{"id":567638,"date":"2020-12-02T04:04:26","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T04:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2020\/12\/02\/what-were-tracking-on-2-december-2020\/"},"modified":"2020-12-02T04:04:26","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T04:04:26","slug":"what-were-tracking-on-2-december-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2020\/12\/02\/what-were-tracking-on-2-december-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"What we\u2019re tracking on 2 December 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning, friends. <\/strong>It\u2019s a busy (but unremarkable) news day today, with the lead stories here at home being the FT\u2019s pronouncement on the fundamental soundness of Egypt\u2019s banking system and the very welcome news that the Damietta LNG plant could re-open as early as 1Q2021. We have chapter and verse on both pieces below.<\/p>\n

<\/a> There\u2019s a lot of talk in the foreign press this morning about how Egypt might pose one of<\/strong> Joe Biden\u2019s first foreign policy tests.<\/strong> The Financial Times<\/a> suggests that the administration \u2014 which has vowed to place more emphasis on human rights \u2014 could suspend military aid to Egypt and introduce targeted sanctions. The Wall Street Journal<\/a> says that the arrests of members of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) have set the scene for a \u201cpossible clash\u201d with the president-elect, while the Media Line<\/a> highlights Biden\u2019s previous criticisms of Trump for being too close to the Egyptian government.<\/p>\n

Globally, the big story is about rats jumping off a sinking ship. <\/strong>Squint your eyes the right way and Trump stalwart Bill Barr is doing the right thing: Saying he\u2019s seen no evidence of voter fraud sufficient to sway the outcome of the election (Financial Times<\/a>). Meanwhile, the New York Times<\/a> reports that Agent Orange has mulled preemptive pardons for his three eldest kids and \u201cAmerica\u2019s Mayor.\u201d<\/p>\n

BIG M&A NEWS that made us cry: <\/strong>Slack, the workplace messaging app, is being swallowed by Salesforce, in a USD 27.7 bn cash-and-stock agreement, the company said in a statement<\/a> yesterday. It\u2019s the biggest cloud software acquisition since Microsoft (which desperately wanted to buy Slack once upon a time) bought LinkedIn in 2016. We\u2019ve used Slack since before it was cool and, well, you kinda have to wonder what becomes of it next.<\/p>\n

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SMART POLICY- Nasdaq-listed companies will need to have at least one woman on their <\/strong>boards of directors<\/strong> if a new policy proposal gets the green light from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Wall Street Journal<\/a> reports, noting that most listed companies fall short of the requirement today. The proposal would also require them ot have at least one director who is LGBT+ or from an \u201cunderrepresented minority.\u201d Germany also imposed last month<\/a> a one-woman quota for listed companies\u2019 boards of directors.<\/p>\n

Egypt is already on its way to the same goal:<\/strong> Listed companies are required to have at least one woman sitting on their board by the end of 2020, under regulations<\/a> the Financial Regulatory Authority issued last year.<\/p>\n

How are we doing with that? Uh, not so well: <\/strong>As of one week ago<\/a>, just a little over half of the EGX30\u2019s constituents were in compliance with the regs.<\/p>\n

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The OECD is the latest to call a vaccine-led economic <\/strong>rebound in 2021: <\/strong>The international organization has forecast a gradual bounceback for the global economy, the Financial Times<\/a> reports. China\u2019s economy is set to grow 10% by the end of 2021, the US is expected to stay largely the same, while European economies will perform badly, with the UK set to shrink at least 6%.<\/p>\n

<\/a> MARKET WATCH- Emerging markets saw a record USD 76.5 bn of inflows during<\/strong> November<\/strong> as investors reacted to positive news in the development of covid-19 vaccines and fears of a chaotic transfer of power in the US subsided, the Institute of International Finance said in a report yesterday, according to Reuters<\/a>. Almost USD 40 bn entered EM stocks \u2014 the second-highest monthly inflow ever \u2014 while USD 36.7 bn was invested into bonds and other debt instruments.<\/p>\n

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WHAT\u2019S HAPPENING TODAY- <\/strong>The Egypt Economic Summit gets underway today at the St. Regis Hotel in Cairo. You can learn more about the event here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other key dates for your diary this month:<\/p>\n