PM — Green as far as the eye can see

Good afternoon, wonderful people. It’s hump day, and with COP27 well in the swing of things, it is most definitely a news dump day.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

There’s a whole lot of renewable and green energy news coming out of COP27:

• Another 10 GW wind farm: The UAE’s Masdar, along with Infinity Power — its JV with local renewables player Infinity — and Hassan Allam Utilities, signed an agreement on COP’s sidelines to build a 10 GW wind farm in Egypt, set to be one of the largest in the world, UAE state news agency WAM reported.
• Scatec-OC-Fertiglobe plant launched: Norway’s Scatec, Nassef Sawiris-backed ammonia producer Fertiglobe and Orascom Construction began commissioning today their 100 MW green hydrogen plant in Ain Sokhna, which is set to be the world’s largest, according to a statement (pdf).
• Waste-to-hydrogen feedstock: H2 Industries signed an MoU with Egyptian waste management company Green Planet for Sustainable Environmental Solutions to provide waste for H2’s planned USD 3 bn waste-to-hydrogen plant in East Port Said.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

It’s another afternoon of the US midterm elections and COP27 battling it out for coverage in the international business press, although the elections are currently getting more prominence, with the story on the front pages of the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and CNBC. The one outlier: Bloomberg, where the top story is Kuwait’s target to make its oil and gas operations carbon-neutral by 2050.

HAPPENING NOW- National statements from heads of state are currently ongoing at COP27, at the same time as closed meetings between different groups and observer organizations. You can check out the day’s agenda here (pdf).

The Enterprise Climate X Forum, our first industry-specific conference, is taking place on Tuesday, 6 December. It’s a C-suite event for CEOs and top execs, investors, bankers and development finance folks.

In panels, live interviews and networking sessions, the Enterprise Climate X Forum will give insiders and newcomers alike the chance to talk about how to build a climate-centered business — and how to make sure your business continues to have access to the funds it needs to grow. Expect it to be heavy on lessons learned in Egypt and other global growth markets — and lots of success stories.

Some of the biggest names in business and finance are on board — are you? The Enterprise Climate X Forum is taking place with the generous support of our friends, including:

• Banking partners: HSBC | Mashreq | Attijariwafa Bank
• Telecom partner: Etisalat by e&
• Event partners: Hassan Allam Utilities | Infinity

DO YOU WANT TO ATTEND? The first wave of invites is going out today. If you’re a C-suite exec, business owner, climate professional, DFI staff, investor or banker, please email us at climatexrsvp@enterprisemea.com to signal your interest, letting us know your name, title and where you work.

You’re going to love the venue when we unveil it next week.

Want to reach our audience? Ping a note to Moustafa Taalab, our head of commercial, here.

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

• COP27 got underway yesterday, with more pressing calls to action to prevent “climate catastrophe”: World leaders struck a serious and somber note with warnings of “irreversible” climate chaos and calls for cooperation and shared responsibility on the first day of the COP27 leaders’ summit yesterday.
• Bidayat invests in Azza Fahmy Jewelry: Mediterranean-focused investment fund Bidayat has acquired an undisclosed minority stake in artisanal jewelry company Azza Fahmy.
• More Gulf M&A: Separate firms in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi look like they could enter a bidding war for a Maridive Oil and Service subsidiary, and Gulf investors including sovereign wealth funds have upped their minority stakes in EGX-listed education outfit CIRA Education.

ALSO- Enterprise Climate launched our Climate CEO Poll this morning. Today’s guest: Mohamed Saad, regional chief of Signify. We’ll be running C-suite interviews on climate throughout COP27 (and probably for a few days beyond) in both Enterprise Climate and EnterpriseAM.

FOR TOMORROW-

The Finance Ministry is hosting “Finance Day” at COP27 with the finance ministers of several countries, with an eye to reaching facilitated and sustainable climate finance agreements for developing and African countries.

???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Global golf is coming to Egypt: The Asian Tour’s International Series is making a stop in Egypt this Thursday, 10 November, through Sunday, 13 November. The first International Series Egypt will take place at Madinaty Golf Club, with a generous purse of USD 1.5 mn on offer.

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

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Temperatures in Cairo will hit 25°C tomorrow during the day before falling to 16°C at night, our favorite weather app tells us.

Has Musk actually been good news for Twitter? The platform’s monetizable active daily user growth hit an all time high last week thanks to Musk, accelerating to 20% from last quarter’s 15%, Twitter said in an email seen by the Financial Times. Since Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform, prominent names decided to deactivate their accounts, including actress (and Musk’s ex-girlfriend) Amber Heard and model Gigi Hadid, who said that the platform is becoming “more and more of a cesspool of hate and bigotry.” Musk is using the platform like his own personal playground, suspending comics Kathy Griffin and Ethan Klein from Twitter for impersonating him, despite the latter following Musk’s newly-introduced rules for parody accounts. Musk closed his USD 44 bn acquisition of Twitter last week, and has done his fair share of damage since then, including introducing a USD 8 fee for the blue checkmark granted to verified accounts and pushing through mass layoffs. At the same time, he’s trying to bring back big advertisers, General Motors, Volkswagen and United Airlines, who ended their partnership with the social media platform over fear that Musk’s freedom of speech beliefs would weaken content moderation.

Good news for dog lovers: Your pet may have a chance to live longer with a new drug: Dog longevity company Loyal is currently testing two medications that work on extending the lifespan of dogs while preserving their health and ensuring they can still be active Wired reports. CEO Celine Halioua raised USD 58 mn to fund her research, which she argues can also be adopted by humans as “the lifespan and lifestyle of a pet dog are more human like, and they live shorter lives meaning it won’t take decades to know whether a pill boosts longevity,” according to Wired.

Although 90% of clinical trials of new meds fail, there are high hopes for this one to work, as previous studies already confirmed success of doubling the lives of worms, flies and mice — although regulators including the US Food and Drug Administration are not on board with the idea of identifying aging as a medical problem, Wired reported. Trials for studies on longevity began even before Halioua was born. Cynthia Kenyon, a UC San Francisco molecular biologist, performed a study that helped spark a new discipline to unraveling and controlling the biological mechanisms of aging.

???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-
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How Carlos Ghosn went from the top of the world to Interpol’s most-wanted list: In Fugitive: The Curious Case of Carlos Ghosn, which is currently available on Netflix, we get a brisk glimpse at the celebrity CEO who is credited for saving both Renault and Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy, before eventually being smuggled out of Japan in a box. The Lebanese mogul rose to fame as a corporate titan in France, Japan, and many other countries, and then was arrested in Japan for allegedly using the company’s money for his personal use and under-reporting his income. It’s an intriguing documentary, but mostly because Ghosn’s story is fascinating. The documentary had all the necessary elements, but ultimately didn’t really add anything new to the conversation. We would have been interested to learn more details regarding Ghosn’s early life, the allegations, or the grand escape (watch trailer, runtime 2:08).

Finish that, then watch Ghosn’s new tell-all interview: To round up your viewing experience, check out the recent episode of the Lebanese podcast Sarde After Dinner, in which they interviewed their fellow native, who accuses Japan of corruption (watch, runtime 1:42:51). The country has a staggering 99% conviction record, yet because of its complex pre-trial procedures, only 37% of all cases reach trial.

⚽ Barcelona will face Osasuna tonight in La Liga’s 14th matchday at 10:30pm. Earlier, Elche takes on Girona at 8pm, while Athletic Bilbao takes on Real Valladolid at 9pm.

Today's most notable Serie A and Bundesliga matches:

Empoli v Napoli (7:30pm)

Borussia Dortmund v Wolfsburg (7:30pm)

Werder Bremen v Bayern Munich (9:30pm)

Milan v Cremonese (9:45pm)

The third round of the Carabao Cup begins today, and these are the key matches (all kicking off at 9:45 pm):

Everton v Bournemouth

Newport County v Leicester City

Brentford v Gillingham

???? EAT THIS TONIGHT-

Add a touch of sophistication and a lot of happiness to your table with the Grate Board: Cheese platters can be so many things at once: A visual feast, a sensory pleasure, an interesting learning experience, and a scrumptious meal — and the Grate Board delivers on all fronts. Cheese boards and grazing tables are generally reserved for dinner parties, but after sampling some of their delectable selections, we are now firm believers that everyone should enjoy cheese platters of all shapes and sizes more often. One of our favorite things about The Grate Board’s platters is their range of gourmet cheeses, which gives us a chance to enjoy diverse flavors and textures, with a decent mix of soft, hard, and aged cheeses. And it’s not just cheese: The Grate Board throws in a healthy mix of meats, fruits, nuts, honey, biscuits, and chocolate to make this a full-on meal. The next time you’re looking for something to order, think outside the box and go for a cheese board.

???? OUT AND ABOUT-
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Head to CJC 610 for Dynamic Duos: The nostalgic watch party on the terrace will be a wonderful chance to relive the action and humor of 90s classics Rush Hour and Men in Black. Make sure you get there by 8pm.

Or sing your heart out at Karaoke Night at Room Garden City tonight at 8pm.

???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

A fascinating look at one of the most bizarre crimes in modern history in American Heiress: In 1974, at the age of 19, Patty Hearst was kidnapped by a left-wing terrorist group called the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). After being held captive for nearly two months, Patty announced that she had joined the group, taken on the name Tania, and began helping the SLA carry out a series of bank robberies and other crimes. The kidnapping and brainwashing of Patty Hearst made headlines around the world and sparked a heated debate about whether she was a victim or a willing participant in her own abduction. In September 1975, she was arrested by the FBI and charged with several federal crimes. American Heiress is a masterful work of true crime writing by journalist Jeffrey Toobin. It’s both disturbing and enlightening, and sure to fascinate anyone who reads it.

The EGX30 fell 1.5% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.35 bn (19.1% above the 90-day average). Local investors were net buyers. The index is down 5.7% YTD.

In the green: Cleopatra Hospitals (+1.5%), Housing and Development Bank (+1.1%) and EFG Hermes (+0.8%).

In the red: Alexandria Containers and Cargo Handling (-4.5%), e-Finance (-3.0%) and GB Auto (-2.5%).

OUR FOUNDER OF THE WEEK– Every Tuesday, Founder of the Week looks at how a successful member of Egypt’s startup community got their big break, finds out about their experiences running a business, and asks for their advice for budding entrepreneurs. Speaking to us this week is Hussein Hosny (LinkedIn), founder and CEO of online used-car retailer Carzami.

My name is Hussein Hosny and I’m the co-founder and CEO of Carzami. I graduated in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in economics and immediately joined my brother, Adham, in a startup. Adham and I have been co-founders and partners in all of the companies we’ve founded since then, the most recent of which was Carzami.

I’ve always been super passionate about cars. I started my career with a startup called Sa3ar, which was a pricing engine for used cars. We observed substantial disparities in the pricing of used cars in the market, so we leaped at the chance to build a pricing engine, which proved to be a huge success.

A year later, we launched Sa3ar Partners, a dealer auction platform that provided a solution to consumers looking to sell their cars. The consumer would list the vehicle, and we would display it for dealers on our auction platform. It was also a success and was fully acquired by Contactcars.com, one of Contact Financial Holding’s companies. Following that, we launched Carzami, which had been our goal since the beginning.

Carzami is an online retailer for used cars and retail financing: We started Carzami with Contact Financial Holding as a partner. It’s an innovative model for buying and selling cars online with digital leadership. All our cars are fully inspected, with a seven-day money back and warranty. Our biggest priorities are transparency when it comes to pricing and the cars’ conditions and overall customer experience. If you want to sell your car, you set up an appointment, we send an inspector, and if everything checks out, we buy the car and you receive the full amount right away. We also provide financing and ins. solutions through Contact Financial Holding.

My family was the primary reason I decided to enter the start-up business immediately after university. Dealing with business has long been a family tradition. You could even say that it is inherited. Adham and I were always motivated, especially because our parents constantly encouraged and supported us in everything we chose to do. As brothers, we’ve always wanted to get into the auto industry.

We entered the automotive sector specifically because we are passionate about cars more than anything else. My father is a car enthusiast, which he also passed along to us. There is a lot of room for improvement in the sector, so we thought we were well suited to tap into the market and its huge potential.

I gave up a lot of things in the process of launching Carzami. You could say I gave up nearly everything related to my social life. But, in my opinion, this is what it takes to start your own business. You’ll need to put in 14 hours per day of pure work and prioritize it over everything else in your life, including socializing and daily hobbies. But I’m quite pleased with the result, and I feel that, while it may be difficult, making these sacrifices will be worth it in the end.

The best part about my job is the cars. The fact that I wake up everyday and work in the automotive industry makes me very happy. Also, realizing the positive energy we are bringing into the industry just fuels me with motivation every day.

The worst aspect of my job is that I am constantly stressed out. Some clients believe that the price we offer is too low because they come to us with a benchmark price that they want to sell at — based on prices on classified websites — which are typically quite expensive and do not reflect the car’s value. Therefore, it can be difficult to persuade the sellers that the market value we are proposing for the car is a fair one.

When Adham and I are unable to solve a problem, we turn to my father, who has extensive knowledge in the sector despite never having worked in it. Also, Hazem Moussa, chairman of Contact Financial Holding, has been an unending source of help for us, and 90% of the challenges we experience are brought to him to find a solution.

Starting your own business is not a lonely journey. It depends on the team but at Carzami we all work together, and there is no such thing as a lone worker.

Our short term goal for Carzami is to start expanding to other countries in the MENA region while in the long-term we want it to become the leading platform for buying and selling used cars not only in Egypt, but in the MENA region. Everything we're doing is geared towards this objective.

I hardly ever have any down time, but when I do, I like to spend it playing golf and hanging out with my family and friends.

I find Carvana to be very inspiring. They have a similar business model to Carzami, so I usually turn to them for inspiration. I am also a fan of their founder and CEO, Ernie Garcia, who’s had a remarkable journey in founding his company.

I believe that the startup scene is rapidly improving. There is an influx of ideas, and they are doing everything they can to better the industry in any manner conceivable — beginning with fintech and moving on to concepts that are unrelated to technology. It makes me very happy to see that younger generations are pushing to perform better and bring fresh ideas to the market.

The one piece of advice I would give to someone starting their own business is to not be afraid and to take the risk. Put all your time and effort into your work, and know that it will all be worth it in the end.