Good morning, wonderful people. A flurry of reported interest in the potential sale of two state-owned banks, together with Rameda Pharma’s acquisitiveness, make M&A the headline story of this morning’s edition.

WATCH THIS SPACE- Are our friends at the IFC possibly looking to raise funds for investment in Egypt? Cabinet said last week it has given the Finance Ministry the green light to engage with the International Finance Corporation on a potential local-currency bond issuance. The brief statement says the transaction could potentially see IFC invest more in Egypt as well as give the institution more FX to “finance the needs of the private sector.”

Background: The IFC raised a heavily oversubscribed USD 2 bn bond last September to support its investment in emerging and developing markets and issued local currency bonds a decade ago in both Nigeria and Russia in transactions it said would help deepen domestic capital markets.

HAPPENING THIS WEEK-

#1- Brics summit: Expect plenty of talk about de-dollarisation and geopolitics when the leaders of Brazil, India, China and South Africa (but not Russia) meet in South Africa for the annual Brics summit this week.

The verbal pyrotechnics have already started: China is urging the Brics to become a “full scale” geopolitical rival to the G7 group of industrialized nations — and Beijing is already clashing with New Delhi over the proposed expansion of the group, the Financial Times reports.

Egypt is on the guestlist: South Africa has invited all African heads of state to the summit, though we’re yet to hear from the presidency about whether President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will attend in person.

Remember: Egypt wants in. Egypt has reportedly submitted a bid to join the loose alliance of emerging economies, having earlier this year became a member country of the group’s multilateral lender.

Could this be the moment Egypt gets an invite? Several officials tell the salmon-colored paper that several countries could be invited into the organization during the summit. Each of the five members have come out in support of enlarging the bloc, the most recent of which was South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who said yesterday that a bigger BRICS will create “a more balanced world order.” More than 20 countries have formally applied to join the organization, he said.

#2- Tansik results out Wednesday: Prospective students who applied for places in public universities during the second phase of tansik will know by Wednesday where they’re heading, the Higher Education Ministry said yesterday. The third and final phase will be announced after the results are announced.

#3- The financial markets will have their eyes on Wyoming this week when global central bankers, economists and policymakers head to Jackson Hole for an annual meeting of central bank officials. US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech will be the headline event as investors try to gauge where interest rates are heading in the coming months. The event runs Thursday through Saturday.

The Fed is probably done hiking rates -poll: Ninety percent of 110 economists polled by Reuters think the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged at its meeting next month and 80% don’t expect any further changes for the rest of the year. Meanwhile, a slim majority believe the central bank will wait until at least 2Q 2024 before beginning to loosen policy.

The historically-low pre-2022 interest rates could be gone for the foreseeable future: That’s an idea gaining traction among some economists as the US economy holds up amid the highest interest rates in more than two decades. Per the Wall Street Journal, economists are now debating whether structural changes in the economy have pushed up the “neutral rate of interest” — which if true could mean higher rates for longer even if inflation falls back to target. The Brookings Institute has deep dive on the neutral rate of interest here.

HAPPENING SOON-

The Japanese FM could be paying us a visit: Japan's Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi could visit Egypt alongside his planned trip to Saudi Arabia in early September, Kyodo news agency reported yesterday, citing diplomatic sources. Hayashi will meet with GCC foreign ministers during his visit to the kingdom, and could head to Cairo for talks with Arab League ministers, according to the report.

This would be the second high-level Japanese visit to Egypt in four months: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was in town in May for talks with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and PM Moustafa Madbouly.

The National Dialogue: The National Dialogue will hold a new round of public sessions in the coming days to discuss the remaining issues on its agenda.

THE BIG STORIES ABROAD-

China’s 40-Year Boom Is Over. What Comes Next? That’s the headline of the leading story on the front page of the Wall Street Journal this morning in the latest obituary of the Chinese economic model.

Storm Hilary: Much of the US media is leading with Storm Hilary, which hit the Californian coast last night, bringing heavy rain and flooding. The tropical storm is said to be the first to hit the south of the state in 84 years. (Associated Press | Reuters | New York Times | Washington Post)

Russia just made it to the moon for the first time in almost 50 years. It didn’t go well. Russia’s first moon mission in 47 years ended in disaster on Saturday after the Luna-25 probe crash landed. (Reuters | Bloomberg | Financial Times | Wall Street Journal)

MORNING MISCELLANY-

• Unrest at Goldman: Folks at Goldman Sachs aren’t happy about David Solomon’s tenure as CEO. (New York Times | Bloomberg)
• Stocks v VCs: Morgan Stanley strategists make the case for steering clear of VCs. (Financial Times)
• If you can’t beat it, join it: US schools are teaching kids how to use ChatGPT. (CNN)

ICYMI-

Missed this week’s Inside Industry? In our weekly vertical exploring all things industry and manufacturing, we looked at the new industrial land sales launched by the Industrial Development Authority last week.

CHECK OUT OUR AGENDA-

The Enterprise Finance Forum is taking place on 18-19 September at the St. Regis Hotel in Cairo. This flagship forum is the latest in our must-attend series of invitation-only, C-suite-level gatherings that allow senior members of our community to openly and frankly discuss critical issues in key sectors of the economy.

This is our first two-day event,which should give us plenty of time to dive into the nitty gritty of this industry we love. Our panels will see CEOs, bankers, investors and founders gather to discuss the future and trends shaping banking, finance, fintech and NBFS.

Our full agenda will be out at month’s end. Among the topics we’ll be discussing:

• Looking into the crystal ball: Top industry CEOs will join us on stage to answer tough questions on where we are as an industry, the forces that will shape all of our businesses going forward, and their views on dealflow in the year ahead.

• Surviving nuclear winter: We discuss how private equity and venture capital players are tackling challenges including fundraising and deployment in an environment in which it’s awfully difficult to price your local asset in USD terms.
• The robots are coming: We explore what the coming AI and big data means for the industry in our part of the world and what can bankers, NBFI, and fintech players do to capitalize on them.
• What do you do when nobody wants to be a banker — and when those who are already (investment or commercial) bankers are either (a) dreaming of doing their own startup or (b) moving to Dubai (or, increasingly, Riyadh)? We go deep into the weeds with industry leaders on how they’re building talent for tomorrow.
• NBFIs are a bubble. Prove me wrong: We chart the explosive rise of NBFIs and ask whether the industry is ready for a wave of consolidation. We’ll dive into whether consumer finance is starting to mature as a segment — and ask which sector is next.
• Handicapping the winners and losers in fintech in 2024: We dive deep into which categories are getting traction, where the untapped opportunities are, what business they would start today if they could, and what we can expect of the sector in the year ahead.
• What’s a bank, anyway? Wherein we talk challenger and neobanks with the players looking to shake up the brick-and-mortar industry.

** NEW: MORE NETWORKING TIME- Our agenda includes expanded networking time, including an expanded coffee break and a post-event networking room for you to interact with your peers and speak one-on-one with the team at Enterprise.

STAY TUNED for more detail about our exciting agenda in the weeks to come.

TAP OR CLICK HERE if you want to express interest in attending. We’ll be sending out the first batch of invitations soon.

Do you want to become a commercial partner? Ping a note to Moustafa Taalab, our head of commercial.

LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST-

MISSED OUR PREVIOUS FORUMS? The EnterprisePodcast has you covered : The Enterprise Podcast’s forum series has been bringing you audio recordings of what was said on stage at the Enterprise Exports and FDI Forum and the Enterprise Climate Forum.

WANT TO LISTEN? Head to: Apple Podcast | Spotify | Google Podcast | Anghami.

IN THIS WEEK’S EPISODE- In our second panel from the Enterprise Climate Forum, We dive deep into what the business leaders in the climate industry in Egypt and the region have to say about how the private sector is adopting greentech, where they see the opportunities and what they’d like policymakers to do to encourage further participation. We were joined by Amr Allam, co-CEO of Hassan Allam Holding, Mohamed Ismail Mansour, CEO and co-founder of Infinity, and Sherif El Kholy, longtime partner and head of MENA private equity at Actis.

*** It’s Blackboard day: We have our weekly look at the business of education in Egypt, from pre-K through the highest reaches of higher ed.

In today’s issue: Private sector education players are struggling amid high land prices and red-hot inflation.