Egypt isn’t hosting the WEF. Let’s all golf-clap for Klaus Schwab, superhero.

TL;DR

Amer has no sympathy for GM-Egypt, recounts their top-line growth and net income last year as auto assembler downs tools amid FX crunch. (Speed Round)

VAT legislation will be introduced this month, passed before year’s end, says Ismail. (Speed Round)

Commodities trader Bunge sues Egypt over rejected wheat shipment. (Speed Round)

MENA CEO confidence falls to three-year low, but ⅔ of respondents see growth this year –YPO. (Speed Round)

Egypt isn’t hosting the World Economic Forum on the Middle East. Let’s all golf-clap for Klaus Schwab, super-hero. (Speed Round)

No more tenders: Electricity projects will be awarded through direct order, Shaker says. (Speed Round)

Kabil drops temporary “safeguard” tariffs on sugar after investigation wraps. (Speed Round)

State-owned companies seeking capital increases must meet listing standards – EFSA. (Other Business News of Note)

By the Numbers

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

The U.K. trade mission is still in Cairo. Today is also day two of Solar Power North Africa 2016. Both wrap up tomorrow.

With yesterday being last day of talks between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia in Khartoum, Ahram Online reports that the tripartite technical committee on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will present a report today on the French consultancies’ technical offer to the irrigation ministers of Ethiopia, Sudan and Ethiopia.

Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have won the New Hampshire primaries, with the New York Times writing the two “rocked the American political establishment on Tuesday night, harnessing working-class fury to surge to commanding victories in a New Hampshire primary that drew energetic turnout across the state.” Also worth a read this morning: The homepage of Politico, the Washington Post’s scene-setter on the results and its brief note on “Why we shouldn’t give Hillary Clinton a pass for losing New Hampshire.”

ON THE HORIZON

Look for a number of developments on the legislative and policy fronts next week, including:
President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will address parliament on Saturday, 13 February.

• Prime Minister Sherif Ismail is due to present his government’s agenda to the House of Representatives over the course of two days next week, timing still to be confirmed.
• The Egyptian Capital Market Association meet next week to discuss bailouts for brokerages struggling amid low trading volumes.
• The Egypt Energy Investment Summit runs 16-18 February at the Nile Ritz-Carlton, Cairo.
• Cabinet ministers from Egypt and across Africa will descend on Sharm El Sheikh on 20-21 February for “Africa 2016: Business for Africa, Egypt and the World.”
• The fifth Euromoney GCC Financial Forum takes place at the Four Seasons Manama in Bahrain from 23-24 February. Press release here, conference website here.

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LAST NIGHT’S TALK SHOWS

In what must have been the slowest night in talk show history, Lamees El Hadidy dedicated practically all her airtime to dissecting the Ahly-Zamalek game, hosting sports critics Hassan El Mistikawi and Fathy Sanad. Ahly beat Zamalek 2-0 last night, and El Hadidy, an avid Ahly fan, was actually scolded (run time 2:58) on air by former footballer Ekramy for not wearing red in celebration. You can watch El Hadidy’s introductory segment here (run time 3:16). And yes, she actually does say the show was willfully ignoring any actual news that night.

On the other hand, her husband Amr Adeeb is a rabid Zamalek fan. They’re like the James Carville and Mary Matalin of Egypt, folks. But Adeeb was a good sport on his show, admitting Zamalek “played one of the worst games” in its history last night. “Ever since [Portuguese Coach Jusualdo] Ferreira left, we’ve [Zamalek] been complete garbage.” Tell us how you really feel, Adeeb. (Watch here, run time 4:10)

[And for what it’s worth: Zamalek boss, member of parliament, all-around humanitarian / recently-turned human rights committee chief Mortada Mansour is saying the next Zamalek coach will be a foreigner.]

Adeeb didn’t abandon news completely last night, however, featuring a call from Transport Minister Saad El Geyoushi. “It’s ridiculous that a person with a EGP 12,000 tuk tuk makes money off it while I have 1,000 trains embarking every day under my control and I don’t make a single pound — clearly this means I can’t lead,” said El Geyoushi. “So sell them,” retorted Adeeb. El Geyoushi went on to chastise the entire transport sector, saying “Security and safety levels in the sector are low. A boat or train could flip over right now as we speak.” El Geyoushi said Egypt is looking into harnessing foreign expertise in the transport field to bolster the local industry.

It was business as usual for Ibrahim Eissa last night, with the host delving into one of his infamous rants about the state of the nation. Last night featured a direct attack on Education Minister Helaly El Sherbiny: “Whoever chose you did you an injustice.” Eissa went on to say that the public has not once heard the minister set forth a plan for improving Egypt’s educational system “and that is because he has neither a plan nor the faintest idea.”

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SPEED ROUND

Amer has no sympathy for GM; Samsung takes a swipe at LG. As reported by Reuters Arabic service late on Monday night, GM idled operations at its Egyptian assembly lines on Sunday as the FX crunch sees it with a critical shortage of parts and components. LG, meanwhile, was reported to have shut down its plant in 10 Ramadan. Into the breach steps Central Bank Governor Tarek Amer, who is quoted by Youm7 as essentially suggesting GM has little about which to complain and should just absorb the short-term hit. His remarks, if accurate, will send a chill through the business community this morning.

The newspaper claims Amer said GM has done very well in Egypt for some 30 years. GM’s sales grew to EGP 8.8 bn in 2015 (up from EGP 6 bn in 2014 and EGP 4.5 bn the year before). Amer reportedly noted that GM-Egypt netted an EGP 420 mn bottom line in 2014 and borrowed from Egyptian banks to the tune of 1.6 bn, eight times its paid-in capital.

Samsung also threw a punch yesterday — at its Korean rival. The company said not only will its factory remain operational in Egypt, but it will lower the cost of its appliances, Al Mal reports. Growth in the company’s exports helped it overcome the FX liquidity shortage crippling production at competitor LG.

In other FX news, Beltone Financial is claiming the CBE has been overstating its reserve level, Al Mal reports. Local banks have deposited USD 3.6 bn from client accounts with the CBE, masking a sharp decline in FX reserves to USD 12.6 bn in 2Q2015-16, or about two months of import cover, Beltone alleges. The CBE’s most recent figures put reserves at USD 16.5 bn at the end of January.

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VAT legislation to be introduced this month, Ismail expects passage before year-end: Cabinet will table legislation in the House of Representatives to create a value-added tax (VAT) this month, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail told a media scrum on the sidelines of the World Government Conference in Dubai, Reuters reports. Ismail expects the measure to pass into law before the end of the current fiscal year, according to Reuters Arabic.

Egypt may miss 2016 target to pay back arrears to IOCs: Sherif Ismail also disclosed at the conference that Egypt may miss its target to pay back USD 3 bn to oil companies by the end of this year, according to the UAE’s Gulf Times. He did note, however, that the dues will “at least [be reduced] to a very reasonable” level by year’s end.

Grain trader Bunge suing Egypt over rejected wheat shipment: Agribusiness company (and Enterprise neighbor) Bunge has begun legal proceedings against Egypt as a result of the country rejecting a contracted shipment of wheat, despite it having met the tender’s terms of containing a 0.05% amount of the ergot fungus, within international norms, Reuters reported on Tuesday. State bodies have sent conflicting messages over the past weeks over the amount of ergot it would accept in wheat shipments, with the state’s buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) maintaining that historically accepted trace amounts would continue to be permissible. The confusion originated from the ministry of agriculture, who insisted it would now be adopting a zero-tolerance policy. Supply Minister Khaled Hanafy weighed in on Sunday, assuring that the original standard of 0.05% ergot still applied, and claimed that the previous shipment of wheat shipped by Bunge had exceeded 0.05%. The lawsuit story is now crossing from the newswires and industry news sites to the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, among other mainstream business media.

[For context, as we get that commodities trading sort of fades into the background for most readers: Bunge is one of the ‘ABCDs’ — the four companies that, in essence, feed the world by managing global agricultural flows. They are: Archer Daniels Midland (which recently invested in Tarek Tawfik’s Medsofts), Bunge, Cargill and Dreyfus]

Bloomberg is also keeping the spotlight on Egypt’s outsized influence on the global wheat market, following up on its piece on Monday with “Egypt has 88 mn reasons to end bust-up with wheat trade.” The newswire reports that “in a world awash with wheat, the biggest importing nation is struggling to buy the grain,” noting, “Stakes are high on both sides. Egypt’s government was among those overthrown in 2011 in the so-called Arab Spring as high food prices fired up unrest. On the flip side, producers need to offload unsold grain that the U.S. Department of Agriculture sees jumping 9 percent to 232 mn metric tons this season after bumper harvests around the world.”

CEO confidence in MENA economies falls to three-year low, but ⅔ of respondents see growth this year –YPO: “Economic confidence among CEOs in the Middle East and North Africa slipped in the final quarter of 2015 to a three-year low. The YPO Global Pulse Confidence Index for the Middle East and North Africa declined for the fifth consecutive quarter, falling nearly one point to 56.4, below the global confidence level of 58.0,” the global association of young chief executives said in a statement yesterday. The UAE gauge fell to the lowest level in the index’s six-year history, and confidence also declined in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the group said. “Low oil prices and civil unrest in the region continue to impact confidence levels amongst business leaders,” said Hatem El-Nazer, managing partner at HK Ventures and a member of the YPO Qatar and Cairo chapters. “CEOs across the region will remain somewhat risk-averse in the current climate, particularly in the GCC where governments are under pressure to cut spending and increase their non-oil revenue.” But it’s not all doom and gloom: 60% of respondents expect revenues to grow in 2016, 40% say they will grow their head count and nearly 50% reported they expect to increase fixed investment.

Egypt will not host the World Economic Forum on the Middle East. And neither will Jordan, it seems. That’s about the only worthwhile nugget in an otherwise predictable Foreign Policy interview with Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry — an interview so thin it could have been written by BuzzFeed (before the latter started to use its listicles to subsidize real journalism). To the point: Shoukry confirmed rumors first reported in a gossipy column by The National’s Frank Kane a week ago that the World Economic Forum on the Middle East would take place in neither Egypt nor Jordan. Foreign Policy says “Shoukry reserved special scorn for the World Economic Forum’s decision to cancel a summit planned for the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh. … [T]he forum indefinitely postponed the summit because of what one spokesperson reportedly described as ‘the current situation,’ an oblique reference to Egypt’s security woes. … ‘The forum is not in a position to make that sort of assessment,’ he said, deriding its conclusions as ‘flimsy.’”

Prof. Klaus Schwab, superhero… The National’s Kane picked up just a few hours after the Foreign Policy piece, saying he had run into World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab in Dubai. Writes Kane: “After he paid The National some generous compliments he looked me pointedly in the eye and said: ‘Let me ask you this: how would you react if you had the lives of 120 people as your responsibility?’ He meant that he had to consider the safety and security of the WEF delegation that would have gone to Sharm…” We have choice words we’d like to share with Mr. Schwab (hell, we no longer get invited to the WEF anyway), but Enterprise is a family-friendly publication, so we’ll leave you with this simple video instead, suitable for any young ears that may be at the breakfast table as your read Enterprise.

No more tenders, projects to be awarded through direct order, Shaker says: Electricity production projects will not be awarded through the government’s regular tendering process anymore, Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker tells Al Mal. Shaker says the power station projects awarded through the “outdated” system involve splitting them into as many as 18 different sub-projects and tendering them all separately and successively. This wastes time, slows projects down, and hampers foreign investment, he adds. Instead, Shaker says the ministry will now rely on PPP, BOO, BOT, and EPC-plus-finance systems to award electricity projects in whole.

The Trade and Industry Ministry has cancelled temporary “safeguard” tariffs on sugar imports after wrapping up an investigation launched in April 2015 into the possible dumping of the commodity, reports Reuters. The temporary 20% tariff on white sugar imports with a minimum of EGP 700 per ton are to be paid back, says Trade Minister Tarek Kabil, as reported by Al Borsa. Naturally, a number of sugar producers have voiced complaints that the move will hit the local sugar market hard. The CEOs of Delta Sugar and Egyptian Sugar have both stated that the move would flood the market with European imports at EGP 1,000 cheaper per ton, which would lead to the shuttering of some factories.

Inching the ball forward on a commodities exchange: The Supply Minister is working with the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority and the EGX to help establish the regulations that govern the commodity exchange, Al Ahram quotes Supply Minister Khaled Hanafy as saying. Hanafy added that Misr Clearing and SIGMA Capital will play a leading role in establishing the exchange. Background on the exchange, in the works since 2014, is here.

EFG Hermes has launched its first two UCITS funds in Ireland, International Advisor reports. The EFG Hermes Frontier Equity Fund and the EFG Hermes MENA Equity Fund will be managed from Dubai, with HSBC acting as custodian in Ireland. The EFG Hermes MENA Equity Fund is a UCITS-compliant version of the firm’s flagship MEDA Fund, which invests in midcap opportunities, while the EFG Hermes Frontier Equity Fund will focus on all frontier markets, particularly in South and East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East, and will include markets in Southeast Europe and other regions over time. “This is our first entry into frontier markets and also offers a vehicle to accommodate a large pool of European assets,” said EFG Hermes’ head of Asset Management Amr Seif.

Pioneers Holding plans to IPO real estate developer Rooya in the second half of 2016, the company’s managing director tells Mubasher. Previous statements had said the IPO would take place in the first quarter of this year. Pioneers is still studying the size of IPO and its value.

There but for the grace of God… A mess-up at public relations platform PR Newswire saw crowd-sourced review app Yelp’s share hammered after it released its earnings before schedule. The company was due to report earnings after the closing bell on Monday, but “PR Newswire said the leak was due to a ‘rare’ coding error related to the timing of the release,” Business Insider reports.

Minister of what, exactly? Happiness. And tolerance. One of each will be in the next UAE cabinet, the New York Times reports as it picks up on the Emirates cabinet shuffle we noted yesterday.

CORRECTION: The Finance Ministry is going to prepare FY2016-17’s budget using a devalued exchange rate of USD 8.25 per EGP 1, according to a Reuters story. We mentioned incorrectly yesterday that the rate used will be USD 8.75 per EGP 1. H/t Ayah A. and Brandan M.

THE MACRO PICTURE

Oil could drop below USD 20 a barrel, Goldman Sachs predicts, according to Bloomberg. “Once you breach storage capacity, prices have to spike below cash costs because you have to shut in production almost immediately,” Goldman’s head of commodities research told Bloomberg Television. Volatility will surge and he “wouldn’t be surprised if this market goes into the teens.”

While we’re on oil, European banks are facing potential loan losses from energy firms of USD 27 bn, according to analysts at Bank of America, Bloomberg writes. But oil isn’t the only thing on their minds. “This year’s rout of European bank stocks has raised concern about how far below zero the European Central Bank can cut interest rates without inflicting too much damage on lenders’ profits,” the FT (paywall) writes. However, Goldman Sachs is slightly more optimistic, “European banks have ‘ample liquidity,’ with deposits flowing in and higher capital buffers reducing the risk of another financial crisis,” according to Bloomberg. There does not appear to be a strain in EUR or USD funding from European banks “while rising deposits last year reinforced lenders’ liquidity” according to Goldman note published Tuesday.

Global bond markets are at “panic-level” prices, according to Bloomberg. Treasury yields are at a one-year low, German short-dated securities yields are sinking to record levels, and the Japanese 10-year yield is hitting negatives. There are now USD 7 tn in government bonds with yields below zero across the world.

Meanwhile, European regulators are probing the possible manipulation of the USD 1.5 tn government-sponsored bond market to root out rigging involving financial traders after the US Department of Justice and the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority revealed they were doing the same, the FT writes.

EGYPT IN THE NEWS

Bunge’s dispute with GASC, follow-up pieces on the murder of Italian grad student Giulio Regeni and RedCarpetGate continue to dominate international headlines on Egypt this morning, though the volume is tapering-off. As for the rest of it:

Listen up, ladies and gentlemen: The bastion of analytical sophistication that is the Saudi Gazette has been heard from, writing yesterday that “the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) is widely expected to continue facing difficulties in attracting foreign and Arab investors in upcoming period, not only because of its performance, but because the Gulf stock markets pose major competition over the same target investors.” Egypt, the English-language daily says, is “losing its competitive edge in attracting foreign investors … [and] has imposed new taxes on profits.”

Egypt has walk-on parts in two wire stories getting wide coverage this morning. In Bloomberg’s “Cheap Cigarettes Are Burning Greece’s Finances,” which notes that “a 15-minute stroll from the Greek Parliament, the contraband cigarettes in red packaging called ‘illicit whites’ are being sold.” The wire service reports that the bootleg “smokes appear to originate from China, but others come from Egypt and Pakistan, reaching Greece by sea on ‘ghost ships’ and making the country a major hub for the illegal trade.”

Reuters notes that Egyptian security played a role in the arrest and deportation of the first person set to stand trial in the U.S. for attempting to support Daesh. U.S. Air Force veteran Tairod Pugh married an Egyptian woman in 2014 and was deported back here from Turkey, where investigators “found he had several damaged electronic devices including a cell phone with a machine gun photograph.”

Newsweek, meanwhile, is out with Ruth Michaelson’s “No niqabs, no ‘hot shorts’: Egyptian women have a new dress code.”

And in an alternate universe, Egypt plans to take New Jersey borough East Rutherford to court after it rejected Egypt’s plans to renovate a building set to be used as a residence and annex for its mission to the UN, North Jersey reports.

WORTH READING

What does it mean that a robot can write and earnings report or research a body of law in seconds? Common wisdom is that robots will eliminate the jobs of mns of blue-collar workers and near-indentured poor, from truck drivers and cabbies in Europe and North America in line to lose their jobs to self-driving vehicles to assembly line workers in Southeast Asia. Common wisdom isn’t so much wrong in this case as much as it is incomplete, as the Financial Times’ Andrew Hill notes in “Robots will force experts to find other routes to the top” (pay wall). Artificial intelligence will change what it means to be a professional, starting — potentially — with an end to the years of drudgery spent making one’s bones as a new entrant to the workforce.

WORTH WATCHING

JWT Cairo produced a new Nestle Crunch commercial. Watch for a cameo by copywriter Eslam Hossam. (Watch in Arabic, running time: 54 seconds)

DIPLOMACY + FOREIGN TRADE

Iran agreement provides opportunity to push for nuclear-free Mideast, Shoukry says in U.S.: Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told a UN-backed conference that the Iranian nuclear deal “makes it more viable that [a nuclear-free] zone will be created” in the Middle East, saying, “There is only one state [in the region] that continues to be outside of the nuclear nonproliferation regime,” according to remarks quoted by the Wall Street Journal (paywall). The newspaper notes that last year, “Egypt appeared to have succeeded in lobbying U.N. member states to support a Mideast disarmament conference. But the Obama administration intervened during the latter stages of the meeting and successfully blocked Cairo’s initiative.” Cairo backs the deal with Tehran, Shoukry noted later, but “remains concerned about Iran’s regional activities.”

Non-oil exports fell 16.5% year-on-year in 2015. Non-oil export receipts slumped to USD 18.6 bn, with Saudi Arabia being the largest consumer of Egyptian exports at USD 2.3 bn last year, followed by the U.S. and Turkey with USD 1.2 bn each. The nation’s top three exports ex-petroleum: fertilizers and petrochemicals, building materials, and food products, Ahram Online notes in its pickup of a story from state-run news agency MENA.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi reportedly had a phone chat with Jordan’s King Abdullah to talk about anti-terror efforts, according to brief statement from Ittihadiya.

Lifting the arms embargo on the Libyan army is essential to providing it with the support it needs to fight terrorism, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi told President of the Libyan House of Representatives Aguila Saleh in a meeting yesterday, according to an Ittihadiya statement. El Sisi “pointed to the need to cut off the sources of funding and arming terrorist groups in Libya,” adding that “Egypt is committed to providing all forms of assistance to the national Libyan institutions … in establishing security and stability as well as preserving Libya’s territorial integrity and unity.”

The president also met Former Vice President of South Sudan Riek Machar yesterday to talk developments related to the the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (pdf), signed in August 2015. Egypt supports “all efforts aimed at restoring peace and stability in South Sudan,” says El Sisi, stressing the need to “continue its endeavors with all partners of the peace process in order to form a transitional government.” Egypt will also continue to offer programs in a number of fields to promote South Sudan’s development.

The Netherlands is looking to invest in the Suez Canal Development Area in the logistics, warehousing, and transportation sectors, said Dutch ambassador to Egypt Gerard Steeghs. Speaking at the Egyptian-European Business Council forum on the electricity sector, Ambassador Steeghs noted that 40% of goods stored in Egypt are wasted due to poor warehousing, Al Mal reports. He reminded those present of the USD 3 bn investments by Dutch companies in Egypt including Ahram Beverages, Shell, and Unilever.

ENERGY

Siemens renews maintenance agreements for three power plants
Siemens has secured a long-term contract to provide services at the Nubaria, Talkha and El Kureimat power stations in Egypt. The 10-year extension deal was signed by the Middle Delta Electricity Production Company and Upper Egypt Electricity Production Company. Under the agreement, the firm will provide servicing and maintenance for eight SGT5-4000F gas turbines and the associated generators, as well as component upgrades at three power stations, including the SPPA-T3000 control system, which will support the daily operation of the facility. (Read in Arabic or check out the original press release)

Electricity Ministry to form two power companies to manage Siemens power plants
The Electricity Ministry is selecting a consultant to help form two power producers to manage the Siemens plants and the emergency power capacity plan. The general public could be allowed to invest in the companies, according to head of the Electricity Holding Company Gaber Desouky, adding that it is unlikely for the ministry to issue bonds to fund national power projects in the vein of the New Suez Canal. (Read in Arabic)

Electricity Ministry issues Walidiya power plant tender to international companies
The Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) issued the civil works tender for the 650 MW Walidiya power plant to international companies, sources tell Al Mal. The plant is owned by the Upper Egypt Electricity Production Company in Assiut. EEHC is expecting bids for the project in April and has already issued four out of 18 tenders, including the project consultant, site services, and steam turbine tenders. EEHC has completed raising the international component of the project funding through the OPEC Fund for International Development, Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, and the Islamic Development Bank with a total of almost USD 550 mn. (Read in Arabic)

Egyptera to finalize regulatory codes for feed-in-tariff projects
The Egyptian Electric Utility and Consumer Protection Regulatory Agency (Egyptera) will finalize regulatory codes for the feed-in-tariff system in the coming days and will be including them in contractual agreements, Egyptera’s Hatem Waheed tells Al Borsa. Egyptera had issued a total of 56 feed-in tariff licenses, 10 for wind farms producing a total of 500 MW and 46 solar power plants producing a total of 2.2 GW. There have been no further requests for licenses. (Read in Arabic)

Egypt will pay back MIDOR loan over 12 years – Italian Export Credit Agency
The Italian government is providing Egypt with a USD 1.2 bn loan to develop the Middle East Oil Refinery (MIDOR) that will be paid back over 12 years, says Italian Export Credit Agency CEO Alessandro Castellano. The total cost of the development plan is USD 1.4 bn, of which Egypt provides USD 200 mn. Negotiations are underway for an interest rate of around 3%, says Castellano. The final agreement is expected at the end of this month, while construction should begin in June and be completed in three years. (Read in Arabic)

INFRASTRUCTURE

Egyptian Airports Company may cancel Sharm airport expansion tender
The Egyptian Airports Company is mulling cancelling a tender it issued for the expansion of the Sharm El Sheikh Airport, according to Chairman Adel Al Mahgoub. Three consortiums had submitted bids, but the company found discrepancies between the bids, feasibility studies, and draft financing packages. The tender involved building a new terminal with a capacity of 10 mn visitors at a total cost of USD 445 mn. (Read in Arabic)

BASIC MATERIALS + COMMODITIES

El Masreya begins construction on sugar, legume packaging facility in March
El Masreya Co. for Wholesale Trade will begin construction on the EGP 60 mn sugar and legume packaging facility in Sixth October city in March, says Chairman Ayman Salem. The facility will be built over 2,500 sqm with a targeted capacity of 156k tons. The factory is scheduled to be completed in August and has an expected return on investment of EGP 160 mn, he adds. The facility is the second of four that are planned by the Supply Ministry with an investment value of EGP 300 mn. (Read in Arabic)

MANUFACTURING

EBRD to develop energy efficiency, emissions reduction strategy for cement sector
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is developing a strategy for the cement industry to raise its economic and environmental standards and practices, AMAY reports. The strategy will focus on energy efficiency and using alternative fuel to lower carbon emissions, according to Trade and Industry Minister Tarek Kabil following a meeting with the bank. (Read in Arabic)

REAL ESTATE + HOUSING

Orascom Development Holding (ODH) has inaugurated phase one of its joint project with the Omani government’s tourism development arm Omran, according to an ODH disclosure. The 700-room Fanar Hotel in Salalah Beach is owned by Muriya, a JV between ODH (70%) and Omran (30%). This makes the company the largest contributor to the development of high-end hotels in Oman over the last five years with an investment of over USD 500 mn.

El Sisi launches EGP 1 bn social housing project
President Abdel Fattah El Sisi launched the Tahya Masr social housing project, directing Housing Minister Mustafa Madbouly and the Defense Ministry to complete the construction of 200k subsidized homes in one year. The president had announced on Saturday that EGP 1 bn from the Tahya Masr Fund would be used to finance the project. (Read in Arabic)

TELECOMS + ICT

ICT Ministry to issue regional ISP licenses in the coming weeks
The ICT Ministry will issue four regional internet service provider licenses in the coming weeks, according to ICT Minister Yasser El Qady. Two of the licenses will cover broadband connections in Upper Egypt and the other two will be in the Delta. (Read in Arabic)

BANKING + FINANCE

Unionaire Group studies IPO by end-2016, taps EFG Hermes as financial advisor
Home appliance manufacturer Unionaire Group is mulling a listing and capital increase this year and have reportedly tapped EFG Hermes to serve as “financial advisor,” sources tell Al Borsa. The company is looking to raise capital to expand production capacity and grow its exports.

OTHER BUSINESS NEWS OF NOTE

State-owned companies seeking capital increases must meet listing standards – EFSA
State-owned companies will be seeking subscriptions in capital increases over divesting ownership when they list in the bourse, according to head of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority Sherif Samy. To quell concerns over privatization, Samy adds that these companies will remain firmly under government control. State-owned companies must meet the standards required for all companies when seeking to list, which include profitability, having a sound financial position, and plans for growth, Samy adds. EGX head Mohamed Omran says the listing of state-owned enterprises should bolster confidence in Egypt’s capital markets. (Read in Arabic)

LEGISLATION + POLICY

Nuclear Materials Authority to form the Egyptian Black Sands Company
Prime Minister Sherif Ismail issued a directive in the Official Gazette allowing the Nuclear Materials Authority to form the Egyptian Black Sands Company to develop black sand resources, a decision taken last month at a cabinet meeting. (Read in Arabic)

ON YOUR WAY OUT

A police officer in Ismailia has been sentenced to eight years in prison for beating a vet to death in custody and falsifying police records, Reuters reports.