PM — It’s another M&A kinda day

Good afternoon, wonderful people, and happy would-be hump day. Although days off are typically best when they’re not during Ramadan, we’re not exactly complaining that we have a shortened workweek before we jump into the Eid holiday next week.

*** We are also delighted to welcome aboard our friends at Palm Hills Developments this afternoon, who are joining us as a pillar sponsor of EnterprisePM alongside Etisalat Misr. PHD's generous support — alongside that of all our other sponsors — helps ensure that your favorite read remains available to you without charge each workday.

SO, WHEN DO WE EAT? You’ll be breaking your fast at 6:29pm CLT this evening in the capital city, and fajr prayers are at 3:43am.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

It’s shaping up to be another M&A-led news day: Cairo-born mass transit firm Swvl is continuing its buying spree, announcing on Monday an agreement to purchase Turkish firm Volt Lines in what would be the company’s fourth acquisition in eight months. The transaction could value Volt at almost USD 40 mn, should it reach its earnout targets in the next two or three years, Swvl CFO Youssef Salem told Enterprise.

Separately, Saudi sovereign wealth fund subsidiary the Saudi Seventh Investment Company has purchased another 6.5% stake (65 mn shares) in Rameda Pharma for EGP 135.2 mn, raising its total stake to 11.01%, Rameda said in an EGX disclosure (pdf) today.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter is dominating headlines in the global business press this afternoon, after the company’s board agreed to a USD 44 bn offer for a full acquisition of the platform, which he said had “tremendous potential” that he would unlock. With more skepticism than praise, the Washington Post suggests that the world’s richest person might have bought the social media platform to protect his perception of free speech as he repeatedly criticized Twitter’s content moderation policies. Musk wants the platform that is important for governments and politics, despite it performing worse than its peers with fewer users and lower revenues, WaPo says.

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

• Egypt signs green energy agreements: EDF Renewables will build a USD 3 bn facility to produce green fuel for ships alongside local firm ZeroWaste and the Sovereign Fund of Egypt (SFE), while AlNowais’ AMEA Power will partner with the SFE and other government agencies to establish a facility to produce green ammonia. A consortium of Emirati renewable energy company Masdar and Hassan Allam Utilities will also build green hydrogen plants that can produce up to 480k tons of green hydrogen a year.
• US conglomerate Honeywell is looking to invest around USD 200 mn in petrochemicals and the production of green fuels for aircraft in Egypt, the company’s North Africa head Khaled Hashem said in a meeting with Oil Minister Tarek El Molla.
• S&P and Fitch Ratings have both affirmed Egypt’s BB and B+ credit ratings with a stable outlook, despite surging food and energy prices caused by the war in Ukraine putting pressure on the country’s finances. The agencies attributed their affirmed outlook and rating to the government’s policy response and the likely influx of external support.

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???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

PSA #1- It looks like we’ll be celebrating Eid Al Fitr starting Monday, 2 May, according to a statement from the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics. There should be an official announcement from Dar Al Iftaa on 29 Ramadan.

Reminder: Cabinet has declared all of next week off for the public sector, while the private sector is on holiday just Sunday-Tuesday. Friends outside of Egypt: Expect plenty of folks here in Omm El Donia to bridge the week.

PSA #2- All-night Tahajjud prayers are back from 27 Ramadan until 30 Ramadan (that’s this coming Thursday-Sunday), the Awqaf Ministry announced in a statement. Tahajjud prayers were banned last year.

PSA #3- Businesses have less than a week to submit their corporate tax returns. Companies with financial years ending 31 December have to file their returns by Saturday, 30 April.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Expect a daytime high of 35°C and a nighttime low of 17°C tomorrow, our favorite weather app tells us.

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*** WE’RE LOOKING FOR SMART, TALENTED PEOPLE to join the team and help us build some very cool new things. Today, we run two daily publications, five weekly industry verticals, a monthly newsletter — and we have tons more in the pipeline. We offer the chance to work in a fast-paced newsroom on a broad range of topics and in a variety of formats. Our goal is simple: To create value for our growing community of >199k readers by telling stories that matter.

Enterprise is currently in the market for the following positions:

Senior editors who will manage a team of reporters on our current and future editions. Candidates should have at least three years of experience in journalism and a minimum of one of those should have been spent as an editor — but we would deeply value someone with at least five years of work experience. Strong knowledge of Egypt and the region, a demonstrated interest in business / finance, and people management skills are musts.

Seasoned reporters to join our team and create stories that fascinate and inform our readers. Applicants should have serious English-language writing chops, a strong interest — and preferably some professional experience — in business / finance or business journalism, and solid analytical skills. You’ll be expected to pitch stories and take assignments, as well as develop leads into full-blown stories. Reporters should be fluently bilingual, though exceptional unilingual (English) candidates may apply.

We have a preference for Egyptian nationals but will consider international applicants.

Are you a career switcher? Investment bankers, lawyers and other folks trained to be analytical and tell stories do well with us. If you want out of the rat race, consider us an offramp.

Interested in applying? To apply for the editor / reporter positions, please submit your CV along with 2-3 writing samples and a solid cover letter telling us a bit about who you are and why you’re a good fit for our team. Please submit all applications to jobs@enterprisemea.com.

After years of the pandemic, “revenge tourism” sees demand for vacation rentals surpassing hotels: Across the Middle East, there’s been a new trend in the tourism market where travelers want to stay in vacation rentals to enjoy more space and comfort, writes CNBC. The upshot: It’s not regular Airbnbs that are getting more attention. Popular rentals often include gyms, private cinemas, smart home devices, and even the services of personal attendants, butlers, and chefs. The uptick in demand (even during peak covid) has pushed several firms across the region, mostly in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, to enter the premium holiday homes business in recent years, as these rentals don’t carry the same risks as hotels. Traditional hotel names have joined in on the trend, with Marriott launching Homes & Villas by Marriott International, which now boasts rental homes in over 100 destinations.

Companies are reluctant to approve sick days for employees who work from home, suggesting that technology allows them to continue work from their sick beds, writes the Financial Times in a feature story. As remote work becomes more normalized, management is underlining the importance of digital “presenteeism,” making workers hesitant to ask for time off when they’re feeling unwell. In 2020, the UK saw a record low in the number of sick days employees took despite the pandemic. The figure dropped to 1.8% of working hours lost due to sickness absence compared to 3.1% in 1995. Similar sentiments were seen in the US and China, studies find.

It’s up to management to communicate that health needs to be prioritized, the FT writes. Policies related to sick leaves are only effective if they are properly communicated to staff. Meanwhile, managers must recognize that allowing employees to work while unwell is counterproductive and damaging to employee engagement.

???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-

(all times CLT)

Netflix’s hit series Russian Doll is finally back with a second season, in which we are reintroduced to Nadia (Natasha Lyonne), three years after she was stuck in a surreal time loop after her 36th birthday turns fatal. The first season of the comedy-drama hit followed Nadia, who ends up in a Groundhog Day-type situation on the night of her birthday, at the end of which she dies. In trying to solve the mystery and get out of the mortality loop, Nadia meets Alan Zaveri (Charlie Barnett), who is in the same situation. The new season of the series sends Nadia on a time-bending ride, discovering where her past and present cross paths.

⚽It’s Champions League night, and all eyes will be on Manchester City v Real Madrid at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium for the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final at 9pm.

Locally, we’re up for three games at 9pm: Al Mokawloon v Alexandria’s Ittihad, Al Bank Al Ahly v Eastern Company, and Ismaily v Enppi.

???? EAT THIS TONIGHT-

New Cairo’s sohour spot Taghmisa has going strong this year, with a fresh and more modern take on Ramadan tents. Located at the Arabella Country Club, Taghmisa promises a unique sohour with authentic Ramadan vibes, thanks in no small part to a tannoura performance and the Hasaballah brass band. But more importantly than the entertainment: Their freshly baked bread is a must-have with all the other options off the menu, whether it’s their variety of fuul, eggs, or cheese dishes. End your sohour with a zalabice: Fried zalabya dough with your choice of Nutella or Lotus, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

???? OUT AND ABOUT-

(all times CLT)

Catch Flamenca’s tunes at Room New Cairo tonight at 9pm tonight for some tunes mixing flamenco and latin music with an oriental twist.

Or you can attend Ahimsa-hosted Tannoura workshop at 10:30pm.

???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

So what exactly is the Metaverse? Venture capitalist Matthew Ball tries to explain the blanket term through his book: “The Metaverse: And How it Will Revolutionize Everything,” in which he explores how virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) will be integrated into our daily lives. He shows that many proto-Metaverses already exist, such as popular games Fortnite, Minecraft, and Roblox. But there’s always more, as Ball explains challenges that could surface from Metaverse, the role of Web3.0, blockchain, and NFTs, among others. We’ve already got primers on the metaverse, Web3.0, and how industries could benefit from the technologies.

The EGX30 rose 1.3% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 708 mn (22% below the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net buyers. The index is down 10.6% YTD.

In the green: AMOC (+5.4%), EFG Hermes (+4.9%), and Abu Qir Fertilizers (+4.9%).

In the red: Fawry (-6.8%), MM Group (-4.9%) and Cleopatra Hospital (-4.4%).

OUR FOUNDER OF THE WEEK- Yasmine Abdel Karim, co-founder and CEO of Yalla Fel Sekka (LinkedIn).

My name is Yasmine Abdel Karim, and I’m the CEO and co-founder of Yalla Fel Sekka. I studied political science and economics at Cairo University. After graduation, I began my professional career in Schlumberger’s economics and marketing department, where I spent a little over a year. Afterward, I quit my job, moved to Scotland, and got a master’s degree in human resources management from Robert Gordon University. When Schlumberger hired a young CEO with an HR background in 2010, I rejoined the company’s HR global branch in Paris, ending my tenure there as the HR manager. I then took a sabbatical from work, moved to Boston, and started pursuing another master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University — and that’s where the idea for Yalla Fel Sekka popped into my head.

I co-founded Yalla Fel Sekka with my friend, Khashyar Mahdavi (LinkedIn). We both recognized the gaps in the MENA region when it comes to the availability of instant delivery and on-demand logistics companies that cater to needs of businesses in the Egyptian market. We both decided to travel to Egypt to study the market and figure out what to focus on to create an impactful startup that addresses the needs of players such as supermarkets, SMEs, and e-commerce outfits to enable them to sell to their customers through a network of dark stores, warehouses, and delivery drivers. When we became enamored with the idea of founding YFS, I decided to change my major at Harvard and to shift my focus of study to delve into business and entrepreneurship courses.

My studies at Harvard proved to be essential to the founding of Yalla Fel Sekka. I consulted my professors about the plans I had laid out for YFS, and I constructed the model, pitch, and business plan for my startup during my studies. I pitched my business idea and got the maximum amount of funding from Harvard’s Graduate Syndicate Fund to start my startup. The backing of the Graduate Syndicate Fund led us to attract more US investors like I Squared Capital and Flybridge Ventures. We raised more than USD 2.5 mn during this seed round. Our beta launch took place in 2019 and we fully launched YFS in 2020.

Our goal at Yalla Fel Sekka is to provide instant delivery services for businesses and to build the infrastructure required to enable them to satisfy their on-demand logistics needs. This year, our goal is to build and expand our dark store and quick commerce infrastructure for our clients. Our clients include Carrefour, Spinneys, Instashop, and Alfa Market, among others.

The most important KPIs I focus on include growth levels, and our performance indicators — the quality of our service, customer satisfaction, utilization rates, riders’ performance, and delivery time, among others. We also keep track of our internal KPIs, including the team’s performance and the level of their professional development, and focus on the training plans that would suit the needs of each team member.

To focus on my entrepreneurial journey, I had to give up on my freedom, personal and professional stability, and peace of mind [laughs]. The startup challenge is huge. With startups, risks are a part of the job. It’s an agile, ever-changing process; you improve as you progress in your founder journey, and oftentimes things don’t go as planned. Sometimes they go better than what you had envisioned, and sometimes they don’t, which can be personally taxing. Ultimately though the biggest gap I’m noticing is that I can no longer disconnect, entirely switch off from work, and take a two-week vacation, for instance.

The founder’s journey is very lonely. As a founder, you won’t be able to turn to your friends for advice. They will be unable to relate to the hardships you face. You can, however, overcome the lonely side of the job by reaching out to your peers. Other founders face the same challenges regularly and can relate to your woes, offer solutions, and provide useful insights. Whenever I’m in need of advice, I turn to my co-founder Khashyar Mahdavi, MaxAB CEO and co-founder Belal El Megharbel (LinkedIn), and Trella co-founder Omar Hagrass (LinkedIn). I think there should be a Tinder-like platform that would enable entrepreneurs to get together, talk about relevant problems, and bounce ideas off each other.

On the upside, it’s also a journey that’s filled with rewards that make the sacrifices worthwhile. The best part of the job for me is seeing progress and observing that we’re innovating, impacting, and inspiring our customers and our team. This gives me the grit and resilience to keep going and helps me forget the negative side effects of the job. I also love the fact that I’m empowering and helping with the personal development of my team: When the team evolves, so do you.

My advice for would-be founders is to maintain their determination, be flexible, and always listen to the advice of peers and experts from the market. Entrepreneurs need to pay attention to the advice of experts from the startup scene to better understand the hardships and the underlying complications that come with the founder's journey. Entrepreneurs need to be flexible to adapt to pivoting business models, and to shifting markets. I also believe that time is a critical asset for startups, so founders need to be very process-oriented and must have an understanding of how to focus on pressing problems to be able to ensure the survival of their business.

Aside from the USD 2.5 mn we raised during our seed financing round, Yalla Fel Sekka raised USD 7 mn in our series A funding round in 2022. We have attracted US investors including I Squared Capital and Flybridge Ventures, and regional investors including Kharafi Group, and DisruptAD, an Abu Dhabi-based VC set up by the emirate’s sovereign wealth fund ADQ in 2021. We have no further funding plans for 2022, but with our short-term goal to focus on our dark store management plan, we may raise more funds once we have a successful model.

If I had to do it all over again, I would still go down the investor route early on. I believe that bringing in the right investors accelerates the business on so many levels. Investors obviously bring capital to the table, but they also bring strategic advice, market insights, help connect you with future investors and otherwise useful people, and so much more.

Aside from our dark store management initiative, our other short-term goal at Yalla Fel Sekka is to expand into different Egyptian cities and become the market leader. We currently operate in five cities in Egypt — Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Mansoura, and Tanta. Our long-term goal is to launch new verticals and to expand regionally, possibly into North Africa and/or GCC countries.

Startups that I think are killing it are MaxAb and Trella. I love their business models. They are doing incredible work and are both solving real problems in the market. Other startups that I think have a great impact are Paymob and zVendo. Yalla Fel Sekka is actually partnering with zVendo.

The last great things I read were The House Of Gucci by Sara Gay Forden, and Midnight in Cairo: The Divas of Egypt's Roaring '20s by Raphael Cormack. The former delves into the mesmerizing tale of the Gucci dynasty, and the latter brilliantly immerses you in the Cairo of the roaring twenties: It brilliantly transports you to a surreal world that is amazingly alien to modern readers.