PM — How Louis Vuitton is making exclusivity inclusive

Good afternoon, ladies and gents. It’s a relatively quiet Monday afternoon, and we’re grateful for this mini-breather.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

The UAE’s Dana Gas is planning to invest USD 100 mn in Egypt this year and next, CEO Patrick Allman-Ward said on the sidelines of the Egypt Petroleum Show, according to Asharq Business. The company is also “keeping an eye on” the three new international oil and gas tenders Egypt plans to launch this year, Allman-Ward said, after Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly announced yesterday there will be new exploration blocks on offer.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

We’re not done reporting on spy balloons: China has accused the US of sending 10 balloons into Chinese airspace without approval since the beginning of 2022, after the US shot down a fourth unidentified flying object near the US-Canada border yesterday. The story is getting front-page play in the international business press this afternoon, with the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and Bloomberg all taking note.

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

• The state’s new hotel company is ready to go to market: A new state-owned company that will own a portfolio of seven five-star properties nationwide could offer as much as 20-30% of its shares to private investors as part of the government’s privatization program
• Public Enterprises Minister defended privatization plans — a long-running point of contention between the government and some opposition MPs. The House Health Committee also discusses the country’s rising population.
• Moody’s has downgraded the long-term deposit ratings of five Egyptian banks on the back of its downgrade last week of the country’s sovereign credit rating.

???? WE HAVE TWO CALENDARS NOW- Our Weekend Edition and EnterprisePM calendar (at the bottom of this email) include a full rundown interesting events coming up in Cairo, from art exhibitions to concerts and marathons.

Find our regular business calendar, which includes a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events and news triggers, in EnterpriseAM and on the web.

⛅TOMORROW’S WEATHER- It’s going to be much like today — just with less sun: The capital city is expected to see a daytime high of 17°C with a mix of sun and clouds before the mercury cools to 8°C in the evening, our favorite weather app tells us.

Rihanna’s Super Bowl LVII halftime show: Simple yet captivating: Rihanna dominated center field last night for the 13-minute Super Bowl halftime show — marking her first live performance in six years, CNN reports. Running through a selection of hits — We Found Love, Only Girl in the World, Rude Boy, Work, Umbrella, All of the Lights, and Diamonds — there was never going to be time for each of her 14 number ones (the fourth-highest number of all time) but the singer did manage to squeeze in many of her most popular work. The pre-show press conference revealed that 39 different setlists were proposed with selections from the artist’s catalog. Head-to-toe in red silk and leather, Rihanna belted from a platform precariously high above the pitch and strutted amongst her backup dancers, decked out in items from her Savage X Fenty line.

The show had little of the extravaganza of recent years, especially when compared to 2021’s performance by The Weeknd or JLo and Shakira in 2020. There were no celebrity guests, costume changes or build up and the choreography was notably low-key. Perhaps a result of her second pregnancy, confirmed by her PR after the show, Rihanna’s performance “relied more on star power than delivery,” said the Guardian.

Can Louis Vuitton maintain the air of exclusivity that is so integral to its brand as it grows at unprecedented rates? Arguably best known for its brown LV-monogram canvas bags, luxury fashion house Louis Vuittion piggybacked that success to develop a fashion empire that now encompasses shoes, ready to wear apparel, and fragrances. Today, Louis Vuitton’s sales account for nearly a quarter of parent company LVMH’s revenues, outpacing LVMH’s other subsidiaries, including Tiffany & Co., Dom Pérignon Champagne, and Christian Dior, the Wall Street Journal reports. Louis Vuitton’s revenues hit USD 20 bn in 2022, prompted by a post-pandemic boom in luxury spending and regular price increases. Its explosive growth helped boost LVMH to the highest stock market valuation in Europe and helped make its chairman, Bernard Arnault, the world’s wealthiest b’naire.

Inclusive, yet exclusive: Louis Vuitton launched a 450+ piece collection from the most expensive woman artist alive, Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, which was accompanied with a massive marketing campaign. Its latest menswear show, held at the courtyard of the Louvre, was lavish even by fashion industry standards, with a celebrity guestlist and a performance by Grammy-winning pop star Rosalía. The brand has also been collaborating with youth-focused streetwear brands. It launched a landmark collaboration with Supreme in 2017, then hired Virgil Abloh, the late American designer behind the upscale streetwear brand Off-White in 2018, and most recently its latest menswear collection was partially designed by Colm Dillane, founder of streetwear brand KidSuper.

But it’s not growing the accessibility of its products: Over the past decade, Louis Vuitton has maintained roughly the same number of stores, only opening new locations if it closes others. It only produces small batches of its fragrances, which are exclusively sold at its stores and online — even LMVH’s beauty retailer Sephora does not carry Louis Vuitton fragrances. The brand does not sell through wholesalers or have seasonal sales.The company intentionally limits supply, producing less than demand to maintain a sense of exclusivity. “The product remains desirable if it is limited,” a former Louis Vuitton executive told the WSJ. “The difficulty as time passes when you have a war machine like Louis Vuitton is to restrict yourself — to resist the temptation to make easy sales.”

???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-
(all times CLT)

Pamela Anderson makes a comeback to tell her story — in her own words: Netflix documentary Pamela, a Love Story follows the career and scandals of the blonde bombshell who made headlines for much of the 1990s and 2000. She returns fresh-faced at 55 to “take control of the narrative” of her life for the first time. The documentary, which sees her traipsing around her Vancouver Island estate on a lawnmower and Wellington boots, humanizes one of Hollywood’s most controversial stars and is a raw portrayal of life through her six marriages. From stories of childhood abuse, to interviews with misogynistic men, and a dramatization of her life (against her consent) in miniseries Pam and Tommy, Anderson takes us through her life’s traumas with a surprisingly calm and charming temper. Her subtly dark sense of humor throughout is at once tragic and inspiring, while the brief cameos of her sons’ fierce protection of their mother provides hope that her story might have a happy ending after all.

⚽ Egyptian Premier League: Smouha faces Zamalek at 7pm.

And over in the English Premier League, it’s the Merseyside derby: Liverpool faces neighbor and rival Everton at 10pm.

Fantasy football freaks, don’t forget to join Enterprise's Fantasy Premier League by clicking here or entering this code: 8o4sut.

Meanwhile, in La Liga and Serie A:

• Verona v Salernitana (7:30pm)
• Sampdoria v Inter (9:45pm)
• Espanyol v Sociedad (10pm)

???? OUT AND ABOUT-
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Still scrambling for Valentine’s Day plans? Make dinner reservations at Villa Belle Epoque in Maadi or the Nile Kempinski’s Jazz Bar, each of which will have special dinner setups, complete with romantic music to round out the evening. Eish & Malh is also hosting a candlelit dinner with live music.

Or you can skip dinner and get moving: Take a dance class with AfroLatin at Sheraton Cairo in Dokki, with everything from salsa and bachata to kizomba.

“An Archive of Love”: Digitent’s Cairo Photo Week exhibition Middle East Archive continues to run until this Saturday, 18 February at The Hanger in Downtown Cairo. The curated collection of photographs is “a sincere visual exploration and celebration of love in the Middle East and North Africa.” Get tickets to Cairo Photo Week here.

Art Cairo is still going on at the Grand Egyptian Museum until tomorrow Tuesday, 14 February. The art fair will feature more than 30 international galleries from around the Middle East.

Dust off your dancing shoes for an Afro Jazz Beginners Course with Mako Ruan at the ‎Cairo Contemporary Dance Center from 7-8 pm this Thursday.

Get in shape to participate in TriFactory’s Saqqara Pyramid Race this Friday, 17 February. The race is part of their Race Through History series, and you can choose between two distances: 5 km and 10 km (both are one-lap race courses timed using the MyLaps timing system).

Fun Nation is taking over standup comedy night at Room Art Space New Cairo this Saturday, 18 February at 9pm, with this lineup of local comedians, Waleed Al Tourky, Shehab Al Ashry, Ahmed Hossam, Waleed Mostafa and Waleed Abo Almagd.

Don’t miss Omar Khairat's concerts at 8pm next Monday and Tuesday, 20 and 21 February in the Main Hall of the Cairo Opera House.

We’re two weeks away from Kevin Hart’s standup comedy show in Cairo next Tuesday, 21 February. Some ticket categories are still available here.

Catch Cirque du Soleil’s OVO next month: The event features 100 performers taking the stage with their acrobatic acts. OVO will host 16 shows between 8-18 March at Cairo international Stadium Hall, courtesy of real estate developer Madinet Nasr for Housing and Development (pdf).

Head to the She Crafts bazaar on 24 and 25 February at the Grand Nile Tower Hotel in Garden City anytime between 12-8 pm. The bazaar aims to help women market their products and become more financially independent.

Rock fans rejoice: 1984, Galab and Dabbet Namla are taking the stage at El Sawy Culturewheel’s Castle of Rock Festival on Tuesday 28 February at 7 pm.

???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

Reading My Year of Rest and Relaxation is anything but restful and relaxing: Depression, anxiety, and self-destruction are just a few of the subjects addressed in Ottessa Moshfegh's second novel. The story is set in New York in the year 2000, following an unnamed protagonist who appears to have it all: Money, a good job, good looks, and an impressive degree. Yet she decides to hibernate for a year by abusing a lethal cocktail of antidepressants, sleeping pills, anxiety pills — you name it. She lies to her therapist in order to secure her lethal supply of drugs, she loses her job after falling asleep during the day, and she tries to isolate herself from everyone around her. The story is a great dive into a mentally ill brain and the hold it can have on a person. It’s darkly funny at times, but mostly it’s a wake-up call that appearances can be deceiving when it comes to mental health.

MARKET WATCH-

Abu Qir Fertilizers and Chemicals Industries Company’s net income rose 132.9% y-o-y to EGP 4.5 bn in 4Q 2022, according to the company’s financials (pdf). The company’s revenues for the quarter increased 79.4% y-o-y to EGP 6.4 bn.

MARKET ROUNDUP-

The EGX30 fell 0.4% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 2.3 bn (22.4% above the 90-day average). Regional investors were net sellers. The index is up 17.9% YTD.

In the green: EFG Hermes (+2.5%), Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (+1.6%) and Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals (+0.9%).

In the red: Credit Agricole (-4.6%), Fawry (-2.4%) and Heliopolis Housing and Development (-2.1%).