PM — Travel first, worry later

Good afternoon, wonderful people. It’s a busy Wednesday afternoon, with a pipeline of news to keep you busy as we count down to the weekend.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

Adnoc Distribution now owns half of one of Egypt’s largest fuel retailers: Adnoc Distribution, the distribution arm of UAE’s state oil company Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, has completed its acquisition of a 50% stake in fuel retailer TotalEnergies Egypt, it said in a statement (pdf) yesterday. The acquisition marks Adnoc’s entry into the Egyptian market. The transaction has been in the works since last July.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon resigned from her position after eight years in office, citing concerns over helping her country secure independence. The story is leading coverage in the international business press this afternoon: Financial Times | Wall Street Journal | Reuters | CNBC

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

• Privatization update: United Bank, Helwan Fertilizers, Pachin. Head here for the latest on potential stake sales in three state-owned companies that were last week named on the list of 32 state-owned companies the government plans to take to market over the next year.
• EFG Hermes shares rise as Ripplewood flips big part of its stake to Chimera + others: EFG Hermes’ second-largest shareholder, Tim Collins’ Ripplewood, has sold two thirds of its position in a series of block transactions on the EGX on Monday.
• We could host Africa’s largest data center complex: El Sewedy Capital’s subsidiary, El Sewedy Data Centers, and Emirati firm Gulf Data Hub plan to invest USD 2.1 bn to build three data center complexes here.

???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

The Naguib Mahfouz Festival kicks off today at Zawya Cinema in downtown.

Cairo Photo Week is still running through this Saturday, 18 February.

Want to become a private equity expert in three days? The Egyptian Private Equity Association (EPEA) and the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA) are hosting a three-day intensive private capital funds masterclass at the Ernst & Young office at Cairo Festival City. The masterclass kicks off on Friday 24 February.

Interested? You can attend the masterclass for EGP 18k or EGP 12k for EPEA and AVCA members. Register to attend here and take a look at the agenda here (pdf).

Find our regular business calendar, which includes a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events and news triggers, in EnterpriseAM and on the web.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- The mercury is going to rise ever so slightly during the day, but we’re getting a colder night. Our favorite weather app is forecasting a daytime high of 18°C and nighttime low of 8°C.

The cost of travel is rising, but travelers are unbothered. Although countries across the world are facing a cost-of-living crisis amid rampant inflation, people are still prioritizing going on vacation, Bloomberg reports. The pandemic devastated airlines, hotels, and tour companies, but as restrictions have lifted, demand — along with prices — have increased. A PwC survey found that travel is the second-highest priority spending area for UK consumers, second only to family, and ahead of home and personal health expenses. Soaring travel costs amid the broader inflationary climate are deterring fewer Americans from traveling, with Americans more eager to travel now than they have been in three years, according to Destination Analysts, a company that monitors US travelers. In Europe, travelers are looking at destinations that are a day-trip away, given how warm temperatures got last summer. Coupled with the airport chaos that unfolded last summer, staycations are looking more attractive.

Making it work: More people are taking shorter trips and looking for more affordable hotels, showing more interest in cost-effective options than they were before the pandemic in 2019, according to Trivago. Some Europe-based customers are skipping expensive trips to long-distance locations in favor of more budget-friendly locations in the Mediterranean, including Egypt, according to TUI AG, the largest packaged tours operator worldwide.

FT’s Global MBA Ranking introduces a new top school and a revised methodology: The Financial Times’ Global MBA Ranking, which has historically been dominated by US schools — in large part due to the evaluation being outcome-focused, allocating a lot of weight to salary levels, and increases three years following MBA graduation — has introduced new changes to its methodology. The weight given to salaries has been slashed from two-fifths to less than one-third, and diversity and sustainability will be given more weight. The revisited metrics have allowed Columbia University to top the ranking for the first time since it began publishing in 1999.

Geographic distribution: Thirteen of the top 18 business schools from the 2023 list are located in the US, including Harvard, Stanford, and Berkeley. France is home to two top tier universities: Insead, which came in second, and HEC Paris. Spain had just one school in the top 18, Iese which came in third place. As did Italy with SDA Bocconi, and the UK with the London Business School. You can check out the full list here.

B’naire Jahm Najafi prepares to make a mega USD 3.75 bn bid for Tottenham: The Iranian-American bn’aire, who is the chair of MSP Sports Capital, is in the process of structuring an offer for Tottenham Hotspur with a group of investors, and is set to formally address the club’s owner Joe Lewis and chair Daniel Levy in coming weeks, The Financial Times reports, citing two sources with firsthand knowledge of the plans. The bid would value the Tottenham Hotspur’s equity at USD 3 bn before factoring in the club's current debt of USD 750 mn. The offer is structured so that MSP and its partners will pay 70% of the acquisition price, with the remaining 30% coming from Gulf investors, primarily from Abu Dhabi.

Further north, Qatari investors are expected to make a bid for Man Utd by the end of the week, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the situation. Qatar Investment Authority officials and local family offices are assisting the Qatari consortium with bid preparations. Raine Group, a New York bank, is advising Manchester United's current owners, the Glazer family.

???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-
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Get introduced to Italy’s first woman lawyer in The Law According To Lidia Poët. Inspired by the real story of Italy’s first female lawyer, this six-episode Italian Netflix period crime drama series stars Matilda De Angelis in the title role. In late 19th-century Turin, Lidia Poët fights a grueling battle to appeal a court’s decision forbidding her from practicing law by deeming her admission to the bar unlawful. The show does, however, take some creative liberties as Poët takes on a murder case that enables her to show off her investigating prowess in a field dominated by men. The show premieres on Netflix today — you can watch the trailer here (runtime 1:59).

⚽Arsenal v Manchester City showdown: The English Premier League’s top two will clash tonight at 9:30pm as Arsenal hosts rival Manchester City in the postponed match from Gameweek 12. Arsenal currently leads the table with 51 points, while Manchester is only one victory behind with 48 points.

Today’s Champions League matches kick off at 10pm:

• Borussia Dortmund v Chelsea
• Club Brugge v Benfica

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Enterprise Fantasy Premier League by clicking here or using the code 8o4sut.

And in La Liga: Real Madrid hosts Elche at 10pm.

???? OUT AND ABOUT-
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Head downtown to check out the Naguib Mahfouz Festival at Zawya Cinema, which kicks off today.

Dust off your dancing shoes for an Afro Jazz Beginners Course with Mako Ruan at the ‎Cairo Contemporary Dance Center from 7-8 pm this Thursday.

Get in shape to participate in TriFactory’s Saqqara Pyramid Race this Friday, 17 February. The race is part of their Race Through History series, and you can choose between two distances: 5 km and 10 km (both are one-lap race courses timed using the MyLaps timing system).

Fun Nation is taking over standup comedy night at Room Art Space New Cairo this Saturday, 18 February at 9pm, with this lineup of local comedians, Waleed Al Tourky, Shehab Al Ashry, Ahmed Hossam, Waleed Mostafa and Waleed Abo Almagd.

Don’t miss Omar Khairat's concerts at 8pm next Monday and Tuesday, 20 and 21 February in the Main Hall of the Cairo Opera House.

We’re less than a week away from Kevin Hart’s standup comedy show in Cairo next Tuesday, 21 February. Some ticket categories are still available here.

Bringing the master of silent film to life on stage: Charlie is a musical play about the legendary Charlie Chaplin's human side, his hopes and hardships, and his impact on the film industry. The performance will take place at Theatro Arkan on Friday, 24 February, and tickets can be purchased here.

Head to the She Crafts bazaar on 24 and 25 February at the Grand Nile Tower Hotel in Garden City anytime between 12-8 pm. The bazaar aims to help women market their products and become more financially independent.

Rock fans, rejoice: 1984, Galab and Dabbet Namla are taking the stage at El Sawy Culturewheel’s Castle of Rock Festival on Tuesday 28 February at 7 pm.

Catch Cirque du Soleil’s OVO next month: The event features 100 performers taking the stage with their acrobatic acts. OVO will host 16 shows between 8-18 March at Cairo international Stadium Hall, courtesy of real estate developer Madinet Nasr for Housing and Development (pdf).

???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

Not so sunny in California: In his new book, Palo Alto, Malcolm Harris charts Silicon Valley’s history of exploitation and greed. Harris looks past the town’s sunny skies, educated entrepreneurial residents, and its companies that are transforming the world and exposes Palo Alto as a critical part of the global capitalist system that was constructed on stolen Native American burial sites. “We have a word for idyllic towns where the youth suicide rate is three times as high as it’s supposed to be: haunted,” Harris writes, by “the kinds of large historical crimes that, once committed, can never truly be set right.” He examines the Northern California town’s evolution during the 19th and 20th centuries and argues that it is defined by the “Palo Alto System,” a brutally exploitative type of capitalism that the region’s generations of b’naires have mastered.

The EGX30 rose 0.5% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 2.67 bn (40% above the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is up 20.0% YTD.

In the green: Credit Agricole Egypt (+6.4%), Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals (+6.2%) and Juhayna (+5.1%).

In the red: Talaat Moustafa Holding (-2.1%), MOPCO (-2.1%) and Taleem Management Services (-1.4%).