 1 Sep 2026

What We’re Tracking Today
Tourism
Regulation Watch
A Message From Visa
Energy
A Message From Auc Onsi Sawiris School Of Business Executive Education
Also On Our Radar
Planet Finance
Going Green
Calendar

Red Sea hotels bet on winter volumes over price hikes

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Today at a glance

1

Tourism

Red Sea hotels won’t raise their rates despite an expected 20% jump in winter arrivals.
2

REGULATION WATCH

EGX scraps application route back to the OTC order market.
3

Energy

Egypt studies two repair options to restore Energos Winter to service.
4

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

The US expects to sanction new Iran-linked entities roughly weekly.
5

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

Prosecutors freeze assets and impose travel bans in Global Paradigm loan scandal.
6

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

MSC rerouted its Jade service back through the Suez, following Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd’s return.
7

Also on our Radar

BMI sees average Egyptian household annual disposable income reaching EGP 348k by 2030.
8

PLANET FINANCE

Wheat and corn surge as Black Sea risks meet a hawkish Fed.
9

Going Green

Solar financing for ceramics is moving, but gas efficiency is lagging.

Tuesday, 1 Sep 2026

What We’re Tracking Today
Tourism
Regulation Watch
A Message From Visa
Energy
A Message From Auc Onsi Sawiris School Of Business Executive Education
Also On Our Radar
Planet Finance
Going Green
Calendar
1

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

The US expects to sanction new Iran-linked entities roughly weekly, Treasury Secretary says

Good morning, friends. Systems are under pressure this morning, and we’ve got three stories for you about the workarounds keeping them running.

The Red Sea tourism story is a bit counterintuitive, but stay with us. Winter arrivals are expected to jump 20%, but 90% of hotels are holding rates flat anyway. That’s because operators are wagering on volume over margin, absorbing a year of higher energy and utility costs rather than passing them on.

On the EGX front: The exchange rewrote some of the rules governing its OTC order market, scrapping both the explicit application route for reinstatement and the power to permanently halt and remove a security. Resumption is now the chairman’s call.

The Energos Winter story has immediate stakes. The government is reportedly weighing two repair options for the damaged Damietta FSRU, either a six-week local fix with Petrojet or a one-month job in Turkey. It’s running its Mediterranean LNG capacity on stored reserves and workarounds in the meantime, and with the rest of Egypt’s FSRU fleet on the Red Sea, there’s no Med route to the grid until the repair is done.

***

ARE YOU MORE OF A LISTENER? Morning Drive is a 10-minute summary of today’s issue crafted for you to enjoy with your morning coffee, while getting the kids ready for school, or driving through the morning rush. And if you like it, tell your friends to tell their friends. They can find us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever they get their podcasts.

***

The EnterpriseAM Egypt Forum is back — and we’re devoting the full day to the singular set of questions on everyone’s mind: What does AI actually mean for your company, your people, your economy, your own job — and your kids’ future?

Every session on stage answers one question: “So, what do I actually do about it?”

Join us on 5 October in Cairo. Seats are limited and attendance is by invitation only.

Request your invitation here.

US readies weekly Iran sanctions

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expects Washington’s financial policy arm to keep adding names to its Iran sanctions list at a pace of roughly one round a week, and banks are where the campaign begins, he told Reuters. This comes days after the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) moved to strip correspondent banking access from Banque Misr’s UAE outpost.

For banks already in Washington’s crosshairs, Bessent said the next step could be cutting them off entirely from the USD-based financial system. “We’re starting with the banks, and we’re telling the banks it’s not okay to have Iranian money and to aid the regime,” he said.

There’s no middle ground on offer at the G20. Finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, will be told to end their economic relationships with Iran or expect sanctions themselves, Bessent said. “You’re either with us, or you’re with the Iranians.” He waved off the argument that the campaign needs Chinese firms in the frame, saying the US blockade of Iranian ports has already done that work.

REMEMBER- Banque Misr’s UAE branches — the first target under Operation Economic Outcast — sit in limbo until FinCEN closes a 30-day public comment window to decide whether to finalize the rule. FinCEN is proposing to cut the UAE branches off from correspondent banking access based on allegations that the branches processed roughly USD 1.8 bn between January 2024 and June 2026 for 103 companies that FinCEN says may be tied to Iranian shadow-banking networks.

The loan scandal freeze

The prosecutor general has ordered asset freezes and travel bans on several parties connected to the school-loan scandal, according to a statement. These include the owner of Global Paradigm School, the leadership at the consumer-finance company linked to the case, several of the firm’s shareholders, and a number of the school’s administrative staff members. The measures also apply to the suspects’ spouses and minor children, but exclude the accounts of companies in which they hold stakes.

REMEMBER- Last week, the Financial Regulatory Authority referred the consumer-finance company to the Public Prosecution, barred it from signing new financing contracts for one month, and cancelled the consumer-finance activity licence of its CEO. The regulator also said it has cancelled the financial and credit obligations incurred by affected parents. Prosecutors say the school entered into 839 consumer-finance contracts worth EGP 321 mn using parents’ personal data, copies of their IDs, and documents bearing signatures. The school’s chairman has been detained pending investigation.

The case has also begun to weigh on GlobalCorp, which has ties to the consumer-finance firm. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has paused talks on a potential USD 20 mn financing package, while a potential sale of GlobalCorp to local and foreign investors — which we reported in May could value the company at around USD 200 mn — has reportedly stalled.

Welcome back, Jade

MSC has rerouted its Jade service back through the Suez Canal and Bab Al Mandab, connecting Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Port to Europe and Asia on the direct route rather than the long way round the Cape of Good Hope, the Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) said on X.

It’s not back to normal yet: Bab Al Mandab traffic was still fluctuating late last week, with visible commodity vessel transits falling to 19 on Wednesday, 26 August, from 24 a day earlier, Reuters reports, citing Kpler data.

MSC joins a shift already underway: Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd returned their AE15 through Suez in July, before Maersk also brought back its MECL and WAF6. The two carriers also moved AE19 Gemini service onto the corridor earlier this month.

Pharma’s next float

El Arabi Pharma Group (EPG) is looking to float a minority stake on the EGX in 3Q 2027, with proceeds earmarked for expansion over the following two years, Al Borsa reports, citing Chairman Sherif El Masry. The IPO is expected to fetch around USD 100 mn, though it is unclear whether the offer is purely primary, secondary, or both. EFG Hermes is among those in the running for the mandate.

Demand is already there: US and local investment funds have tabled offers, currently under review, of USD 50-60 mn to buy into the company, which are conditional on EPG listing, El Masry said. All five of EPG’s subsidiaries will be up for grabs, spanning manufacturing, distribution, and exports.

Looking forward: The group aims to reopen next year its offices in Libya and Syria, which have been closed since 2011. It stops short of the GCC, which El Masry says isn’t in the current plan.

IN CONTEXT- EPG joins El Ezaby in the IPO pipeline. B Investments has been prepping the pharmacy chain for an EGX listing since February, with Chairman Hazem Barakat telling us in May that El Ezaby could come to market as early as next year. That plan appears to be intact despite B Investments telling the EGX in July that it has no current plan to sell its stake in the chain, ruling out an exit but not necessarily the IPO itself. Both are coming to a market where pharma is running hot: healthcare and pharma account for less than 5% of EGX market capitalization but around 14% of value traded, according to yesterday’s figures.

Happening today

The Customs Authority completed a decade-long phaseout of import duties on category-D goods under Egypt’s freetrade agreement with Mercosur today, lifting the preferential reduction from 90% to 100%, according to a government document seen by EnterpriseAM. The final 10% step means qualifying products from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay will no longer pay the customs duty otherwise due at the border — subject to rules-of-origin and documentation requirements. The basket includes selected chemicals, glass, plastics, textile inputs and garments, agricultural products, and industrial components.

IN CONTEXT- The agreement entered into force in 2017, progressively eliminating tariffs on specified Mercosur imports over a decade. The commercial question is now whether the final cut is large enough to shift sourcing or input costs for Egyptian manufacturers and importers — especially where Brazilian and Argentine suppliers already have a foothold.

PSA-

WEATHER- It’s another hot summer day in Cairo, with a high of 35°C and a low of 25°C, according to our favorite weather app.

Alexandria will be a little cooler, with temperatures reaching 32°C during the day and easing to 23°C overnight.

The big story abroad

Political drama at the G20 finance meeting has top billing in the international press today, after Russia’s participation drew opposition from European officials. This week’s summit of finance ministers and central bankers in North Carolina marks Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov’s first time at a G20 meeting since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Amazon in hot water: The US Federal Trade Commission has filed a suit against Amazon, alleging that the e-commerce giant misled advertisers by manipulating the prices they paid to promote products on its platform. The suit, filed by a bipartisan coalition of 22 states, claims Amazon illegally made USD 20 bn by deceiving some 1.2 mn US advertising customers.

Logistics is big in Japan: US-based investment firm Ares Management, through its real estate arm, raised USD 4 bn for its fifth logistics development fund, which is almost 50% larger than its predecessor. The Japan Logistics Development Partners fund reached its maximum target, marking the unit’s largest closed-end institutional fundraise, drawing investments from pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and insurers across four continents.

*** It’s Going Green day — your weekly briefing of all things green in Egypt: EnterpriseAM’s green economy vertical focuses each Tuesday on the business of renewable energy and sustainable practices in Egypt, everything from solar and wind energy through to water, waste management, sustainable building practices and how you can make your business greener, whatever the sector.

In today’s issue: We unpack why financing is backing solar for ceramics makers, but not the gas-saving upgrades Egypt needs to cut its import bill.

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A strategic partnership shaping the next chapter of the Red Sea

Somabay and MARAKEZ come together in a landmark partnership, marking MARAKEZ’s first entry into Egypt’s Red Sea market and a significant step forward in the continued evolution of Somabay.

2

Tourism

Red Sea hotels won’t raise their rates despite an expected 20% jump in winter arrivals

Red Sea tourism operators expect winter arrivals to rise around 20% y-o-y this season — but most aren’t changing their rates. Some 90% of hotels across Marsa Alam, Hurghada, and Sharm El Sheikh plan to hold room prices flat this winter, absorbing a year of higher energy and utility costs rather than passing them on, Marsa Alam and South Sinai Investors Association head Atef Abdel Latif tells EnterpriseAM. Two hotel operators tell us the picture is stronger at the top end, where major branded chains with steady year-round demand and standing tour-operator contracts expect to raise prices around 10%.

The freeze is a wager on volume: Operators are holding rates in the hope the season delivers record demand — and high occupancy — across Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada, Marsa Alam, Luxor, and Aswan, Abdel Latif says. The logic: fill rooms at today’s prices rather than chase higher rates into an uncertain regional backdrop.

The pricing power is real but narrow. One well-known chain has already lifted winter rates for bookings and activities by 20-35%, one source tells us, driven by demand and thin supply in the high-end segment, not by rising costs. For everyone else, competition sets the ceiling. Hotels already absorbed August’s electricity, water, and fuel increases into peak-season rates, Abdel Latif says. “If we face a new [cost] increase, we won’t be able to raise prices much at the same time because of the fierce competition and the regional challenges.”

Why it matters: The constraint on the season is charter aviation out of Europe, not appetite for Egypt. Tour operators “know Egypt is safe,” Abdel Latif says, but airspace fears amid regional tensions have pushed some to trim flight frequencies. Italian-market capacity was cut in July before recovering part of the way in August — Abdel Latif says he offered discounts and incentives to foreign operators over the summer to keep planes full.

Cairo and the Nile are the exceptions: Hotels in Cairo and Giza and Nile cruises between Luxor and Aswan will raise rates around 10% from October 2026 — down from an initial 15% target after negotiations — with a further 10% penciled in for October 2027, Abdel Latif says. Inland, away from the charter flight bottleneck, operators have more room to price.

Demand is drawing capital: Stronger traffic is expected to pull fresh investment into Red Sea hotel capacity, with Emirati and Saudi investors preparing to move alongside local partners to close the supply gap, sector sources tell us, declining to disclose specific names, figures, or timelines. The state is targeting 500k hotel rooms nationally by 2030, up from a base of roughly 280k now.

Egypt as a trend: Sources credit the Grand Egyptian Museum opening, New Alamein, and a wave of tourist and influencer content on social media with turning a trip to Egypt into a global trend. One source argues that content posted by travelers and influencers may do more to encourage visitors than traditional promotion campaigns, putting Egyptian destinations and real visitor experiences directly in front of a global audience.

What’s next: Tourism and antiquities investment is targeted to reach EGP 118.5 bn in FY 2026/27, up 12.3% from a projected EGP 105.5 bn in FY 2025/26. The deciding factor for the winter, per Abdel Latif, is whether operators can add charter capacity into the Red Sea. Talks with tour operators to put more planes on the route are currently underway.

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3

REGULATION WATCH

EGX scraps application route back to OTC order market

The EGX has rewritten some of the rules governing unlisted securities — traded through its automated order-acceptance system, or over-the-counter (OTC) market — giving its chairman more discretion over when suspended shares can return to the automated order-acceptance system. Under the amendments (pdf) — Decision 633 of 2026, issued on Sunday by EGX Chairman Omar Radwan with the Financial Regulatory Authority’s sign-off — a company that amends its registered issuance data (a capital hike, capital reduction, or share split, for instance) no longer has an explicit route to request reinstatement once trading is halted. Resumption is now the chairman’s call, made “for reasons he deems fit,” not in response to a company request.

How it used to work: Under the old rules (pdf), set in December 2022 under then-chairman Rami El Dokani, unlisted companies that were trading on the EGX had to file the proposed amendment, before-and-after issuance data, and a timetable upfront. Then they could apply for reinstatement once trading was halted. The EGX, in turn, could permanently halt a security and remove it from the order-system database if the company failed to fix what the exchange flagged.

Why it matters: The move reads more like a deregulation of process than a tightening of the rules, and it’s pulling in two directions at once. It scraps the exchange’s power to permanently halt a security and delete it from the order book, so the harshest penalty is off the table. But it also removes the predictability of the process, though not necessarily of the outcome.

The halt no longer has to take effect before the start of the next business day, leaving the exchange no fixed window in which to act. And where the old article described the suspension as temporary, in both its heading and its body, the new text drops the word, though neither version sets a maximum duration.

The trigger itself hasn’t changed: Once a board or general assembly moves to amend registered issuance data, trading through the automated order-acceptance system stops, leaving only ownership transfers open. That means the shares come off the screen but can still change hands through manually recorded transfers.

Pundits tell us: The recent changes significantly cut red tape and ease regulatory burdens on unlisted companies, making trading in the OTC segment more flexible, Sameh Gharib, capital markets expert at Tycoon Securities, tells us. The OTC market was originally intended to provide a temporary venue for trading, rather than to allow companies to remain there indefinitely.

SOUND SMART- Nineteen companies traded on the EGX’s OTC order market yesterday, where bids and offers match on screen much as they do for listed stocks — among them Ezz Steel, Global Telecom Holding, and Alexandria Cement. Alongside it runs the dealsmarket, where ownership transfers are recorded after the fact. The two channels differ in scale as well as mechanics: the order market turned over EGP 3.5 mn across 428 trades against EGP 40.7 mn on 26 trades in the deals market, according to the most recent EGX session.

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4

A MESSAGE FROM VISA

The card terminal is getting a serious rival: the phone

Of the world’s 1.3 bn unbanked adults, about 530 mn already carry a smartphone — putting part of the digital-access challenge in a device people already use. Visa is building on that reality with new Visa Accept and Visa Direct capabilities that help smartphones do more of the work small businesses need: take payments, move money, and manage day-to-day commerce without extra hardware.

Money in: Visa Accept lets a microseller accept card payments through their Visa debit or prepaid account, using tap to pay or pay by link, with funds reaching the seller’s account in near-real time where available. That speed matters: Visa’s Global SMB Macro Trends Report found that 20% of surveyed SMBs face cashflow gaps daily or monthly. Buyers also get Visa protections whether they are paying a street vendor or a large retailer.

Money out: Visa Direct handles the other side of smartphone-based commerce, enabling fast payouts to staff, contractors, or drivers, customer refunds, incentives, and cross-border transfers to eligible cards, bank accounts, or digital wallets, subject to availability.

The scale-up: Visa Accept is already live in 25+ countries, with banking partners from Sri Lanka, Guatemala, and Vietnam, and upcoming launches in Kenya and Ghana. By 2027, Visa expects the service to be available to mns of merchants worldwide.

For Egypt — where the corner kiosk, the delivery driver, and much of the informal economy still rely heavily on cash — the message is practical: small-business acceptance does not always need to start with new hardware. Sometimes, the cash register is already in the seller’s pocket.

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5

Energy

Egypt studies two repair options to return Energos Winter to service

Egypt is now weighing a roughly six-week repair by state-owned Petrojet for its damaged Damietta FSRU, alongside the previously reported option of sending the vessel to Turkey for a roughly one-month repair, according to an unnamed government official. The vessel still has roughly 70k cbm of LNG onboard, which must be offloaded at either Ain Sokhna or Damietta before repairs can begin.

The government is also weighing bringing in a second floating storage unit to guard against the same supply risks. A 150k cbm unit is under study for September to dock at Ain Sokhna, alongside the Gazlog Salem, at a lease cost of roughly USD 75k a day, around USD 2.25 mn a month, according to another government source. The source said the lease is aimed at building emergency reserves in case of delayed shipments or lower Israeli pipeline imports.

Until one of those repair timelines plays out, Egypt is running its Mediterranean LNG capacity on buffer stock and workarounds. Damietta took in around 150k cbm of LNG earlier this month, pushing stored volumes to around 270k cbm against 300k cbm of capacity, about 90% full. The official says those stocks can backstop the FSRUs at Ain Sokhna if scheduled cargoes there run late, turning Damietta’s tanks into a temporary buffer even though the port can’t regasify those molecules itself right now.

That’s stacked on top of the workarounds Egypt has leaned on since the strike. Egypt redirected a Damietta-bound LNG cargo to Jordan’s Aqaba port after Energos went offline and increased Israeli pipeline imports. The country can also draw up to 450 mmcf / d from the Excelerate Acadia at Aqaba through the Arab Gas Pipeline under its arrangement with Jordan.

ALSO- Egypt is weighing three bids for its first permanent onshore regasification terminal at Ain Sokhna, initially capable of feeding 1 bcf / d into the grid. It was also planning for a fixed regasification unit at the Damietta complex dating back to at least 2024, when Egypt and Eni were discussing a roughly USD 150 mn onshore facility alongside additional LNG storage.

Why it matters: The strike on Energos Winter left Damietta’s port without the ability to turn the stored LNG into gas that feeds into the national grid. The 270k cbm sitting in the tanks counts as a reserve but can’t do the FSRU’s job — repairing Energos Winter is what restores the storage-to-regasification-to-grid handoff.

That handoff matters more now because Egypt’s FSRU fleet isn’t spread out the way it was. The country’s four operating units have a combined capacity of around 2.75 bcf / d — three at Ain Sokhna and one at Aqaba. Losing its only Mediterranean-facing FSRU while the rest of the fleet sits on the Red Sea leaves Egypt without a route to turn LNG into pipeline gas that doesn’t run through Sokhna or a neighboring country.

And that repair bill comes on top of an LNG system Egypt is already spending heavily to keep running. LNG accounted for nearly 72% of the country’s gas imports in 1Q 2026, up from virtually nothing in 2023, while its gas import bill is expected to reach USD 10.7 bn in FY 2026/27.

What to watch: Look for the damage assessment and repair decision that will determine whether Energos Winter heads to Turkey or stays in Egypt, along with where its 70k cbm LNG cargo is offloaded. The repair timeline and final cost will only become clear once the assessment is complete.

Filling the September gap

MEANWHILE- The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) is in the market for six LNG cargoes for September delivery, according to traders familiar with the matter. EGPC already secured LNG cargoes for August delivery late last month to cover summer power demand, Bloomberg reports, citing people it says are in the know.

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6

A MESSAGE FROM AUC ONSI SAWIRIS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

AI as your next marketing skill

AUC’s AI for Marketers program teaches marketing professionals to apply AI across the full marketing lifecycle. The program includes analyzing customer data, automating marketing workflows, and developing AI-assisted content and advertising strategies, along with a module on the ethical limits of AI in marketing. The blended program starts 17 October and runs live-online and on-campus. Applications close on 20 September. Apply now.

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7

Also on our Radar

BMI sees average Egyptian household disposable income reaching EGP 348k by 2030

The average Egyptian household’s disposable income is expected to rise to EGP 348.2k a year by 2030, according to Fitch Solutions unit BMI’s estimates picked up by Mubasher. That would put monthly disposable income at around EGP 29k, up from EGP 233k a year — or EGP 19.4k a month — in 2026. The share of households with annual disposable income above USD 10k is predicted to rise from 4.2% in 2026 to 15.7% by 2030.

The forecast has moved up since we last checked in with BMI. The research house had penciled in average household disposable income of EGP 185.6k for 2025, compared with its latest EGP 199.1k estimate for the year, a roughly 7% increase. BMI cautioned in that earlier outlook that much of the near-term rise in EGP-denominated incomes would be inflation-driven, with real income gains expected to become more meaningful further into the forecast period.

Widening the toolkit

Shareholders of the International Company for Leasing (Incolease) voted to add mortgage finance to the company’s corporate purpose, amending Article 3 of its articles of association, according to meeting minutes (pdf) filed with the EGX. The Financial Regulatory Authority signed off on the addition back in June, though the resolution is conditional on securing the remaining licenses needed to actually practice. The EGX-listed company has been a leasing house since 1997 and also runs a factoring book.

REMEMBER- Incolease spent the year building out its funding. It closed its debut EGP 2 bn securitization in March, marking the first tranche of an EGP 10 bn program, with shareholders approving a second issuance of up to EGP 2.5 bn. The company is targeting a 36.4% increase in its financing portfolio to EGP 18 bn by the end of 2026, up from EGP 13.2 bn at the end of last year, according to CEO Khaled Sarhan.

Another slice of real estate

Local real estate player Emtelaak is targeting a 4Q launch for a fractional real estate fund that aims to raise around EGP 1 bn across two tranches, CEO Magdy El Yamany told Hapi. The fund company has already been established and registered with Misr for Central Clearing, Depository, and Registry, while Emtelaak is preparing its first prospectus and testing the security and user journey of its fractional investment platform ahead of subscriptions.

Emtelaak is joining a real estate fund pipeline that is crowding quickly. Egypt had only six real estate investment funds with combined net assets of around EGP 12.6 bn at end-June. As of mid-August, the FRA was reviewing more than 20 additional applications as fractional property platforms and new REIFs move through the regulatory pipeline.

New freezone in Port Said?

Paint maker KAPCI Coatings has submitted a request to establish a special freezone in Port Said for up to USD 40 mn to produce 10k tons of automotive paint annually for export. The proposed zone — slated for launch in 2027 — will target Morocco and India and is expected to span 62k sqm.

More news on our radar:

  • BP kicked off production at its Fayoum 4 gas well in the West Nile Delta, one year after discovery and roughly two years ahead of schedule, with output expected to reach c. 80 mmcf / d. (Statement, pdf)
  • The EGX has given Arab Developers Holding 15 days to disclose how it used proceeds from its EGP 1 bn rights issue and provide independent confirmation that the funds were spent as promised on projects and debt repayment. (Statement)
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8

PLANET FINANCE

Wheat and corn surge as Black Sea risks meet hawkish Fed

A war-driven commodity shock and a hawkish Fed are hitting the same import bills at once. Wheat settled at 784 cents a bushel on Friday, its highest close since February 2023, up 12.1% on the week and more than 54.5% YTD, CNBC reports. December corn settled at 536.5 cents a bushel, its highest close since July 2023 and up 21.8% YTD. The corn contract was up 15.6% in August, putting it on track for its best month since April 2021.

IN CONTEXT- This rally comes as Russia prepares to intensify attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure after peace talks reached a dead end, Bloomberg reported last week. Russia and Ukraine together account for more than a quarter of global wheat exports, while damage to port and grain export infrastructure, attacks on vessels, and rising ins. costs are disrupting what is still moving through the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. The exposure isn’t uniform. Jordan had already canceled two wheat tenders and two barley tenders that month after receiving few offers amid high prices and shipping risk. Tunisia was warning suppliers against invoking force majeure. Indonesia — the No. 2 global buyer — had locked in roughly 600k tons from former Soviet exporters for July-September while already scouting Bulgaria, Australia, Romania, and Argentina as backups, Reuters reported last week. Algeria, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Vietnam also rely heavily on Russian and Ukrainian wheat.

Egypt is the sharpest case in that group. The country is the world’s largest wheat importer and sourced more than 82% of its wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine in the first half of 2026. Unlike Jordan or Tunisia, Egypt’s bread subsidy program is a fixed budget line, not a purchase it can defer. The private sector, which handles more than half of Egypt’s wheat needs and holds thinner inventories than the state buyer, is absorbing most of the near-term pain, and President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has discussed the threat to food supplies directly with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Egypt’s exposure isn’t limited to wheat. The country is also a major corn importer for poultry and animal feed, with Brazil supplying roughly half those inflows through mid-May 2026. A corn rally on top of a wheat rally means the feed and protein side of the food bill is moving at the same time as bread.

Then there’s the currency leg. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s Friday remarks at Jackson Hole read hawkish enough that markets are now pricing higher odds of a September hike, CNBC reports, with Principal Asset Management’s Seema Shah telling the network that “the positive market reaction highlights that investors place a premium on policy clarity, even when that clarity carries a more hawkish message.” Every importer on that list is now paying more USD for the same wheat, with less room from the Fed to absorb it, but Egypt may be carrying a bigger, less flexible bill than Jordan’s or Tunisia’s.

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Asian markets opened lower today, with Japan’s Nikkei and South Korea’s Kospi both about 0.5% in the red. This tracks with Wall Street’s overnight losses across the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq.

EGX30

54,866

-0.1% (YTD: +31.2%)

USD (CBE)

Buy 50.86

Sell 50.99

USD (CIB)

Buy 50.82

Sell 50.92

Interest rates (CBE)

19.00% deposit

20.00% lending

Tadawul

11,127

-0.3% (YTD: +6.1%)

ADX

10,007

-0.4% (YTD: +0.2%)

DFM

5,836

-0.8% (YTD: -3.5%)

S&P 500

7,686

-0.3% (YTD: +12.3%)

FTSE 100

10,824

+0.3% (YTD: +9.0%)

Euro Stoxx 50

6,420

-1.0% (YTD: +10.8%)

Brent crude

USD 90.49

+2.7%

Natural gas (Nymex)

USD 2.93

-0.1%

Gold

USD 4,494

+0.3%

BTC

USD 79,006

+0.5% (YTD: -9.9%)

S&P Egypt Sovereign Bond Index

1,108

+0.1% (YTD: +11.6%)

S&P MENA Bond & Sukuk

151.34

-0.1% (YTD: -0.4%)

VIX (Volatility Index)

14.92

+3.4% (YTD: -0.2%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The EGX30 fell 0.1% at yesterday’s close on turnover of EGP 18.2 bn (63.9% above the 90-day average). Local investors were the sole net buyers. The index is up 31.2% YTD.

In the green: AMOC (+7.1%), Qalaa Holdings (+4.7%), and GB Corp (+3.9%).

In the red: Orascom Investment Holding (-4.3%), Juhayna (-3.3%), and Edita (-2.4%).

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Our weekly deep dive into the green economy and ESG issue in Egypt.

Published every Tuesday in EnterpriseAM.

Read going Green
9

Going Green

Solar financing for ceramics is moving, but gas efficiency is lagging

Financing tied to Egypt’s ceramics gas-efficiency target is thin, even as 25 manufacturers sign on to cut natural gas consumption by up to 25%. The manufacturers are working with kiln suppliers, production-line makers, and energy efficiency firms toward that goal, but what’s on offer so far is general environmental compliance support, not capital sized to kiln and dryer retrofits, according to a cabinet statement and industry sources.

A parallel track under the Trade and Industry Ministry’s Shams Al Sinaa initiative, which has an active international financing push behind it, will push the same companies toward rooftop solar, aimed at cutting grid electricity use by up to 15%.

Solar’s financing case is the one moving: “Manufacturers have raised concerns about the high investment costs involved, and we are currently working to secure new international financing to enable the immediate implementation of the Shams Al Sinaa initiative,” a government official tells EnterpriseAM. “This would help improve production quality and support higher exports to European markets,” the official adds.

SOUND SMART- The 25% target sits well within reach on paper. A 2016 Unido benchmarking study (pdf) found Egyptian ceramic tile plants used 6.76 GJ per ton on average, more than double the 3.31 GJ per ton international best-available-technology benchmark. The gap is wide enough that even partial modernization should clear the target. The study, based on 2013-2015 data from 19 plants representing 58% of the sector’s capacity at the time, pointed to more efficient kilns and dryers, waste heat recovery, better process controls, and reformulated ceramic bodies as the available levers.

REMEMBER- Egypt has had this diagnosis for close to a decade. Unido, the Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, and the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency set up an Industrial Energy Efficiency Fund in 2018, building on a GEF-funded program that ran from 2012 to 2018. Egypt has never paired that diagnosis with capital sized to it, and this program is repeating the pattern: financing is moving toward solar rather than the gas-efficiency side the 2018 fund was originally built for.

Rooftop solar and kiln efficiency aren’t interchangeable. Solar can reduce electricity purchases, but it can’t directly replace the natural gas used to produce the high temperatures required inside kilns. Delivering the 25% gas target depends on investment within the production process itself, not the panels going up on the roof.

The bundling of solar with gas efficiency is worth reading closely, because the two targets carry very different odds of success, and financing is already tracking that gap. Rooftop solar needs no process redesign: it displaces grid electricity a factory already buys, and it’s the target with an active financing push behind it.

The gas target needs capital inside the production process itself — new kilns, dryers, and waste-heat recovery — and no comparable push has been reported for it. Pairing a low-effort, well-financed target with a high-capital, thinly financed one lets the program claim credit on the easier W while the harder, more consequential one quietly slips.

“Accelerating the energy transition requires a supportive environment, including facilitating procedures for connecting to the electricity grid, providing access to concessional financing, and expanding technical support and capacity-building programs,” Ahmed Kamal, head of the Environmental Compliance and Sustainable Development Office at the Federation of Egyptian Industries, tells EnterpriseAM. “Companies no longer view renewable energy simply as an environmental option but as a tool for managing risks and reducing costs over the medium and long term,” he says. The office’s green loans top out at EGP 12 mn per facility, Kamal adds.

Egypt has earmarked USD 10.7 bn for LNG and piped-gas imports in FY 2026/27, up 26% y-o-y, after gas imports already cost USD 2.5 bn in 1Q 2026. Every unit of gas a kiln stops burning is a unit the state doesn’t have to import at that price. A gas-efficiency target with financing this thin, against that backdrop, is a missed offset on a bill that’s growing faster than the plan meant to relieve it.

Manufacturers want that solar financing to go further: “Energy accounts for around 60% of production costs, so we need strong initiatives with banks to lower interest rates and increase the availability of loans for the transition to solar energy,” a senior ceramic manufacturer tells us. “This would help accelerate the transition and reduce reliance on natural gas and electricity,” they said.

Lower energy use could reduce operating costs and improve the carbon profile of Egyptian exporters. But ceramics and sanitaryware are not currently covered by the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). The export upside is therefore about buyer requirements and preparing for tighter carbon standards.

There’s a smaller export angle, and it’s worth sizing correctly: Egypt exported some USD 278 mn of ceramic products in 2025, per UN Comtrade data, with sanitaryware alone valued at some USD 152 mn in 2024, enough to make Egypt the world’s 11th-largest exporter in that category and Germany’s largest supplier at USD 36.9 mn.

OUR TAKE- This program is set up to succeed on the wrong half. Solar has financing moving behind it, while the gas target, the one that actually offsets Egypt’s USD 10.7 bn import bill, doesn’t. That’s the same shape the 2018 fund took: diagnosis without matched capital. With energy at 60% of production costs, an EGP 12 mn loan cap was never going to be the fix.

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CALENDAR

SEPTEMBER

8-10 September (Tuesday-Thursday) El Alamein International Airshow, El Alamein International Airport.

10-12 September (Thursday-Saturday): Egyptian Entrepreneurship Sector Diagnostics Report Summit, El Gouna.

15 September (Tuesday): IMF to hold its eighth review of Egypt’s USD 8 bn EFF arrangement.

24 September (Thursday): Monetary Policy Committee’s sixth meeting of 2026.

27-29 September (Sunday-Tuesday): Global Conference on Population, Health, and Human Development.

28-29 September (Monday-Tuesday): Egypt Mining Forum, St. Regis Hotel New Capital.

30 September - October 3 (Wednesday-Saturday): Cityscape, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo.

OCTOBER

5 October (Monday): The EnterpriseAM Egypt Forum.

6 October (Tuesday): Armed Forces Day.

10-11 October (Saturday-Sunday): Egypt Women’s Health Summit (EWHS), Cairo Marriott Hotel.

26-28 October (Monday-Wednesday): IEX Egypt, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo.

29 October (Thursday): Monetary Policy Committee’s seventh meeting of 2026.

NOVEMBER

6-8 November (Friday-Sunday) : Global Entrepreneurship Festival, JW Marriott Hotel, New Cairo.

8-11 November (Sunday-Wednesday): Cairo ICT Forum.

DECEMBER

7-10 December (Monday-Thursday): Food Africa, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo.

17 December (Thursday): Monetary Policy Committee’s eighth meeting of 2026.

EVENTS WITH NO SET DATE

2H 2026: Operations at Deli Glass Co’s new USD 70 mn glassware factory kick off.

2026: The Egyptian-American Economic Forum.

4Q 2026: Banque du Caire IPO.

2027

20 January-7 February: Egypt to host the African Games.

1-3 February (Monday-Wednesday): Agri Expo, Cairo International Convention Center.

April 2027: Tenth of Ramadan dry port and logistics hub to begin operations.

EVENTS WITH NO SET DATE

2027: Egypt to host EBRD’s annual meetings.

2027: Egypt-EU Summit 2027.

End of 2027: Trial operations at the Dabaa nuclear power plant expected to take place.

September 2028: First unit of the Dabaa nuclear power plant begins operations.

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