PM — It’s semifinals day

Happy hump day, friends. We have another busy news day in our neck of the woods, as well as across the pond.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

EFG Hermes closes EGP 200.6 mn securitized bond issuance for Premium: EFG Hermes has closed the seventh tranche of Premium International’s EGP 2 bn short-term securitized bond issuance, EFG Hermes said in a statement (pdf). The EGP 200.6 mn issuance comprises two tranches valued at EGP 150.45 mn and EGP 50.15 mn.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

The crypto king is still leading the conversation: The US Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Sam Bankman-Fried, the embattled co-founder and ex-CEO of collapsed crypto exchange FTX with defrauding his investors. Bankman-Fried is expected to face a litany of other charges from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District for New York and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission later today. The story is on the front pages across the international business press this afternoon: The Financial Times | Bloomberg | Reuters | The Wall Street Journal.

HAPPENING NOW-

The US will pledge USD 55 bn of investments in Africa over the next three years, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said ahead of the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit, which kicks off later today, according to Reuters. The investment commitment comes as the US is working to secure stronger ties with African countries. US President Joe Biden is expected to host a dinner for 50 African leaders tomorrow, where he plans to announce the US will support admitting the African Union to the G20, according to Sullivan. Biden will also reportedly advocate for a permanent African member on the UN Security Council.

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

• PIF could acquire United Bank this month for USD 600 mn: Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund could acquire state-owned United Bank for around USD 600 mn as soon as this month, according to Bloomberg.
• valU closes third securitized bond issuance: EFG Hermes’ consumer finance arm valU has issued EGP 854.5 mn worth of securitized bonds.
• Local healthcare company EDAM has new shareholders: PTS Investments Holdings’ Egyptian arm PTS Projects has acquired a minority stake in local healthcare startup EDAM in a USD six-figure transaction, marking its first transaction in our local market

???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Enactus Egypt and the Citi Foundation launched the second phase of social entrepreneurship program Impact@Work, according to a press release (pdf). Some 54 university teams representing 9.7k students from various governorates will participate in the competition in July 2023 to demonstrate their efforts in generating a social impact based on their entrepreneurial ideas. The winning team will compete in the Enactus World Cup in the Netherlands in October 2023.

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 what is forecasted to be a mainly sunny day, before falling to 15°C at night, our favorite weather app tells us.

Employers ditch job requirements as demand for blue-collar workers rises: Employers are waiving their rigorous job requirements for hourly and temporary positions as they struggle to fill vacancies in the holiday rush amid a tight labor market, the Wall Street Journal writes. Some companies are no longer sticklers for college degrees, while others are foregoing job interviews altogether in certain cases, or sending out a job offer just 24 hours after a prospective laborer applies for some warehousing and retail positions. This demand for blue-collar workers is quite the juxtaposition from white-collar workers searching for employment after the likes of Amazon, Walmart, and Ford announced mass layoffs.

The demand for employees far outweighs job seekers: Back in October the US recorded 10.3 mn job openings, while a mere 6.1 mn unemployed Americans were on the job market, pushing companies to search for ways to attract fresh blood after conventional methods — pay raises, bonuses and benefit packages — fail to get the job done.

Should HR reshift its focus back to the basics? Human Resources departments’ basic functions of recruitment and retention have become increasingly more complicated in recent years with a pandemic, a rise in quiet quitting, and a younger generation with high expectations for management entering the workforce, The Financial Times’ US business editor writes in an opinion piece. In today’s economic climate, between managing hybrid work, layoffs and salary pressures from a workforce grappling with high inflation, HR has got their work cut out for them and HR workers themselves are feeling burned out. Incidentally, HR teams are also among the first to be cut in big tech companies’ layoffs, including Amazon.

In an effort to retain and recruit employees, HR departments have been zeroing in on perks to boost staff engagement. HR leaders have invested in creating book clubs, setting up yoga classes and have strived to make their offices resemble the Google headquarters, all in the name of boosting their workers’ well being and morale. Despite the investments, the percentage of workers who believe their company cares about their wellness has fallen below pre-pandemic levels, according to data from Gallup.

The back-to-basics approach: Most employees are most concerned about the fundamentals: Being adequately compensated for their work, having their suggestions and grievances heard, being trusted to work flexibly, being supported during times of crisis, and advancing in their careers. An additional member being hired to the team to help with the workload, better addresses employee burnout than a weekly yoga class, the FT suggests. Given that employees consistently complain about feeling under supported by their managers, training managers to be better leaders might also shift some of the weight off HR departments to managers, who have a greater understanding of what is best for their teams.

???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-
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Everyone needs therapy — Jonah Hill’s therapist will tell you as much: Directed by Jonah Hill, Stutz is a documentary about the actor’s therapist, Phil Stutz, his unique approaches in practice to help his patients work through difficult situations and see hope for the future — and Stutz and Hill’s work together. Hill credits Stutz with “transforming” his life. The documentary demonstrates Stutz’s thought process and the approach he takes when he interacts with his patients. Hill strives to keep the film as unfiltered and raw as possible, highlighting Stutz’s Parkinson’s disease, and some painful memories from his childhood that eventually led him to his practice. The documentary is available to watch on Netflix.

⚽The first round of the World Cup semifinals: Argentina will play against Croatia tonight at 9pm to battle it out for a spot in the World Cup final match next Sunday. Whoever comes out on top tonight will head to the final against the champion of tomorrow’s semifinal game between Morocco and France. The losers from today and tomorrow’s semis will then compete for third and fourth place.

The two teams struggled in the first rounds of the World Cup: Croatia tied with Morocco, and Argentina lost to the Saudi Greens, which was the biggest shock of the tournament. The “fiery” Croatian team did not compete against the tango dancers much, but the last match together left Messi and his team with bitter memories after they were defeated 3-0 in Russia’s 2018 group stage. The two teams qualified together, but they also lost to France — Argentina lost in the Round of 16 and Croatia lost in the final match.

Today in the Dubai Super Cup: A friendly match between Arsenal and Milan kicks off at 4pm.

???? OUT AND ABOUT-
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Attend Xenia Nikolskaya’s Dust: Egypt’s Forgotten Architecture Book Signing Event tonight at the Bibliothek Egypt at 7pm. The event will include a presentation and a discussion with Nikolskaya, the visual curator who began photographing and documenting her work in 2006.

Unwind tonight at the Cairo Jazz Club 610 at 8pm with their Xmas Movie Night on The Terrace watch party. You can expect to be served lots of hot chocolate and popcorn.

???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

The day that changed the world: 11/22/63. This Stephen King book speaks of the importance of letting go of the need to change the past. It tells the story of a time traveler who sets out to go back in time and stop Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating US president John F. Kennedy. After accomplishing his goal, he returns to 2007, and finds that everything has been turned upside down — learning that everything happens for a reason. He makes an attempt to rectify his actions, but it is too late because he has permanently changed the course of history.

The EGX30 rose 2.9% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 3.6 bn (152.4% above the 90-day average). Local investors were net buyers. The index is up 26.8% YTD.

In the green: Oriental Weavers (+17.0%), Qalaa Holdings (+15.8%) and Madinet Nasr Housing (+10.5%).

In the red: Telecom Egypt (-1.4%), CIB (-0.6%).

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, asks about their experiences running a business, and gets their advice for budding entrepreneurs. Speaking to us this week is Omar Abdelwahed (LinkedIn), co-founder and CEO at Egypt-based regtech company Valify Solutions.

My name is Omar Abdelwahed, and I graduated from the American University in Cairo (AUC), with a degree in computer science and a minor in business. During my last year, I joined a club called Entrepreneur Society, where I discovered my passion for entrepreneurship. By the time I graduated, I knew I didn’t want a 9-5 job. Even though the startup environment wasn’t as established at the time, I decided to take the risk and co-founded a startup with one of my friends, Ibrahim Eid (LinkedIn).

It was a simple concept, but we weren’t able to keep it afloat. That’s when I opted to work for IBM for seven months as a mobile application developer, which introduced me to the concept of identity verification, also known as EKYC, or electronic know your customer. After IBM, I worked as a business developer manager and product developer at Paymob.

After I quit my job at Paymob, I co-founded Valify Solutions with Ibrahim. My father, Ahmed Maher, was the one who suggested the idea and the concept spoke to me instantly. I always wanted to create a project that addresses a problem and has a distinct market advantage.

Valify is a combination of the words validate and verify. Valify Solutions eliminates the need for you to be physically present to validate your identity, allowing all verification to be done online using certain details. For example, you won’t need to go to the bank to update your personal information, instead, you’ll do it online through us. We do individuals’ authentication now and hopefully we’ll be able to do the same for companies soon.

We collaborate with several businesses across numerous industries including e-commerce, fintechs, banks, and telecom providers. Basically anything that needs to be taken care of for security compliance — ensuring that a service is being provided while preventing fraud and facilitating simpler accessibility. In addition to document data extraction and verification, we have facial recognition technology. For instance, if you take a picture of your national ID, we can extract and validate the information from it.

The most challenging stage of my Valify experience was transitioning from a startup to a scale-up, which means expanding from a small family to hiring 25-40 employees. This transition is significant because adding new calibers and modifying the structure is a critical point for the business. You must be extremely careful and not take the work culture for granted — it’s the foundation of your company’s success.

To become an entrepreneur, I essentially gave up being an employee with a good job and a stable salary. I also gave up peace of mind — establishing your own business can be incredibly stressful, and you never disconnect. Seeing the market need for Valify fuels my motivation and keeps me going.

The best part of my job is my team. We collaborate with various governmental entities, startups, and multinational corporations, so exposure is another advantage of my job.

The most difficult aspect of my job is coping with the macroeconomic environment’s effects on my company, such as currency depreciation and inflation. Another challenging part of the job is that we are a highly regulated organization, so the stress of deciding where to direct our attention — whether it’s toward a sector or continually looking for consumer demands — can be very draining at times.

If I could only give someone starting their own business one piece of advice, it would be: Team, team, and team. Team is key. I believe it’s more important than the idea itself, because it will help you navigate during market turbulence. Hire leaders, not employees. Also, if you are not having fun, then you shouldn’t be doing it. We adhere to a saying: “Enjoy the ride.”

The three most important KPIs I consider everyday are whether we are a necessity or a luxury for our clients, the number of transactions that we carry out, and the team’s internal satisfaction.

Whenever I am facing a difficult problem, I turn to my father. I truly look up to his 30+ years of experience in the banking industry. He was the regional COO of HSBC, then he became the CEO of consumer banking at CIB. Now, he’s the G-Strategy Officer at HSA company. I also turn to our investors regularly. 4DX Ventures is one of the investors we consult, along with many other angel investors who assist us on a daily basis.

So far, we’ve raised USD 1 mn. Our investors include 4DX Ventures, Tawasol, A15, Alsara Ventures, and angel investors including Selma Ribica. We are currently preparing for our fundraising round and hopefully very soon, we will be hearing positive news.

Valify’s growth strategy focuses on increasing our market penetration in the identity verification space at a customer level, as well as diversifying our offering. Based on our clients’ increasing needs, we are planning to introduce more services to ensure the full cycle is complete. As for our long term plans, we are looking to expand regionally.

It was difficult to persuade my family of my career choice at first. Even quitting IBM and joining Paymob was a stretch for them, but they eventually realized it was the right move. They began to go with the flow.

I am a movie buff, so whenever I have down time, I binge watch movies and play tennis.

I’m currently binge watching The Big Bang Theory, and have recently read Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. I also love reading books written by Dan Brown. I recommend listening to a podcast called Criminal. It talks about crimes and has loads of suspenseful stories.

Two startups that I believe are killing it are Thndr and Breadfast.

If I hadn't founded Valify Solutions, I would have pursued other projects. But I'm not completely opposed to working for someone else.

If I only had enough money to spend, I would spend it on customer satisfaction.