Good morning, ladies and gents: We have another big issue to close out the week following yesterday’s presser from the PM on how the state plans to go about rebooting its privatization program.

tl;dr:

• It’s big: The government now plans to sell shares in 32 companies, 12 more than Madbouly had signaled a week ago.
• There are plenty of new names: Kudos to any of our readers who correctly predicted that Sinai Manganese Company and Salhia Investment and Development Company would feature on the list.
• And some notable absences: Alexbank, eMethanex and Enppi — recently flagged by the EGX for inclusion — were all MIA.
• Some of our questions were answered, but others were not: We’re still waiting for clarity on how the government plans to go about the sales for these companies — whether via strategic sale, a public offering or a combination of the two. The show is supposed to get on the road this quarter so we should expect to hear more details soon.

^^ We have full coverage of the PM’s presser in this morning’s news well, below.

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Electricity prices could change on a quarterly or semi-annual basis: The Madbouly government is looking into adjusting electricity prices every three or six months in response to the devaluation of the EGP and rising gas and diesel prices, Asharq Business reports, citing unnamed government sources. The proposal is modeled after the fuel pricing committee, which reviews fuel prices every quarter.

REMEMBER #1- Household electricity bills are set to rise come the summer. The current freeze on household electricity prices is set to expire at the end of the fiscal year in June — and economic conditions mean the government will have “no choice but to increase prices in July,” Asharq quotes its sources as saying. Residential electricity bills had been set to rise by as much as 21% last year under government plans to restructure pricing and phase out electricity subsidies by 2025. Households in the highest consumption tiers — which as of 2021 have not received subsidies — would have seen prices rise by up to 6%.

REMEMBER #2- We’re still waiting to hear what the government plans to do with fuel prices this quarter. Its fuel pricing committee was supposed to meet at the beginning of January to set prices for 1Q. The government has increased prices at the pump by 23-28% since April 2021, and decided on a rare fuel oil price hike last July.

EGP WATCH- The USD gained another 0.2% against the EGP yesterday to close at 30.42, according to central bank figures. The currency hit the 30 mark at the end of January following a sharp devaluation that helped bring fresh foreign inflows and alleviate an FX shortage. The EGP has lost almost half of its value against the greenback over the past year.

WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY-

Inflation: The CBE and Capmas are expected to publish inflation data for January on Thursday. The median projection in a Reuters poll of analysts is 23.75%, up from 21.3% in December. This would be the highest rate since November 2018.

Hamas + Islamic Jihad in Cairo: Egypt is currently hosting senior officials from Palestine’s Hamas and Islamic Jihad in an effort to de-escalate violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the National reported yesterday, citing Egyptian security officials. Islamic Jihad representatives and Hamas leaders in Gaza have been in Cairo for several days, while its exiled leadership will join later this week. Hamas said recently that its leader, Ismail Haniyeh, will fly from Qatar this week to hold talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel and other security officials.

NEXT WEEK-

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will be in Dubai to attend the World Government Summit, which runs 13-15 February. Twenty heads of state will be in town for the Davos-like gathering, which will see policymakers from around the world discuss global trends, according to Emirati state news agency WAM.

Petro-show next week: Oil and gas industry figures from Egypt and the region will congregate at the Egypt International Exhibition Center for the Egypt Petroleum Show (Egyps) starting next Monday. The three-day conference runs 13-15 February.

MPs are back next week: The House will reconvene on Sunday, 12 February.

THE BIG STORIES ABROAD-

There are three stories dominating the global front pages this morning:

#1 Turkey-Syria quake: The death toll from Monday’s devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria has risen beyond 12k as public anger grows about the Turkish government’s slow response to the crisis. (AP | Reuters | Bloomberg | Washington Post | NYT | WSJ)

#2 Somewhere Satya Nadella is laughing: Shares in Google parent Alphabet plunged almost 8% yesterday after the company appeared to botch the unveiling of its AI chatbot it hopes to rival Microsoft’s powerful ChatGPT. In a presentation yesterday, the company’s Bard engine made a factual error, triggering a sell-off among investors concerned that the company is losing ground to its main rival. This came a day after Microsoft announced the launch of a new version of its Bing search engine and Edge web browser, which will integrate the company’s powerful ChatGPT AI tech which threatens to overturn Google’s search engine dominance. (Reuters | WSJ | Financial Times | CNBC)

#3 A slimmer Mickey: Disney plans to slash 7k jobs and cut USD 5.5 bn in costs as part of a company restructure being undertaken by the recently reinstated CEO, Bob Iger. (Reuters | Financial Times | WSJ | CNBC)

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Real Madrid was always going to be tough: Al Ahly’s dream of reaching their first Club World Cup final came to an end last night after they were handily beaten 4-1 by Real Madrid in Morocco. The Spanish and European champions proved too much for the Egyptian side, who held out until just before halftime when Brazilian winger Vinicious Jr. put Los Blancos 1-0 up. A second goal immediately in the second half made the task that much harder, and though a 62nd minute penalty gave the Red Devils hope, a quick-fire double in injury time sealed victory for the Spaniards.

Al Ahly will now play Brazilian champions Flamengo on Saturday at 5:30 pm local time for the bronze medal.

The Spaniards will now face Saudi’s Al Hilal in the final on Saturday at 9:00 pm. The Saudi side shocked Flamengo with a 3-2 win in the other semi.

COME TO OUR NEXT ENTERPRISE FORUM-

We’re excited to unveil our next C-level event: The Enterprise Exports & FDI Forum, where we will take a deep dive into two of the most critical topics affecting our community.

Exports and foreign direct investment (FDI) have never been more important to our economy — or our businesses — than in the wake of the float of the EGP. We think we have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to build an export-led economy that makes us a magnet for FDI and all the benefits that will come with it for our nation.

Want to join the conversation? Drop us a line on events@enterprisemea.com.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Unis go back this week: The second semester of the 2022-2023 academic year begins for public universities on 11 February.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.