PM — The new-age space race is upon us

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We’re just hours away from a very well-deserved weekend after a mad rush of a week — with today being no exception.

ALSO- It’s your last day to tell us how you’re feeling about your business and the wider economy. We’ll have the results for mid-month — just in time to give you a sense of what everyone else is thinking heading into budget season. Make your voice heard in our Fall Reader Survey. It won’t take more than a few minutes to complete.

THE BIG STORIES TODAY

#1- Inflation hits four-year high: Annual urban inflation accelerated again in August on the back of higher food and beverage prices, according to figures state statistics agency Capmas released today. Consumer prices in urban areas rose to 14.6% y-o-y in August, up from 13.6% in July. Urban inflation rose 0.9% m-o-m, marking a slower pace of increase from July, when it recorded 1.3%.

#2- Expedition ups its Domty offer: Expedition Investments has (marginally) revised upwards its offer to acquire a 34% in cheesemaker Domty, the Financial Regulatory Authority said in a disclosure (pdf) today. A consortium led by Expedition is now offering EGP 5.50 per share — up from its previous offer of EGP 5.00 per share — in its mandatory tender offer to purchase up to 96.2 mn shares in Domty. The EGP 5.50 offer is still below the EGP 6.90 fair value determined by BDO earlier this week.

^^We’ll have more on these stories and others in Sunday’s edition of EnterpriseAM.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

There’s no big business story capturing the attention of the international press, but Queen Elizabeth’s “concerning” health is getting some digital ink this afternoon. Doctors are “concerned” about the queen’s health “and have recommended she remain under medical supervision,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement earlier today. The queen has remained at her summer home at Balmoral Castle, where outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson and his successor Liz Truss visited the queen this week. The story is getting coverage in Reuters, the Financial Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

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

• Chimera to take stake in GB Lease? GB Auto subsidiary GB Capital is in talks with our friends at Abu Dhabi-based investment firm Chimera Investments to sell a 45% stake in its leasing arm, GB Lease.
• More and more M&A: Crédit Agricole will purchase a 4.8% stake in Crédit Agricole Egypt today, taking its holdings in its local unit to around 65%; Banque du Caire has acquired a 10% stake in Western Union’s local representative, International Business Associates Group; and EGX-listed Egypt Aluminum (Egyptalum) will fund two-thirds of its USD 300 mn overhaul by offering fresh stakes through a capital increase.
• Egypt could land funding worth up to USD 1.3 bn from the EBRD: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is ready to provide as much as USD 1.3 bn in funding to support clean energy projects in Egypt, President Odile Renaud-Basso said yesterday.

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???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Consoleya and Cairo Angels will host a business meet-up on Monday, 12 September focusing on Nigeria’s tech ecosystem and how it compares with Egypt’s startup scene. Tarek Shahin (CI Capital’s chief investment officer), Biola Alabi Media CEO Biola Alabi, and Ibrahim Sagna (Afreximbank’s global head of advisory and capital markets) and take part in a panel discussion moderated by Aly El Shalakany, CEO of the Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund.

Interest rates: The Central Bank of Egypt’s Monetary Policy Committee meets on Thursday, 22 September to review interest rates.

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

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- The mercury will rise to 38°C on Friday and Saturday while nighttime lows will be in the 22-23°C range during the weekend, our favorite weather app tells us.

Kim Kardashian is getting in on private equity: Reality TV star and serial entrepreneur Kim Kardashian and Carlyle’s former global head of consumer, media, and retail Jay Simmons, are launching a new private-equity firm, Skky Partners, Kardashian announced on Twitter. “The firm focuses on both control and minority investments in high-growth, market-leading consumer and media companies,” according to a statement posted on the firm’s Twitter account.

Sammons is bringing the financial know-how and Kardashian is there for… her audience reach: The partnership will allow the pair to utilize their complementary skill sets, given his experience in the financial and investment side and Kardashian’s ability to draw on her massive reach and influence to grow companies, Sammons said, according to the Wall Street Journal. Kardashian and Sammons will serve as co-founders and co-managing partners, while Kardashian’s mother and manager Kris Jenner will also be a partner at the firm. Neither party has commented on the fund’s expected size or other investors.

All jokes aside, Skky is a testament to Kardashian’s business acumen — and her commitment to name branding. Kardashian founded shapewear and undergarment brand Skims in 2019, and the company was valued at USD 3.2 bn in January, according to the WSJ. She has also launched a nine product skin-care line, SKKN BY KIM, earlier this year. Skims, SKKN, SKKY — noticing a pattern here? All a play on Kardashian’s name or initials.

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Temperatures in the Middle East are rising almost twice as fast as the rest of the world, the Washington Post reports, citing a new study published in the Review of Geophysics. The climate in countries in the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean, including Egypt, are projected to warm by around 5°C by the end of this century. The rapid rise in temperatures will lead to longer-lasting heat waves, more intense droughts, and recurrent sandstorms, affecting the lives and health of the 400 mn inhabitants of the region. The rise is expected to have consequences on freshwater resources and crops, increasing the likelihood of conflict, the report suggests.

Middle East greenhouse gas emissions have surpassed those of the EU and India, as the region has become a “dominant emitter,” according to the report. Critically, the Middle East’s emissions are also on an upwards trajectory, unlike the EU, where there’s a trend of declining emissions. The report highlights the need for the region to decarbonize its energy and transportation sectors transitioning to greater reliance on renewable energy.

And speaking of climate + sustainability: Reaching sustainability goals got even more expensive over the past year: The cost of achieving the UN’s sustainability goals of combating issues including hunger, poverty, and climate change increased by 25% to USD 176 tn over the previous year, according to a report released today by the Force for Good Initiative (FFGI). The higher cost was fueled by soaring inflation and the increasing costs related to achieving net-zero carbon emissions, it said, in addition to historical underfunding. According to the analysis, the funding gap for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 2030 objectives supported by all member nations, has also widened, rising 35% to hit USD 135 tn. The SDGs are now “set to fail to be achieved by 2030 and risk needing many more decades,” the report said, adding that “course correction is needed.”

???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-
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Order in and have a family movie night this weekend with Sylvester Stallone’s Samaritan: Prime Video’s new action fantasy flick is about making decisions and living with the results. The movie centers on Sam Cleary, a 13-year-old boy who has a hunch that his mysterious next-door neighbor, Mr. Smith (Stallone), is actually the superhero vigilante Samaritan — who most people believe died in a fire 25 years ago. Sam goes on a mission to get Samaritan to come out of hiding so that the city can be saved. While there are heroes and superpowers in the film, the focus is on ordinary people and their common humanity. Ultimately, it brings a message of hope for a brighter future when people learn to work together — an especially important lesson for the preteens in your life (watch trailer, runtime 2:45).

⚽ It’s Europa League day: As the group stages of the Europa League kick off, these are the most worthy games to keep an eye on today: At 6:45 pm: Zurich v Arsenal, and Ludogorets Razgrad v Roma. At 9pm: Man United v Real Sociedad, and Lazio v Feyenoord.

Friday is a quiet day for European football, but it’s exciting on the regional front: Saudi league winner Al Hilal will face Egyptian League champ Zamalek at 8pm for the Lusail Super Cup in Qatar.

If you still need your European football fix, Gameweek 5 of La Liga kicks off at 9pm with Girona and Real Valladolid facing off.

Gameweek 6 of the German Bundesliga also gets underway at 8:30pm, with Werder Bremen facing Augsburg.

Saturday will see the CAF Super Cup Final at 9pm between Morocco’s RS Berkane and Wydad Athletic Club, the title holder of the CAF Champions League.

And Gameweek 7 of the English Premier League kicks off at 1:30pm with Fulham v Chelsea at 1:30 pm. At 4pm, you can alternate between four EPL games: Liverpool v Wolverhampton, Leicester City v Aston Villa, Bournemouth v Brighton, and Southampton v Brentford. The game we’re looking forward to the most kicks off at 6:30pm between Manchester City and Tottenham.

SPEAKING OF THE PREMIER LEAGUE- Chelsea is set to appoint Graham Potter as their new manager, after sacking manager Thomas Tuchel yesterday due to the team's poor performance this year, Sky Sports reported. The new owners made the call after Tuesday's 1-0 Champions League loss to Dinamo Zagreb — who are currently being coached by a familiar face: Former Pyramids FC manager Ante Čačić.

La Liga: Rayo Vallecano hosts Valencia at 2 pm, Espanyol plays Seville at 4:15 pm, then Barcelona faces Cadiz at 6:30 pm. Last but certainly not least, Atletico Madrid will play Celta Vigo at 9pm.

In Serie A: Napoli hosts Spezia at 3pm, followed by Inter v Torino at 6pm, and then Milan faces Sampdoria at 9pm.

The most notable Bundesliga matches kick off at 3:30 pm: Bayern Munich v Stuttgart and Leipzig v Borussia Dortmund.

(PS: have you joined the Enterprise Fantasy League yet? If not, just click here or enter the following code: 8o4sut.)

Egypt just got its first Church-affiliated football club: A junior football club affiliated with central Cairo churches opened admissions today for junior players, Al Arabiya reports. The Oyoun Misr Club will accept applications for players born between 2003-2014, according to an announcement on Down Town Cairo Academy’s Facebook page, and intends to compete in the Egyptian League up to the fourth division.

????EAT THIS TONIGHT-

You can now have homemade gooey chocolate chip cookies, sans the kitchen mess, thanks to d.licious. Chocolate chip cookie die-hards know that store bought cookies just don’t hit the spot. Nothing beats a freshly baked warm cookie straight out of the oven. The catch? You need to dedicate a couple of hours to whip up the batter, (typically annihilating your kitchen in the process) and wait for the batter to chill and bake. D.licious saves you all that hassle — just put their frozen mounds of cookie dough onto a tray and they go straight into the oven for around ten minutes. Instead of a mess, you’re only left with chewiest cookies that ooze out warm chocolate goodness. Their cookies come in four different flavors: Milk Chocolate Chunk, Nutella Stuffed, White Chocolate Pecan and our favorite Dark Chocolate Sea Salt. You can order the boxes, which each make 12 cookies, on their website for delivery, or pop into any Souffle store to pick one up yourself.

???? OUT AND ABOUT-
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Who runs the world? (Girls): Three talented ladies will take charge tonight at Cairo Jazz Club: Singer-songwriter Lella Fadda will open the night with a selection of her original songs, followed by UAE-based musician Almas, who will be in the house to play her rap, trap, and hip-hop-inspired originals, and DJ Nedz will close things out with a dancey set.

Musician Nesma Abdelaziz will perform at the Cairo Opera House’s Open Air Theater tomorrow at 8pm. The famed marimba player will be performing some Arabic classics as well as Western melodies with her band.

???? EARS TO THE GROUND-

Cult Podcast introduces listeners to a new cult and its leaders every week, from the more obscure cults you’ve probably never heard of to some mind blowing details about more high profile groups. Hosts Paige Wesley, Armando Torres, and Andrea Guzzetta show up having done their homework for each episode, thoroughly well-researching each cult they feature. They detail the political and cultural climate of each era the cults were formed in, providing a greater understanding of why and how people were persuaded to join and what made the prospect so enticing. They even have a five-part series of episodes dedicated to Donald Trump’s followers, who have often been described as cult-like. The hosts question how literal of a description that is, looking at his earliest supporters and the rise of the MAGA following. From online cults to historical cults, they’ve covered all sorts of groups in the 236 episodes they’ve recorded.

???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

The EGX30 rose 0.3% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.24 bn (26.9% above the 90-day average). Local investors were net buyers. The index is down 14.1% YTD.

In the green: Juhayna (+4.1%), Credit Agricole Egypt (+4.0%) and Madinet Nasr Holding (+3.7%).

In the red: AMOC (-1.7%), MOPCO (-1.5%) and Eastern Company (-1.5%).

NASA’s latest moon missions mark our first return to our lunar neighbor in 50 years. NASA has been back in the global headlines in recent days albeit not for the reasons it was hoping. Two attempts to launch Artemis 1 both ended in failure last week as technical issues scuppered the space agency’s plans to finally get the rocket into space.

Technical hitches aside, there’s a new-age space race going on: NASA holds ambitious plans to use the moon as a jumping off point to explore Mars and elsewhere in deeper space, and wants to get astronauts back onto its surface by 2025.

Artemis 1 is part of this plan: The unmanned spacecraft — a collaboration between the European Space Agency’s Orion capsule (a craft designed to carry astronauts to the moon and eventually to Mars) and NASA and Boeing’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket — will take three manikins into space and orbit around the moon. Artemis 1 is the uncrewed test flight that will fly around and beyond the moon, setting the stage for future manned Artemis missions.

Water, solar system intel and inclusion are driving NASA’s latest ambitions. NASA has announced plans to spend almost USD 100 bn for another moon landing, partly due to the discovery of frozen water in impact craters on the moon’s surface, as we reported previously. The first four flights are expected to cost USD 4.1 bn each.

The Artemis program will pave the way for exploration of Mars. Artemis 2, which is expected to launch no earlier than 2024, will carry a crewed flight beyond the moon, taking humans to the farthest they have ever been in space. Artemis 3 will take the first female astronaut and person of color for a weeklong trip to the moon in 2025. The Artemis missions are expected to equip NASA to launch a future crewed mission to Mars from a new space station in the moon’s orbit.

The moon is the Rosetta Stone of space exploration. Even though interest in the moon waned following the Cold War-era moon landings, scientists still consider our lunar satellite to be space exploration’s “Rosetta Stone,” providing key information about our solar system and serving as the best place to study the origin and evolution of planets. Apollo’s successor aims to establish a longer term human presence on the moon, making it an intermediate station on future trips to deep space and Mars, NYT reports.

The moon’s water reserves may provide breathable air for astronauts as well as rocket fuel. Water is central to renewed interest in moon exploration, even though we still don't know how much water there is or how easy it will be to extract it. Ice water was first discovered at the bottom of dark craters on the moon’s poles in late 2009. Scientists speculate that water can be used to provide breathable air for astronauts and the hydrogen may be used as a rocket propellant in the future, making the moon a permanent base and springboard for future trips to Mars. The first drilling efforts are scheduled to start in late 2024 by robotic vehicle VIPER (the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover).

When did we last visit our lunar neighbor? The Cold War-era Apollo missions (1969-1972) mark the last time that astronauts visited the moon, when 14 missions landed the first human on the moon. Rocks collected during the missions provide the foundation of our current understanding of the solar system and the moon, which likely formed out of debris from the collision of an object roughly the size of Mars with Earth 4.5 bn years ago. NASA shifted its focus to Mars and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn following the last moon landing.

China, South Korea, and many others also have lunar ambitions. Earlier this year, China launched its new permanent space station Tiangong, which the Chinese hope will replace the soon-to-be decommissioned International Space Station in 2031. China is the third country after the US and Russia to send astronauts into space and build a permanent space station. South Korean mission Danuri, which was launched by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, is currently en route to the moon and will begin to orbit it at an altitude of 100 kms once it reaches the moon in December, TechCrunch reports. On board Danuri are instruments and cameras that are sensitive enough to see inside the moon’s ice water-containing craters.

And Russia is rekindling its space program for the first time since it was the USSR. The Luna-25 lander, which will target the south polar region of the moon later this year, will mark Russia’s return to the moon for the first time since 1976.

The private sector is also making forays into galactic exploration. Elon Musk’s SpaceX may be the loudest private company in space exploration — but it certainly isn’t the only one. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin took the first civilians into the cosmos when they made their maiden voyages into space last year, and the private sector looks to capitalize on the New Space industry.

Are we going to the moon? Local interest in space is on the rise as well. Earlier this year, 29-year-old Egyptian biomedical and mechanical engineer and founder of Deep Space Initiative Sara Sabry became the first Egyptian to travel to space. The Egyptian Space Agency’s (EGSA) 123-acre Space City, which will include a space academy, research center, museum and the African Space Agency, is set to launch later this year. It will make Egypt just one of ten countries with a space city and is expected to contribute 10 percent to our GDP. With our academy just getting off the ground, it’s not clear if we’ll be joining the latest space voyages anytime soon. In May, EGSA signed an MoU with South African National Space Agency (SANSA), and in June, EGSA collaborated with SpaceX to launch NileSat’s communication satellite Nilesat 301 with the aim of expanding television services in MENA and providing broadband connectivity to remote areas and for new projects at home.