PM — EU decides to go cold and not rely on Russian gas.

It’s quite a hump day, ladies and gentlemen. We have big news on the capital market front, while Europe is taking a big decision to wean itself off of Russian energy. Macro will continue to guide the conversation globally, with the IMF cutting its growth outlook and the Fed meeting commences. It looks like a slog to the finish line, folks.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

OFH agrees to sell its entire stake in Beltone: Orascom Financial Holding’s (OFH) board of directors issued a decision today to sell the entirety of its 56% stake in Beltone Financial to Chimera Investments in response to Chimera’s mandatory tender offer for up to 90% of Beltone, OFH said in a disclosure to the bourse (pdf). The order to sell its entire stake comes after a BoD meeting yesterday approving Chimera’s bid, in which the Abu Dhabi-based investment firm is offering EGP 1.485 per share in Beltone. OFH’s decision means Chimera’s acquisition bid will now automatically go through after passing the 51% minimum threshold, with the total stake Chimera will acquire depending on the outcome of its mandatory tender offer.

Beltone shares fell 1.8% to EGP 1.67 at the close of trading today.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

EU approves emergency plan to limit gas demand as Russia reduces supplies further: As gas shortages loom in the continent, European Union countries have approved a proposal to cut gas use by as much as 15% over a period from August of this year to March 2023. The meeting comes a day after Russian gas giant Gazprom said further cut gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline this week to just 20% of capacity, piling pressure on Germany, which was already struggling to secure enough gas to last it through the winter. While Gazprom blamed the shortage on an issue with another turbine, EU energy policy chief Kadri Simson went on record saying that the move is politically motivated. “We know that there is no technical reason to do so,” she said, according to Reuters.

HAPPENING NOW-

The IMF has revised downwards its forecast for global GDP growth in 2022 in its updated World Economic Outlook, which it released just minutes before we hit “send” on this afternoon’s edition. The fund now expects growth to slow to 3.2% by the end of the year — 0.4 percentage points lower than what it had penciled in for the year in its April edition of the report — on the back of the war in Ukraine, rising inflation, and a “worse-than-expected slowdown in China.” There are “overwhelming” downside risks to the outlook, including Europe being entirely cut off from Russian gas supplies, more stubborn inflation, and tighter monetary policy, which could come together to push the US and eurozone area to near-zero growth, said IMF Chief Economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas in a press briefing. Look for details on what this means for us here tomorrow.

The US Federal Reserve also just kicked off the first of its two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting to review interest rates. The general consensus is that the Fed will decide on a second consecutive 75 bps rate hike to rein in inflation.

^^We’ll have more on these stories and others in tomorrow’s EnterpriseAM.

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

• Egypt, Jordan + UAE choose projects for joint industrial partnership: Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, and now Bahrain, have identified USD 3.4 bn-worth of joint investment projects in the first phase of a USD 10 bn industrial partnership signed in May.
• The EGX wants state institutions to invest more in capital markets, with EGX officials having held recently a series of meetings with state-owned institutions in a bid to increase the amount of domestic institutional money in Egypt’s equity market and raise liquidity, a source with first-hand knowledge of the push told Enterprise.
• Allianz will hold a 40% stake in its new joint venture with South Africa’s Sanlam, an official at Allianz told Enterprise.

Subscribe to Enterprise

FOR TOMORROW-

Egypt will host the annual general meetings of the African Reinsurance Corporation (Africa Re) tomorrow, marking the first time the meetings will be held in person since the pandemic broke out in early 2020, the Finance Ministry said yesterday. The meetings will discuss Africa Re’s performance and the impact of the ongoing global economic crisis on the continent’s ins. and reinsurance industries.

???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

The FRA will hold public hearings on its 2022-2026 strategy next Sunday, 31 July, the authority said in a press release (pdf). The dialogue will include representatives from the FRA’s capital markets advisory committee, the EGX, Misr for Central Clearing, Depository and Registry, the Investor Protection Fund, the Egyptian Capital Market Association, and the Fixed Income Association in Egypt. The strategy, which the authority released late May, aims to double the EGX’s market cap to EGP 1.6 tn by 2026.

PSA- Your deadline to catch a 65% break off late payment fines for your taxes is coming up on 31 August, the Finance Ministry made sure to remind us in a statement today. The waiver applies to late payment fees for customs tariffs, income, real estate, and sales taxes, VAT, and stamp duties among others. The remaining 35% of your due payments will need to be paid before next March, the statement noted. This comes after the House of Representatives approved amendments to help reduce late payment fees before it ended its legislative cycle earlier this month.

The government’s public consultations on its state ownership policy continue on Thursday, with a workshop with representatives from the House of Representatives, Senate, and think tanks. Every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday see workshops on how privatization plans will affect specific industries. You can find more details on the schedule of the meetings here.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Temperatures in Cairo will hit 41°C tomorrow during the day before falling to 24°C at night, our favorite weather app tells us.

WATCH THIS SPACE- If you’ve gotten a new job offer, it’s likely it’s for better pay: Thanks to rising inflation and a competitive labor market, US workers who choose to switch jobs saw an average salary increase of 6.4% in June, while those who have stayed at their job only saw their wages rise by 4.7%, according to monthly data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta picked up by the Wall Street Journal. This is the largest pay gap between those who left their jobs and those who stayed in 20 years.

At the heart of the problem are workers increasingly being aware of rising inflation, pushing hiring managers to catch up, Yongseok Shin, an economics professor at Washington University said. This has been exacerbated by an increase in the number of people switching jobs, with US employers hiring 372,000 in June, according to a Labor Department report earlier this month.

Should you stay or should you go? Ultimately, it’s a trade off. Yes, leaving would likely get you a better paying job in this climate, but it doesn’t come with the stability, and the likelihood of career progression, experts tell the WSJ.

---

Baby talk is a universal language, a global study finds: You may have cringed at it before and you’ve definitely done that high-pitched, sing-song, dopey-grin-induced sound for a baby. Well it turns out that baby talk — technically referred to as “parentese” — is truly a global language, according to a cross-cultural study published recently in the journal Nature Human Behavior. More than 40 scientists contributed to the research and analyzed over 1.6k voice recordings by 410 parents who speak 18 languages and hail from six continents. The families came from vastly diverse backgrounds, including rural, cosmopolitan, tech-savvy, and off the grid, as well as hunter-gatherers in Africa and city dwellers in Asia. All spoke and sang to their infants in profoundly similar ways.

But why do we make these weird wittle sounds? These baby noises are thought to serve a key evolutionary and developmental function, Samuel Mehr, a psychologist and director of The Music Lab at Haskins Laboratories who conceived the new study, told the New York Times. The noises we make with a newborn help teach language and communication by helping some infants remember words better, and allowing them to piece together sounds with mouth shapes. High pitched, soothing sounds also help sooth crying or distressed babies, she notes.

Out theory: Babies learn to talk just so they can tell us to shut up with those annoying sounds.

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

The Wirecard scandal gets the Wolf of Wall Street treatment in Netflix’s King of Stonks: The 2020 Wirecard scandal — one of Europe’s biggest financial crimes — is getting its own little fictionalized retelling courtesy of Netflix. For those who watched Tiger King instead of keeping up with the financial papers, the scandal was very much Germany’s Enron moment: Wirecard — one of Germany’s biggest fintech and e-payments platforms — filed for insolvency after declaring that some EUR 1.9 bn went missing from its accounts, in a scandal that also engulfed major auditing firm EY. The Netflix original tries to take a light-hearted approach, and unlike the scandal it's based on, tries to give its nerdy and loveable protagonist a happy ending.

The subject matter, relation to Wirecard and actor Thomas Schubert are what really make the show bingeable. Otherwise, we’re thankful that it's only six episodes, as the show continues to follow the trend of financial scandal movies trying to imitate the Wolf of Wall Street, which by our count is probably the worst Martin Scorcese movie ever made (and Leo DiCaprio for that matter). Not a bad way to kill six hours if you’re traveling somewhere, but not something to bring the friends home or for repeat watching.

Want to learn more about the scandal and the protagonists’ real life counterpart? Bloomberg’s Quicktake has you covered (watch, runtime: 13:01).

---

⚽ Egyptian Premier League: At 6.30 pm, Ghazl El-Mahalla FC will play against Ceramica Cleopatra, while Al-Masry faces Eastern Company. Then at 9pm, Al-Ittihad Al-Sakandary will play against Enppi.

Fajr Friendlies: For the night owls out there, there are two friendly games worth checking out — Barcelona v Juventus at 2:30am, followed by Real Madrid vs Mexico’s Club América at 4:30am, as part of the teams’ preps for the new season.

???? EAT THIS TONIGHT-

Keeping with our German theme, we have Ralph’s German Bakery, which has landed in Arkan: The formidable bakery has opened up a new branch in Sheikh Zayed, bringing its signature fresh bread to Arkan Plaza’s extension every morning in every flavor, shape, and size. We were excited to see a make-your-own croissant sandwich option on their menu, but our buttery hopes and dreams were shot down when we tried to order it for breakfast — the waiter quietly informed us that their croissants would not be ready before noon. We hope this was a one-off and not a recurring policy. However, their full English breakfast plate and their Bavarian cherry noodles did not disappoint. Ralph’s German Bakery has more branches in New Cairo, Maadi, and Dahab

???? OUT AND ABOUT-
(all times CLT)

Hop on Autobees El Sahra at CJC 610 tonight: Cairo Jazz Club’s popular Autobees El Sahra will be playing some of our favorite retro Arabic hits starting 9 pm, featuring DJunkie and a surprise guest appearance by a secret superstar.

If Latin music is more or your thing, Loca Latina is throwing a party tonight at Anzu Rooftop Lounge: Put on your dancing shoes as DJ Mana spins tunes that are bound to heat up the dance floor at the open air venue in Heliopolis.

Rock fans, there’s a little something for you too, tonight at Room New Cairo: Room Art Space & Cafe is hosting a rock night featuring live performances by two local bands: Arabic indie pop rock band Dabbet Namla and indie rock Taht El Sefr will both take the stage starting 9pm.

???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

Two Nobel Prize recipients get honest about the limitations of economics in Good Economics for Hard Times: Husband-and-wife team Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo examine some of the most critical global issues we face today — climate change, inequality, and illegal immigration, to name a few. The MIT duo’s approach is equally humble and proud over the limits of economic theory as well as its significant contribution to our limited understanding. Banerjee and Duflo deconstruct various theories with data, and refute popular notions such as the idea that high taxes on wealthy people reduce their incentive to work hard and create new jobs. Ultimately, the book aims to “emphasize that there are no iron laws of economics keeping us from building a more humane world.”

The EGX30 rose 1.2% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.1 bn (25% above the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is down 21.8% YTD.

In the green: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank- Egypt (+4.8%), E-Finance (+4.8%) and EFG-Hermes (+4.3%).

In the red: Ibnsina Pharma (-2.4%), MM Group (-1.5%) and Eastern Company (-1.0%).

OUR FOUNDER OF THE WEEK- Hana Zaghloul, co-founder and head of commercial at Dayra (LinkedIn).

My name is Hana Zaghloul, and I’m the newly appointed co-founder and head of commercial at Dayra. I graduated from SOAS University with a law degree, fully intending to be a human rights lawyer. I instead decided to start working in content creation, since all the law jobs available to me were commercial law (something I knew I did not want to pursue). I began working at RiseUp and producing the RiseUp agenda, which got me interested in tech and the impact that it can have on society. I later went on to become part of a founding team of four that created Waya. We wanted to create a platform for stories on startups and founders coming out of the MENA region, since we really believed in the impact they could have. As part of my role as head of content, I would frequently cover fintech startups which helped me decide that I wanted to join one.

While searching for work in fintech in September 2020 I met Omar Ekram, the CEO of Dayra. We went out for coffee and ended up talking about his vision for Dayra for two hours, and I was immediately sold on his idea and became the company’s first hire. I really saw the potential impact Dayra could have on the lives of mns of unbanked individuals and businesses in Egypt. Making a positive impact (no matter how small) on people’s lives was the main reason I had studied law.

Much of the Egyptian population is unbanked and still doesn’t have access to financial services. At Dayra we believe credit and access to finance are huge economic drivers, so we aim to provide an easy way for companies to access finance directly and empower them to offer financial services to their unbanked supply of workers and businesses. We do this through our dashboard and embedded financial solutions or what we call our Financial OS. We’re looking to achieve this by working closely with banks and VCs, with the support of the Central Bank of Egypt and the Financial Regulatory Authority.

Dayra is also partnering with marketplaces and platforms to create alternative credit scores and provide financial solutions to their unbanked workers and customers. We allow kiosks and retailers to access credit to buy inventory and unbanked workers to access their wages early. Dayra does all this through APIs and embedded widgets.

We’re a white label solution: Our partners get to take our products and integrate them into their own apps. They can also use our app, which is launching soon, to offer those services. In this regard we are a very incognito startup.

As the head of a commercial department that overlooks communications, operations and partnerships, my KPIs constantly change. A couple of things that I constantly look into though, is how fast we close a partnership and then how fast we actually execute. My law background has given me a lot of confidence in negotiating contracts, which we do quite a lot of as we constantly enter partnerships. I’m also always looking at our revenues. At Dayra one of the main things that we were very adamant on is always being profitable. The idea of burning to grow that a lot of startups subscribe to is not one of the things that we followed.

If I had only enough money to do one thing, I would definitely spend it on improving our product. I wish we had all the time in the world to just keep improving it, but with startups you just have to ship the product out fast and then keep reiterating and improving.

To date, Dayra has raised USD 3 mn in our pre-seed round. Our main investors are VentureSouq, Efg EV, EFG Hermes, Y Combinator as well as Tanmeyah Capital, along with a few angel investors. We’re always in the pursuit of raising debt, as is required by our business model, but we’re also hoping to start fundraising before the end of the year.

I think that there are more women in tech now than there were back in 2016 when I was looking for female founders to come up on stage and speak at RiseUp. I definitely would like to see more female entrepreneurs and more founders. It’s something that makes me happy.

In my spare time, I like to get away from Cairo and spend time in nature. I enjoy going to the desert and hiking. I also recharge by spending time with family and friends. I also read a lot and watch documentaries and shows, though I’ve never really gotten into podcasts. I’m currently reading a book called Bonfire of the Vanities, which I’m liking because I enjoy reading about historical incidents that can be linked to things happening today. I recently watched Super Pumped, a mini series about the rise of Uber, and while it was exaggerated, it was very interesting to see how Uber managed to influence so many startups. It is a defining company in the tech world.

Two startups that I think are killing it are Airbnb and Stripe. Stripe is just an incredible company, and I definitely admire the growth they’ve achieved and what they’ve done. I also admire Airbnb, specifically their design elements and how they put design and center of everything that they do. UX there is huge and it’s something that I’m very interested in.