{"id":636643,"date":"2024-08-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2024\/08\/04\/another-pipeline-in-the-pipeline\/"},"modified":"2024-08-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-08-04T00:00:00","slug":"another-pipeline-in-the-pipeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2024\/08\/04\/another-pipeline-in-the-pipeline\/","title":{"rendered":"Another pipeline in the pipeline"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good afternoon, friends.<\/strong> Welcome to the beginning of the work week and day nine of the Paris Olympics. You will be glad to hear that on the investment and sports front, Egypt has been doing well.<\/p>\n

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THE BIG STORY TODAY<\/p>\n

Energy investment news is once again leading the local news cycle<\/strong>, with news emerging that a consortium of state-owned companies plans to construct a USD 40 mn pipeline to transport imported ethane gas from Alexandria's Dekheila Port to facilities run by Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals (Sidpec) and the Egyptian Ethylene and Derivatives Company (Ethydco), Al Arabiya<\/a> reports, citing an unnamed government official. <\/p>\n

Sound familiar? <\/strong>The 40-km pipeline will be built by the Egyptian Natural Gas Company (Gasco) as part of the USD 660 mn project<\/a> to import 1.1 mn tons of liquefied ethane annually through a newly launched joint venture announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The why: <\/strong>The notoriously energy-intensive petrochemical, plastics, and fertilizer industries have been hit particularly hard over the last few months by the energy shortages facing the country. Companies in these industries, including Sidpec, were forced to temporarily shut down operations<\/a> in June due to a \u201clack of feed gasses,\u201d pushing many to look ways to secure gas supplies outside of the national gas network.<\/p>\n

<\/a> <\/p>\n

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THE BIG STORY ABROAD<\/p>\n

It\u2019s another slow day for the global business press, with no single story dominating the<\/strong> news, <\/strong>but some are picking up on the fact that private capital groups are preparing for a flurry of transactions in the second half of the year amid widespread expectations of Fed rate cuts in September. Four of the US\u2019s largest private capital firms \u2014 Ares, Apollo, Blackstone, and KKR \u2014 invested USD 160 bn in 2Q 2024 in anticipation of a coming increase in merger and buyout activity, the FT<\/a> reports. Private equity firms are reportedly sitting on an additional USD 2 tn worth of committed capital that has not yet been deployed.<\/p>\n

Private equity is back, baby: <\/strong>The uptick in mergers and buyouts comes after a year and a half of fairly tepid private equity activity that followed the boom years of 2021 and 2022. While we\u2019re not back up to those levels, it\u2019s clear that \u201cThe \u2026 market is back,\u201d Scott Nuttall, co-head of KKR, tells the FT. \u201cThis year, we not only have an open market, we have pent-up supply \u2026 coming to markets. So we are optimistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

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