Good morning, friends. We’re only two days into the week, but we’ve already seen a fair few reports emerge suggesting the government is stepping up its privatization efforts. The most recent of which is a statement from the central bank confirming its plans to put shares of its United Bank on the bourse in early 2025. We’ve got the full rundown of this and much, much more in today’s issue for you to get through this morning.

BUT FIRST- We’ve got just one more sleep left before this year’s EnterpriseAM Finance Forum, which takes place tomorrow (Tuesday, 24 September) at the St. Regis on the banks of the Nile.

TWO IMPORTANT PROGRAMMING NOTES-

FIRST- We are full to capacity and cannot accept new requests for invitations. We’ve been honored and delighted by the extent of interest and regret that we simply have no more seats available.

SECOND- Please be ready to show your personal PIN code to be admitted to the venue. These PIN codes are non-transferrable and admit only one guest. Approved guests received their codes yesterday. If you received an invitation and can’t find your PIN code, please check to make sure it didn’t go into your spam folder.

Taking the stage at the EnterpriseAM Finance Forum this year is Investment Minister Hassan El Khatib, who’s joining us to outline a vision for where we’re going as a community and as an economy.

The keynote interview will get underway at 9am sharp, and you won’t want to miss our exclusive networking breakfast from 8am. We’ll also have an extended coffee break and additional networking session immediately after our final panel.

You can tap or click here to view the agenda and full list of speakers.

PSA-

WEATHER- It’s a nice warm — but not too warm — day in Cairo today, with a high of 32°C and a low of 24°C, according to our favorite weather app.

As usual, it's a little cooler over in Alexandria, with a high of 29°C and a low of 22°C.

** DID YOU KNOW that we now cover Saudi Arabia and the UAE?

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WATCH THIS SPACE-

#1- Israel’s pager explosion terror attack in Lebanon has the NTRA mulling new regulations: The National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) is reportedly looking into implementing new regulations and technical requirements for the import of wireless communication devices following the pager and hand-held radio explosions that took place in Beirut last week, AlMal reports, citing unnamed sources in the telecom sector. The authority is preparing a proposal to be presented to CIT Amr Talaat before drafting and discussing the requirements with a specialized technical committee,

#2- The country’s first wind turbine blades production factory? The Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) is looking to global investors to set up a wind turbine blades production factory, which would be the first of its kind in the region, Al Mal reports, citing a government document. No details were provided about the size of the investment or timeline.

#3- Egypt seeks more Israeli gas: The Madbouly government is reportedly planning to increase its imports of Israeli gas by 20% to 1.2 bn cf a day starting next month in efforts to cut down on LNG imports for the winter period, Asharq Business reports, citing a government official.

Imports from Israel are already on the up: Our daily imports of gas from Israel rose to 1 bn cf/d at the beginning of September, up 18% from the 850 mn cf/d during July.

That’s a little more than we were expecting: Previous reports by Al Arabiya said the Oil Ministry is looking to increase its Israeli gas imports by the equivalent of 150 mn cf/d to reach 1.1 bn by October.

Remember: Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly announced late last week that his government will not cut electricity again, adding that the government is working to secure the necessary energy shipments to keep the lights on 24/7. We had been expecting power cuts to return last week, after Madbouly indicated in July that they would be back after an eight-week hiatus.

HAPPENING TODAY-

It’s day two of the Arab Security Conference, which is being held under the theme Cyber Defense in the Age of Cyber Warfare, according to a statement (pdf). The two-day conference is bringing together a long list of international experts, specialists, and information security and cyber defense officials to discuss strengthening Arab collaboration, combating cyber threats, providing training to professionals, and promoting innovation in information security.

Missed this week’s Inside Industry? In our weekly vertical exploring all things industry and manufacturing, we looked into BMI’s crystal ball on our pharma sector. Check out the story here.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

There’s little room for business news in the international press this morning with an uptick in violence in our part of the world once again sadly topping the headlines. Rockets, artillery shells, and explosive-laden drones were sent between Israel and Lebanon yesterday in a drastic escalation of cross border strikes that Hezbollah Deputy Chief Naim Qassem described as “a new phase — the title of which is the open-ended battle of reckoning.”

There seems little hope that fighting between the two will stop anytime soon, with Israel stating that it will continue fighting until it is deemed safe for Israeli residents on its northern border to return — a characteristically undefinable benchmark that gives the country the excuse to continue the war for as long as it likes. Hezbollah has pledged to carry on fighting until a ceasefire in Gaza is put in place.

Over in Gaza, Israel killed seven in an airstrike on a school sheltering displaced families — it’s second such attack in only a 48-hour period.

The US is publicly pressuring Israel to avoid full-scale war with Hezbollah, with US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby telling ABC, “we’re saying this directly to our Israeli counterparts…we don’t believe that escalating this military conflict is in their best interest.”

ELSEWHERE IN THE WORLD- Sri Lankans have chosen a Marxist-leaning political outsider to fix their economy with the country electing Anura Kumara Dissanayake as their new president yesterday. The decision was seen as a sharp rebuke to incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe, the architect of Sri Lanka’s tentative recovery from its 2022 economic meltdown after the crisis saw previous president Gotabya Rajapaksa ousted and the country take on a USD 2.9 bn IMF bailout.

AND IN BUSINESS NEWS- Trump’s new digital assets platform is drawing anxious glances from some crypto leaders, with some ringing the alarm bells about the potential consequences of a new decentralized finance (DeFi) platform — dubbed World Liberty Financial — being backed by former US president Donald Trump. Speaking to the FT, Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson said that Trump’s involvement in DeFi will lead the US Democratic Party “to weaponise the institutions of the United States” to derail the company with “a knock-on to the entire industry,” adding that “he’s taken a bipartisan thing and he’s making it partisan.

PLUS- Apollo jumps into the race for Intel: Asset manager Apollo Global Management has reportedly made a multi bn USDinvestment offer to struggling chip-maker Intel, just a few days after it was reported that Qualcomm had approached the firm about a friendly takeover agreement. The accord would see Apollo invest up to USD 5 bn in an “equity-like investment” — which Intel is reportedly now mulling.

*** 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: We examine equity in education and employment outcomes in OECD countries and how they compare to Egypt.