A proposed stamp tax on stock market trades will be set higher than the 0.1% that was imposed temporarily in 2013, sources told Al Shorouk. The Finance Ministry is discussing the exact rate with the Egyptian Supervisory Authority (EFSA), a source at EFSA said. The stamp tax will be collected on both sides (buy and sell) of all trades. The original measure was scrapped in July 2014, but reports emerged in January that it was going to be reintroduced as part of the reforms agreed to with the IMF.
The EGX30 closed down 1.96% yesterday as investors booed the expected tax, Al Borsa reported. Only two EGX30 constituents ended the day in the green. Enterprise’s official message to day traders: We pay VAT. Income tax. A tax on dividends. You don’t even pay capital gains taxes. To quote the immortal Dennis Leary: “Life sucks. Get a helmet.” (Runtime: 1:13. Don’t play this clip if the kiddies are within earshot or if other tender ears might be offended by salty language.)
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CIB posts record full-year earnings as it releases FY2016 results. Leading commercial bank CIB “posted another year of record performance despite the unfavorable macroeconomic environment and increasingly challenging regulatory requirements, generating consolidated full-year revenues of EGP 11.3 bn and net income of EGP 6.01 bn, up 11% and 27% from 2015, respectively,” the bank said overnight (pdf). The institution said 2016 was a “truly challenging year … for the entire Egyptian banking sector,” noting “the unprecedented decision by the CBE to allow the EGP to trade freely by year-end after severe foreign currency shortages, three corridor rate hikes throughout the year, with the latest being for an aggressive 300bp, along with the enforcement of ICAAP and the Capital Conservation Buffer.” CIB reported a return on average equity of 34.2% in FY2016 and a return on average assets of 2.7% in the same period with a standalone net interest margin of nearly 5.5%.
2017 outlook: CIB said in the statement that, “We believe the outlook in 2017 still remains ambiguous given the impact of recent macroeconomic developments on the banking sector performance in general and the Banks’ Capital Adequacy Ratios in particular,” but notes that its strong balance sheet and “robust fundamentals keep us well-positioned to withstand economic and regulatory pressures, should any arise.”
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Total inflows into the banking sector since the float of the EGP in early November have now hit USD 9 bn, according to a comment from a senior Central Bank of Egypt official carried yesterday by Reuters. The story does not make clear where Assistant Sub-Governor Rami Aboulnaga made the remarks.
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The Supply Ministry has raised the prices of subsidized staples including cooking oil, vegetable margarine, and sugar sold to ration card holders, Al Borsa reports. The price of an 800 ml bottle of cooking oil is now EGP 12 (up from EGP 10), while one kg of sugar now costs EGP 8, a rise of EGP 1. The prices come into effect today.
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The private sector will have a limited role in storing the 4 mn tonnes of wheat expected of this season’s harvest, said Supply Minister Mohamed Ali El Sheikh. Private sector storage facilities will be used in places where the government’s capacities have been maxed out, added El Sheikh. The ministry, however, will outsource inspection of silos to companies, in a bid to ensure the fraud perpetrated last year would not happen, he said. The private sector’s alleged involvement was among the most controversial elements of last year’s wheat corruption scandal. The government failed to get phase one of Blumberg Grain’s shouna program up and running in time for the harvest and was forced to then rely on what state investigators said were “unscrupulous” private storage facilities, the operators of which were later investigated by the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Agricultural cooperatives will be used to tally the harvest when the season begins on 1 April, said Agriculture Minister Essam Fayed, adding the scope of their roles has not yet been determined. The government will also set up “independent” collection committees and will outline the roles of different ministries in those committees and the collection process at some later date. Word from the government grapevine, however, is that the Trade and Industry ministry is looking to extricate itself from the whole process, sources tell Al Mal.
Furthermore, the government appears to have kowtowed to demands by MPs and farmers, deciding to pay EGP 750 per ardib — the global market price plus a EGP 50 markup. The price was set at EGP 450 a month ago. These new guidelines will be brought up before Prime Minister Sherif Ismail during this week’s cabinet meeting, said El Sheikh, adding that there may be room to change them.
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The Electricity Ministry is planning to spend around USD 29 bn to upgrade the national distribution grid in 2017. The investment will both improve efficiency and ensure the grid can transmit new generation capacity coming online from power plant projects, Al Ahram’s breaking news website reports. The program will see the construction of nine new transmission stations in locations including East Port Said, Beni Suef, and Imbaba, as well as the upgrade nine existing facilities. The ministry has already signed contracts with State Grid, Saudi Arabia’s NCC, and El Sewedy Electric as part of the program.
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Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Group says it is moving ahead with expansions Egypt and the GCC after recording an 8% y-o-y increase in earnings in 2016, according to The National. MAF will carry forward plans to expand in markets including the UAE, Egypt, Oman, and Saudi Arabia and will also bolster its operations in Africa and Central Asia. The company says it remains bullish on Egypt following its proposed plan in 2015 to increase investments to EGP 22.5 bn.
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Is Egypt in trouble with global ad agencies? The Tourism Development Authority (TDA) is allegedly 15 months behind on paying global advertising agencies some USD 16 mn for overseas promotional campaigns, Al Borsa reports, quoting JWT Chief Hany Shoukry. JWT, which signed a USD 68 mn, three-year contract with the TDA in 2015, says it has received EGP 8.5 mn of what it’s owed, but has spent EGP 24 mn out of pocket to date.
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MOVES- The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has appointed Janet Heckman as its new Managing Director for the southern and eastern Mediterranean region. Based in Cairo, Heckman will also become EBRD’s head of Egypt and assumes both her roles today. Her deputy will be Catarina Bjorlin-Hansen. Heckman succeeds Hildegard Gacek, who is retiring. A US national, Heckman was an MD at Citi (with which she served in Algeria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Bahrain) before joining EBRD in 2012 as its director for Kazakhstan. Her full bio is here.
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The Financial Times’ Global MBA ranking for 2017 is out. Insead tops the ranking for the second year in a row, followed by Stanford and Wharton. MBAs are assessed according to the career progression of alumni, the school’s idea generation, and the diversity of students and faculty. You can access the full ranking here.
While Insead topped the general rank, its alumni came in third for their mobility and the programme is ranked sixth for its international course experience. Stanford topped the charts for career progress as its alumni reported the highest average salary three years after graduation at USD 195k with around 42% of them hold positions at director level compared with 22% on average for ranked programmes. Cambridge University’s Judge was ranked as the school that provides the best value for money, especially since it had the lowest tuition fees between the top 15 schools. The top 50 list also includes five schools from China and three from India. The top 10 includes:
- Insead
- Stanford Graduate School of Business
- University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
- Harvard Business School
- University of Cambridge: Judge
- London Business School
- Columbia Business School
- IE Business School
- University of Chicago: Booth
- IESE Business School
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US President Donald Trump tapped last night a “not divisive” conservative to fill a Supreme Court vacancy left last year by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Neil Gorsuch, 49, is the youngest appointee in 25 years. As Politico wrote yesterday: “Gorsuch has the resume of a man seemingly destined for the high court: the son of a Reagan Cabinet member, a graduate of Harvard and Oxford, and a clerk for two Supreme Court justices who has worked in the Justice Department and spent a decade on the federal bench. In conservative legal circles, he is favored as a worthy intellectual heir to the late Justice Antonin Scalia.” The New York Times has straight ahead news of the appointment here, but junkies for Supreme Court news will want to read USSC correspondent Adam Liptak’s excellent dissection: In Judge Neil Gorsuch, an Echo of Scalia in Philosophy and Style.
Meanwhile, a dissent cable penned by US diplomats less-than-enamored with Trump’s immigration order has now earned 1,000 signatures.
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It’s earnings season in America, with top global names reporting yesterday including Apple and Under Armour. The season in Egypt also kicked off yesterday as CIB filed 4Q/FY2016 results, but don’t look for a crush of Egyptian filings until late February through March. Among the international business headlines making news on a day in which the world remains transfixed by The Donald:
- Strong demand for the iPhone 7 Plus and the Mac’s return to growth helped fuel better-than-expected sales at Apple, CNBC reports in a comprehensive roundup of the tech giant’s results. Business Insider drills into the numbers and has a live-blog of Apple’s earnings call.
- Shares of “athleisure” maker Under Armour tanked yesterday, falling as much as 28% before closing the day down just over 25% after the sportswear company guided on 2017 sales growth that was about half what analysts had expected, Reuters reports.
- China’s corruption crackdown is back in the headlines: “A Chinese bn’aire with connections to top Beijing leaders has been abducted from the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong by Chinese public security agents and taken to the mainland, according to two people familiar with the investigation,” CNBC notes.
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