Happy hump day, ladies and gents. We hope you (and the kids) are excited that we’re now on the downhill slide into the weekend — and the start of the school year on Sunday.

As one of the smartest guys we know put it earlier this morning: Children are life, but for many of us, the best day of the year is when they go back to school. (And, oddly enough, probably also the first day of their summer vacation.)

As it has been at about this time of year ever since we first started publishing back in 2014, our theme song for this issue is courtesy Green Day (listen / watch, runtime: 7:12 or just skip ahead to the music).

THE BIG STORIES TODAY SO FAR-

#1- CIB and SODIC are offering mortgages with up to 20-year terms to would-be homeowners buying at a SODIC-built development. SODIC clients offering their homes for resale through the company platform will also be able to offer extended payment options to potential buyers. The two companies announced (pdf) the arrangement earlier today.

#2 E-finance’s long awaited IPO could hit the market as soon as next month, unnamed government sources told Al Borsa (pdf). The state-owned e-payments company could offer around 10% for sale, the sources said, though this is subject to change. The government’s IPO committee is expected to meet this month to consider the final stake to be put on offer.

#3- Plastics raw material manufacturer BCI Holding will expand its production facility in Egypt, with finance coming as part of a larger USD 30 mn loan from the International Finance Corporation, the IFC announced in a press release (pdf). The funds will also be used to establish new facilities in Algeria and Nigeria.

^^ We’ll have chapter and verse on all three stories in tomorrow’s edition of EnterpriseAM.

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• Egypt has been one of the Middle East’s M&A hotspots so far in 2021: Egypt saw 18 transactions worth USD 1.8 bn during 1H2021, figures published by Baker McKenzie show, making it the most popular country in the region for M&A by value and the second by transaction count.
• Investors are not yet(?) facing new taxes on stock market transactions: The Finance Ministry yesterday denied that a circular it had published indicated that the long-shelved capital gains tax will come into force next year, saying it was issued in order to clarify pre-existing regulations.
• New car finance solutions company: Consumer finance provider Contact Financial and Abou Ghaly Motors will join forces to launch a financing solutions company for car purchases — Abou Ghaly Finance — in the coming months. Contact is also looking to launch an e-payments company soon and is hoping to acquire its e-payment license this month.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD- It’s a mixed bag in the global business press this afternoon. The Financial Times is leading with Deutsche Telekom’s run of M&A activity — and with a feature looking at Xi Jinping’s “blueprint for a digital dictatorship.” A very busy first eight months of the year for M&A is the lead piece atop the Wall Street Journal this afternoon, while Bloomberg is running with the notion that “Israel’s Covid surge shows the world what’s coming next.” (Hint: The one-time vaccination front-runner is now a covid hotspot, and so is talking about booster shots.) In the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson is set to hike taxes to help pay the twin bills of “covid and social care crises,” CNBC reports.

THE HOMETOWN ANGLES: Egypt emerged as an M&A hot spot in the first six months of 2021, according to figures from Baker McKenzie we picked up this morning (above). And Egypt could start handing out booster shots to fully vaccinated people as early as the end of this year, according to Health Minister Hala Zayed.

WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY-

The first week of fall conference season continues in earnest:

The GlobalCapital Sustainable and Responsible Capital Markets Forum 2021 kicked off today and features Vice Minister of Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk. The conference wraps up tomorrow.

The three-day Egy Health Expo started today at the Al Manara International Conference Center.

It’s day three of the Arab Labor Conference, which is running through to 12 September at the InterContinental CityStars Hotel in Heliopolis. Government officials, ambassadors, trade union reps and business owners’ association delegates from 21 Arab countries are participating in the gathering.

It’s the final day of the Arab Security Conference, which is taking place at the Nile Ritz-Carlton in Downtown Cairo.

FOR TOMORROW-

The first edition of the Egypt-International Cooperation Forum (ICF) kicks off, bringing together representatives of a number of international development finance organizations for a two day conference.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Look for a daytime high of 38°C tomorrow and Thursday before things start to cool off substantially this weekend, heralding our slow slide into fall weather.