{"id":547046,"date":"2022-06-07T03:58:43","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T03:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2022\/06\/07\/this-morning-privatization-privatization-privatization\/"},"modified":"2022-06-07T03:58:43","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T03:58:43","slug":"this-morning-privatization-privatization-privatization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2022\/06\/07\/this-morning-privatization-privatization-privatization\/","title":{"rendered":"THIS MORNING: Privatization, privatization, privatization"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning, friends, and happy hump day. <\/strong>We\u2019re counting the hours until we can enjoy Semsema and Stavolta this afternoon with the whole team on the roof of Enterprise Global Headquarters here in the People\u2019s Democratic Republic of Maadi. What are you doing today to break the midweek blues?<\/p>\n

THE BIG STORY here at home this fine morning: It\u2019s still all about the state\u2019s privatization <\/strong>push<\/strong>, as Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly handed out jobs to his cabinet ministers to get stake sales and private sector investment rolling in key sectors. Meanwhile, the Sovereign Fund of Egypt is moving forward on a sub-fund to sell stakes in state-owned assets \u2014 and it\u2019s helping line up the Saudi wealth fund\u2019s imminent USD 10 bn in investments here. It\u2019s all very welcome news, though it\u2019s not going down well with a small handful of MPs who, before they sleep each night, likely gaze longingly at fading portraits of Gamal Abdel Nasser propped on their bedside tables.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s another mixed bag on the front pages of the international press<\/strong> this morning, with no one big story setting the tone of the day.<\/p>\n

The <\/strong>business papers<\/a><\/strong> are focusing on Elon Musk\u2019s latest threat <\/strong>to walk away from his USD 44 bn acquisition of Twitter over the number of fake accounts on the site.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, most are featuring UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson\u2019s latest scrape with political death<\/strong>, after he just managed to cling on to the top job in a confidence vote from his own MPs (see: Reuters<\/a> | The Financial Times<\/a> | CNN<\/a> | BBC<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

DATA POINT- <\/strong><\/p>\n

Foreign reserves down on external debt obligations. <\/strong>Egypt\u2019s foreign reserves declined to USD 35.5 bn at the end of May, down from USD 37.1 bn a month earlier, according to central<\/a>bank figures (pdf)<\/a> released yesterday. The CBE used around USD 2 bn from the reserves in May to pay Eurobond coupons and service our debt to the International Monetary Fund among other foreign debt obligations, it said. Reserves \u201cremain within all adequacy measures covering around five months of merchandise imports<\/strong>,\u201d the central bank added. Reserves at the end of April eased to USD 37.1 bn from USD 41.0 bn, with the CBE saying at the time<\/a> that \u201cthe CBE decided to temporarily mobilize its excess foreign currency reserves to calm the markets during periods of exceptional stress caused by exogenous factors, similar to the actions that were taken during the emergence of the COVID pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

FOR THE iSHEEP AMONG US-<\/strong><\/p>\n

Apple gave us a sneak peek last night at a future that sees the iPad becoming more <\/strong>Mac-like \u2014 and unveiled a gorgeous new MacBook Air<\/strong> powered by M2, the next generation of its fast, cool-running homebrewed system on a chip. Tighter integration between your iPhone, iPad and Mac was the big theme of a night that gave tech nerds plenty to digest.<\/p>\n

Start here for an overview of the <\/strong>16 announcements<\/a><\/strong> or watch the keynote for yourself (watch, runtime: 1:48:51<\/a>).<\/p>\n