{"id":659599,"date":"2025-01-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2025\/01\/29\/customs-authority-to-release-imported-passenger-cars-that-violated-govt-rules\/"},"modified":"2025-01-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T00:00:00","slug":"customs-authority-to-release-imported-passenger-cars-that-violated-govt-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2025\/01\/29\/customs-authority-to-release-imported-passenger-cars-that-violated-govt-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Customs Authority to release imported passenger cars that violated gov\u2019t rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good afternoon folks, and happy Wednesday. <\/strong>The presses are churning at a rapid clip this morning as regional M&A headlines and (even more) AI drama kick off your news and views roundup for today.<\/p>\n

\n

THE BIG STORY TODAY<\/p>\n

#1- Gov\u2019t to release all cars held at ports over ACI violations:<\/strong> The Egyptian Customs Authority is releasing passenger vehicles that have been held at ports for violating the registration rules of the Advanced Cargo Information (ACI) system, according to a decision by the authority yesterday. Owners of the cars must pay owed customs and fees plus up to EGP 10k in fines per vehicle to take advantage of the new policy.<\/p>\n

Background:<\/strong> Cars had been piling up in Egypt\u2019s ports over the past few months after the authorities refused to release cars whose owners had tried to dodge the ACI\u2019s passenger car registration restrictions by registering their passenger cars under other categories.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

#2- EFG Hermes-backed K-12 operator <\/strong>Spark Education Platform (SEP)<\/a><\/strong> inked <\/strong>definitive agreements to acquire a majority stake in Riyadh\u2019s <\/strong>Qimam El Hayat International School<\/a><\/strong>,<\/strong> it said in a statement<\/a>(pdf)<\/a>. No publicly available information has yet been released about the transaction size. <\/p>\n

Remember: <\/strong>SEP is backed by the USD 300 mn Saudi Education Fund (SEF)<\/a>, which was launched in November 2024 by our friends at EFG Hermes. SEF plans to deploy its capital over the next three years, with a primary focus on the Kingdom, alongside its ventures in the UAE and Bahrain. The fund has previously acquired seven schools under the Britus Education brand, four of which are in the Kingdom.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next? <\/strong>The move includes relocating the school to a new fit-for-purpose campus and boosting the K-12 institution\u2019s student capacity by over 50%, including by adding two new buildings.<\/p>\n

\n

THE BIG STORY ABROAD<\/p>\n

AI continues to dominate the int\u2019l headlines this morning, <\/strong>with OpenAI claiming that it has evidence that Chinese AI upstart DeepSeek used OpenAI\u2019s proprietary models to train DeepSeek\u2019s newly released R1 model, the Financial Times<\/a> reports. <\/p>\n

The company behind ChatGPT has said that it has evidence that DeepSeek used <\/strong>\u201cdistillation\u201d <\/strong>\u2014 a process by which a developer uses output from a large model to improve the performance of a smaller model \u2014 to develop DeepSeek R1, which surprised many<\/a> with its sophistication despite a relatively low investment cost. While distillation is a common industry practice, using it to build one\u2019s own model is a violation of ChatGPT\u2019s terms of service, opening DeepSeek to claims that it breached OpenAI\u2019s intellectual property.<\/p>\n

And over in India, dozens have been killed in a stampede at the Hindu Maha Kumbh <\/strong>festival in northern India this morning,<\/strong> Reuters<\/a> reports, with authorities yet to officially confirm the full casualty count. The tragedy occurred as tens of mns gathered to bathe in what are considered sacred river waters on the most auspicious day of the six-week festival, this iteration of which only occurs once every 12 years.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Get Enterprise<\/b> daily <\/h4>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

The roundup of news and trends that move your markets and shape corporate agendas delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Subscribe here<\/a> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

** CATCH UP QUICK<\/strong> on the top stories from today\u2019s EnterpriseAM:<\/strong><\/p>\n