EnterprisePM — Healthcare provider Alameda plans to invest EGP 5 bn over the coming 3-5 years.

It’s a busy start to the work week, ladies and gentlemen, with new investment pledges, regulatory changes to the EGX and the UN General assembly dominating local headlines this morning.

THE BIG STORIES TODAY so far-

#1- Healthcare provider Alameda plans to invest EGP 5 bn over the coming 3-5 years: The planned increase will bring the healthcare group’s investments in Egypt to EGP 10 bn, Alameda Chairman Fahad Khater said at a press conference Sunday, according to the local press. The company also plans to expand to the New Administrative Capital, Al Alamein City, Alexandria, Mansoura, and Assiut in the near future.

#2- Following its official launch here earlier this month, what are Amazon’s plans for Egypt? In tomorrow’s AM, Ronaldo Mouchawar, Vice President of Amazon MENA, and Omar Elsahy, General Manager of Amazon Egypt, talk to Enterprise about the launch, why Egypt and MENA are strategically important for Amazon, and the overall growth of our e-commerce sector.

^^ We’ll have more on all of these stories in tomorrow’s edition of Enterprise AM.

Trading on EKH shares converted to EGP from USD began today: EK Holding shareholders who converted the trading currency of their shares to EGP from USD (while still being allowed to collect their dividends in USD) were able to begin trading on these converted shares on the EGX today, the company said in a bourse filing (pdf).

HAPPENING NOW- Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry is on his way to New York for the UN General Assembly, according to a statement issued today. The statement was vague on Shoukry’s agenda at the assembly, only noting that he plans to meet other foreign ministers and high level UN officials on current regional and international security issues. It is unclear if another push on GERD is coming in light of the UN Security Council taking another tepid stance last week on getting Ethiopia to the negotiating table.

The UN General Assembly is ongoing in New York until 30 September. The general debate will take place from 20-28 September. Leaders from at least 83 countries are expected to attend in person — in contrast to last year, when the meeting was almost 100% virtual. There’s no word yet on whether President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will attend in person or virtually.

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

• E-Finance to IPO this fall: The state-owned fintech platform and digital payment infrastructure provider could become the second company to IPO on the EGX this year after formally announcing its intention to go ahead with a public share sale in 4Q2021.
• CBE leaves rates on hold: The Central Bank of Egypt’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) left interest rates on hold for a seventh consecutive meeting on Thursday. Overnight deposit and lending rates were left unchanged at 8.25% and 9.25%, respectively, while the main operation and discount rates remained at 8.75%.
• Egypt is off the UK’s Red List: Starting 22 September, travellers arriving in the UK from Egypt will still need to quarantine on arrival, but won’t need to do so at an expensive government-mandated hotel — and may be able to earn their way out of covid jail a bit early.

CORRECTION- Fertilizer venture Fertiglobe is a JV between OCI NV and Adnoc, not Orascom Construction as we incorrectly reported in our story in this morning’s EnterpriseAM. The story has been amended on our website.

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???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

EFG Hermes’ fourth Virtual Investor Conference continues today, running through to 21 September with the theme of “After Reflation — FEMs in 2022.”

IMF + EBRD webinar: Public Enterprises Minister Hisham Tawfik will speak during a webinar hosted by the IMF and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on Wednesday, 22 September at 3pm CLT. The gathering is running under title of “State-owned enterprises in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia,” with Tawfik set to speak on the role of the state in the economy alongside five other panelists including the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia head Jihad Azour and the EBRD’s head of external relations Alan Rousso. Check out the agenda here.

The Cityscape real estate investment conference gets underway this week at the Egypt International Exhibition Center. The event runs from Wednesday, 22 September through Saturday.

The Federal Reserve meets to review interest rates on 21-22 September. Pressure has been building on the Fed to take a more hawkish stance to combat inflation by bringing its stimulus programme to a (premature?) end and start raising interest rates earlier than planned. But a slight slowdown in US consumer price inflation last month could give the Fed a breather and relieve pressure for a policy change.

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

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- It looks like it’s going to be yet another sunny week ahead, with highs of 39°C tomorrow in the daytime and lows of 23°C at night, our favorite weather app tells us.

Investors are expecting indebted giant Evergrande to default on its interest payments this Thursday, with one of the two notes on which interest is due trading at less than 30% of its face value, Bloomberg reports. Fears of China’s Evergrande contagion have continued to ripple across China’s real estate sector, with shares in China’s biggest insurer Ping An Insurance falling Friday over concerns of its exposure to the flailing firm. Evergrande, China’s second-largest property developer is said to be sitting on more than USD 300 bn in debt — with USD 7.4 bn in bonds due next year, making it quite possibly the world’s most indebted company. It seems on track to give bondholders a 75% haircut, has about 1.5 mn unfinished properties, and it’s share price in Hong Kong is down about 85% in the past year.

The UAE is aiming to invest EUR 10 bn in the UK’s clean energy, technology and infrastructure as part of a multi-bn-GBP agreement signed last Thursday with the UK government, according to the UAE’s WAM agency. The agreement doubles the amount originally announced as part of the two nations’ five-year sovereign investment partnership, with the CEO of sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, Khaldoon Al Mubarak telling the Financial Times that he expected UAE investments in the UK to comfortably reach GBP 2 bn by the end of the year.

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Facebook gets the full exposé treatment over at the WSJ: the Wall Street Journal published a string of big headlines over the course of last week under the header “the Facebook Files,” alleging bad practice at the social media conglomerate on the basis of internal company documents. The main takeaway: “Facebook Inc. knows, in acute detail, that its platforms are riddled with flaws that cause harm.”

What are the claims? The wide-ranging investigation includes claims that a secret elite of VIPs is exempt from Facebook’s rules of conduct; that Facebook knows that Instagram is toxic for teenage girls; that attempts to make Facebook’s main platform less angry and to promote vaccination in fact had the opposite effect; and that top management ignored warnings from employees about abuse of the platform in developing countries by human traffickers, drug cartels, and government actors. Knowledge of these problems went all the way to the organization’s top brass, which did little to solve them, according to the WSJ.

Facebook yesterday rebuffed the allegations, claiming that the the issues raised by the WSJ were complex ones that defied easy solutions, and that the paper had quoted internal documents out of context. “I wish there were easy answers to these issues, and that choices we might make wouldn’t come with difficult trade-offs,” said the company’s head of global affairs, Nick Clegg. “That is not the world we live in.”

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Elon Musk sees Bezos’ astronauts and raises them civilians: Four civilian passengers launched into a three-day orbit around earth by Elon Musk’s SpaceX returned safely on Saturday evening. The trip, known as mission Inspiration4, marked the first time a crew of private (non-government) astronauts has gone into orbit on a company spaceship. Among them were the youngest woman to travel to space and the first Black woman to serve as a spaceship pilot. The crew orbited earth at some 17k miles per hour in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule — which has been tapped to one day take NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.

Even Bezos had to tip his hat: Jeff Bezos, whose short space trip in July consisted of trained government astronauts, sent SpaceX a congratulatory tweet recognizing the company’s feat. This follows a back and forth between the space rivals, which saw Bezos file lawsuits against SpaceX’s government contracts. This escalated to a twitter war, which we have to say Elon is clearly winning.

The world’s 25 wealthiest families have seen a 22% y-o-y increase in their net value, with gains of USD 312 bn in the last year. The families are now collectively worth USD 1.7 tn, according to data from Bloomberg. This comes off the back of “abundant liquidity, soaring stock markets and accommodating tax policies,” the newswire writes.

Topping the list: the Waltons (majority owners of Walmart), who saw their net worth grow USD 23 bn in the last 12 months, to reach USD 238.2 bn. The controlling shareholders of high-end fashion brand Hermes were also major beneficiaries, with their fortune surging 75% to USD 111.6 bn.

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AND YOUR MANDATORY COVID (HORROR) STORY- Will bats bring on the next coronavirus? Bats in Laos were found to host three viruses that are “the closest ancestors of SARS-CoV-2 known to date,” head of a French research team studying the viruses told Bloomberg. The findings suggest that these viruses may have contributed to the evolution of covid-19, and suggest a future risk of direct animal to human transmission of other coronaviruses.

???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-

(all times CLT)

It’s TV’s biggest night, with the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards airing tonight at 2 AM. Contending shows for the top prizes include:

Best Outstanding Drama Series: Bridgerton, Lovecraft Country, Pose, The Boys, The Crown, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Mandalorian, and This Is Us.

Best Outstanding Comedy Series: Blackish, Cobra Kaii, Emily in Paris, Hacks, Pen 15, Ted Lasso, The Flight Attendant, and The Kominsky Project.

We’ll be featuring reviews of our favourite nominees throughout this week — starting with The Mandalorian: The show, which has raked in 24 Emmy nominations, is an example of an adaptation of an existing intellectual property done right — something Disney has failed to do with its Star Wars sequels that were poorly received by fans. Instead of ruining already established and beloved characters (which it had been doing), Disney reached out to Jon Favraeu (who kicked off the Marvel cinematic universe with Iron Man) to develop an entirely original that includes beloved side characters from the franchise and the extended universe, which franchise-killer JJ Abrams murdered when he took over Star Wars. Add to that the ambiance of a Spaghetti Western meets space opera, and you finally have a Star Wars live action show worth watching in the last 20 years. You can watch it now on OSN.

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⚽ This afternoon in the Premier League: On the pitch right now, Man Utd is playing against West Ham Utd while Leicester City is taking on Brighton. Later today, Chelsea will face Tottenham at 5:30 pm.

Three matches kick off at La Liga this afternoon: Mallorca and Villerreal are on the pitch right now, while Real Sociedad is up against Sevilla at 4:15 pm, Real Betin is playing Espanyol at 6:30 pm, and Valencia will play Real Madrid at 9:00 pm.

Serie A: Verona will take on Roma while Lazio faces Cagliari at 6:00 pm. Meanwhile Juventus and AC Milan will hit the field at 8:45 pm.

???? EAT THIS TONIGHT-

Get a taste of Italian ice cream with Casa di Gelato: This gelateria makes artisanal handmade Italian ice cream with the best seasonal ingredients and organic dairy products. Located in New Cairo’s Arabella Plaza, Casa di Gelato boasts 38 classic flavors which include a special without sugar. They also have mini pancakes that can be drenched in your choice of topping, whether maple, nutella or lotus. Their popsicles are referred to as “magical ice cream sticks” and are true to their name. Our favorite was their gelato slush, which was perfect on a hot summer day.

???? OUT AND ABOUT-

(all times CLT)

The second edition of Artists of the Future kicks off today at Motion Art Gallery in Zamalek, showcasing a group of Egypt’s most promising young artists. The exhibition runs through 14 October.

Taking over CJC's stage in Agouza, Moroccan singer Sara Moullablad will perform a collection of French Jazz Classics tonight at 9 pm.

???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

Rahul Raina’s debut novel, How to Kidnap the Rich, is a satirical tale of modern day India that follows the brilliant but poor Ramesh Kumar, who makes a living by taking tests for India's elite students. But things get complicated when one of his clients ranks first across the entire country thanks to him. Although the narrative and plot resembles that of Slumdog Mn’aire, this novel takes on a dark and subtle comedic turn. The book does a great job at highlighting India’s prejudices against the poor. Highly recommended to get a better idea of Indian culture.

Updates to new share price closing mechanism on the EGX were implemented today: The EGX appears to have raised the ceiling over which a new closing price would need to be determined, in a new decision by the bourse issued today (pdf). Under the decision, the minimum “conditional value” — a benchmark that averages the total value of transactions on a share over three months — has been raised to EGP 300k from EGP 100k previously. Should a share’s Moving Volume Weighted Average Price (MVWAP) — used to determine the closing price of shares — exceed EGP 300k, a new closing price will need to be taken.

THE MARKET ROUNDUP-

The EGX30 fell 1.0% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.2 bn (23.1% below the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net buyers. The index is up 0.4% YTD.

In the green: Abou Kir Fertilizers (+4.0%), Mopco (+3.5%) and AMOC (+1.7%).

In the red: Fawry (-7.3%), Egyptian Resorts Company (-5.8%) and MM Group (-4.9%).

Why the next time a hiring manager asks you to take an MBTI test, you should simply walk away: You’ve probably come across the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator (MBTI) at work, university, or online, and you may even know your four-letter personality type by heart. Its popularity is evident the world over, including in Egypt, with career counseling services, certified practitioners, and a number of courses and workshops putting the personality test at the forefront of self-assessment. The test is so widely used, HR managers have been using it as a standard for hiring for decades, Merve Emre says in her book, The Personality Brokers: The Strange History of Myers-Briggs and the Birth of Personality Testing. But is this test — developed based on theories of the human mind written more than a century ago — still relevant today?

Astrology for businessmen? Or a useful instruction manual for HR departments? It is estimated that around 2 mn users take the Myers-Briggs personality test every year, according to the Myers-Briggs company. But people take it for different reasons. For Emre, the author of the book on the test’s history, a career counsellor had asked her to take it as part of the onboarding process for a new job. Elle Hunt, on the other hand, writes for the Guardian that she had taken the test as an insecure teenager who wanted to understand more about herself and how to react to her stressors.

A test as scientific as the flat earth theory: Like climate change, and everyone who believes the world is round, scientists keep yelling that the test lacks scientific rigor, with many reporting inconsistencies upon taking the test a second time. In one study, nearly 50% of respondents got a different result with two sittings of the test, even if they were just weeks apart. Our understanding of the human mind has developed massively since the test was designed in the 1940s, when psychology was a nascent science. Even Carl Jung — whose writings formed the basis of what would become the MBTI — had said to take these personality categories with a pinch of salt, writing that “every individual is an exception to the rule.”

The test was developed by people with no academic or scientific credentials at all: Katharine Cook Briggs turned her living room into a “cosmic laboratory of baby training” when her daughter Isabel was born. She conducted experiments and drills using an A-or-B question format on her child in order to find out what conditions allow children to develop into civilized adults. When Isabel grew up, she realised that a similar questionnaire could become a “people sorting device”, one that could have multiple uses. She hit upon a major use for it during the second world war, when women were joining the workforce en masse for the first time. Isabel believed her test could help them find the most fulfilling jobs. The Briggs’ sole qualification: They like Jung.

Happier workers are better workers: The results also seem designed to reinforce positive perceptions about ourselves, as they don’t feature words like “selfish,” “lazy,” or “mean” but rather only flattering descriptions as “thinker,” “performer,” or “nurturer.” The simple four-letter combination also provides a shortcut to connecting with others, whose personality types may match, or be compatible with yours.

But HR managers think the test can help them evaluate their employees' resilience, and the MBTI can help managers measure different stressors for their workforce, a task which has become increasingly important during the precarious working conditions of covid-19. HR executives have been leveraging the test during the pandemic to measure what causes employees to be stressed, how to cope with it, and even measuring their self awareness during these stressful times.

Our take? This is a bunch of quackery, and you should simply stop using it.

13-21 September (Monday-Tuesday): EFG Hermes’ fourth Virtual Investor Conference.

14-30 September (Tuesday-Thursday): 76th session of the UN General Assembly, New York.

21-22 September (Tuesday-Wednesday): The Federal Reserve meets to review interest rates.

22 September (Wednesday): IMF + EBRD “State-owned enterprises in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia” webinar.

22-25 September (Wednesday-Saturday): Cityscape Egypt, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

29 September (Wednesday): DevOpsDays Cairo 2021 is being organized by ITIDA and the Software Engineering Competence Center in cooperation with DXC Technology, IBM Egypt and Orange Labs.

30 September-2 October (Thursday-Saturday): Egypt Projects 2021 expo, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

30 September-8 October (Thursday-Friday): The Cairo International Fair, Cairo International Conference Center, Cairo, Egypt.

30 September: Closing of 2021’s first oil and gas tender in the Gulf of Suez, Western Desert, and the Mediterranean.

30 September (Thursday): First tranche of overdue subsidy payouts will be handed to eligible exporters.

October: New legislative session begins — must be held by the first Thursday of October.

October: Romanian President Klaus Iohannis could visit Egypt in mid this month to discuss ways to boost tourism cooperation between the two countries.

1 October (Friday): Businesses importing goods at seaports will need to file shipping documents and cargo data digitally to the Advance Cargo Information (ACI) system.

1 October (Friday): Expo 2020 Dubai opens.

1 October (Friday): State-owned companies and government service bodies selling goods and services to customers that have not yet signed on to the e-invoicing platform will suffer a host of penalties, including removal from large taxpayer classification, losing access to government services and business, and losing subsidies.

6 October (Wednesday): Armed Forces Day.

7 October (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Armed Forces Day.

9 October (Saturday): Public schools begin 2021-2022 academic year

11-17 October (Monday-Sunday): IMF + World Bank Annual Meetings.

12-14 October (Tuesday-Thursday): Mediterranean Offshore Conference, Alexandria, Egypt.

18 October (Monday): Prophet’s Birthday.

21 October (Thursday): National holiday in observance of the Prophet’s Birthday.

24-28 October (Sunday-Thursday) Cairo Water Week, Cairo, Egypt.

27-28 October (Wednesday-Thursday) Intelligent Cities Exhibition & Conference, Royal Maxim Palace Kempinski, Cairo, Egypt.

28 October (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

28 October (Thursday): Second tranche of overdue subsidy payouts will be handed to eligible exporters.

30 October – 4 November (Saturday-Thursday): The first edition of Race The Legends, Egypt.

November: The French-Egyptian Business Forum is set to take place in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.

November: Egypt will host another round of talks to reach a potential Egyptian-Eurasian trade agreement, which can significantly contribute to increasing the volume of Egyptian exports to the Russia-led bloc that includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

1-3 November (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt Energy exhibition on power and renewable energy, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

2-3 November (Tuesday-Wednesday): The Federal Reserve meets to review interest rates.

1-12 November (Monday-Friday): 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), Glasgow, United Kingdom.

16-17 November (Tuesday-Wednesday): Africa fintech summit, Cairo.

26 November-5 December (Friday-Sunday): The 43rd Cairo International Film Festival.

29 November-2 December (Monday-Thursday): Egypt Defense Expo, Egypt International Exhibition Centre.

7-8 December (Tuesday-Wednesday): North Africa Trade Finance Summit.

12-14 December (Sunday-Tuesday): Food Africa Cairo trade exhibition, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

13-17 December: United Nations Convention against Corruption, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

14-19 December (Tuesday-Sunday): The Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater.

14-15 December (Tuesday-Wednesday): The Federal Reserve meets to review interest rates.

16 December (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

14-16 February 2022 (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt Petroleum Show, Egypt International Exhibition Center, New Cairo, Egypt.

1H2022: The World Economic Forum annual meeting, location TBD.

22-24 April 2022: World Bank-IMF spring meeting, Washington D.C.

May 2022: Investment in Logistics Conference, Cairo, Egypt

16 June 2022 (Thursday): End of 2021-2022 academic year for public schools

27 June-3 July 2022 (Monday-Sunday): World University Squash Championships, New Giza.

**Note to readers: Some national holidays may appear twice above. Since 2020, Egypt has observed most mid-week holidays on Thursdays regardless of the day on which they fall and may also move those days to Sundays. We distinguish below between the actual holiday and its observance.