PM — Universal basic income, anyone?

Happy almost-THURSDAY, wonderful people. The weekend is (just) within reach, but the news cycle isn’t dying down just yet.

THE BIG STORIES TODAY-

#1- Qatar to invest USD 2.5 bn in state-held firms: Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund is in advanced talks to buy up 20% of Telecom Egypt’s stake in Vodafone Egypt, as well as other state-held stakes in unlisted companies, in transactions worth up to USD 2.5 bn, sources close to the matter told Bloomberg. A source close to the matter confirmed to Enterprise that talks are still ongoing with three different Arab sovereign funds — the Qatar Investment Authority, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Abu Dhabi’s ADQ — as we’ve reported earlier, and that the two parties could come to an agreement by the end of the year. Telecom Egypt has yet to receive an official bid from any of the funds, the source confirmed.

#2- MaxAB closes USD 40 mn pre-series B: B2B e-commerce platform MaxAB closed a USD 40 mn pre-series B round to fund its expansion across the MENAP region, according to a statement (pdf). The round saw follow-on investments from early backers Beco Capital, 4DX Ventures, Flourish Ventures and Africa Platform Capital, as well as commitments from new investors Silver Lake, British International Investment (the UK government’s development finance institution) and DisruptAD (Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ’s venture platform).

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

Russia and the UK are competing for the top slot on the front pages of the international business press this afternoon. Russian President Vladimir Putin imposed martial law in the regions of Ukraine that Russia has annexed, indicating that military administrations will be installed in these regions, CNBC and Reuters report. Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Liz Truss is facing increasing political pressure as inflation figures jumped to the double digits again in September (Financial Times | Wall Street Journal).

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

• Auto assembly legislation + expat car import scheme get parliament sign-off: The House of Representatives’ general assembly approved legislation that will see the establishment of a new council to set policy for local vehicle industry (including EV assembly) and another bill that will allow Egyptians living abroad to import cars and get customs and fee rebates.
• The bidding war for Pachin is cooling off: Saybad Industrial Investment has abandoned its bid to take over EGX-listed paint company Paint and Chemical Industries (Pachin) after not being able to do due diligence on the firm.
• Swvl could get booted off the Nasdaq: Cairo-born Swvl is reportedly considering combining (through a reverse stock split) or canceling some of its shares as it looks to avoid delisting due to low trading price.

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Take our EV survey: Are you an ex-petrolhead shopping around for your first electric vehicle? EV-curious and wondering what all the fuss is about? Or are you not ready to say goodbye to that sweet smell of benzene as you wait at the gas station?

We want to hear from you: We’re taking the pulse on how the nation feels about Egypt’s nascent EV transition. Take a few minutes to fill out our short survey. We’ll be back soon with the results.

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???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

The Madbouly government’s economic conference takes place Sunday-Tuesday next week. You can find the agenda for the conference here.

Egypt and the UAE will host a two-day conference marking 50 years of bilateral ties. The gathering will take place next Wednesday-Friday, 26-28 October and is being produced in association with the two governments. Day one is an economic forum featuring ministers, senior officials and business leaders, while the following day will feature a cultural forum, according to a statement.

The Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) will launch a promotional campaign next week to drum up interest in investing there, SCZone head Walid Gamal El Din said, according to a statement. The pre-COP campaign will launch domestically next Sunday, 23 October, before the international campaign kicks off on Monday, 24 October.

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 30°C tomorrow during the day before falling to 19°C at night, our favorite weather app tells us.

The market for low-carbon LNG is drying up: Europe’s spiraling energy crisis is hindering efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by producing and exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG), analysts tell Reuters. The number of agreements for shipments of carbon neutral LNG around the world has dropped to less than 10 so far this year, down from 30 last year, according to energy research firm Wood Mackenzie. Sanctions and disruptions to the market since the start of the war in Ukraine have sent gas prices soaring over 25%. “Lower carbon or carbon neutral LNG cargoes have lost their appeal in the current high price environment,” one expert said. “Energy security and affordability is at the front of mind for all buyers.”

Rising prices have curtailed producers’ ability to cover the costs of cutting emissions or buy carbon offsets, which can reach mns of USDs per shipment, the newswire writes. This means that exporters will find it difficult to take on the additional costs or find buyers to take them on in that environment, experts say — but this could change once markets calm down. “As this market evolves, we believe there will be long-term demand for certifiably cleaner natural gas products," a sustainability officer at a US driller said.

Climate is moving down people’s priority list amid rising threats: Some 48.7% of 125k people across 121 countries are not concerned about climate change and are rather worried about immediate health and livelihood threats arising from COVID-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reports, citing the Gallup World Risk Poll. Regions facing the most extreme ecological threats are among the least worried, with only 27.4% of those questioned in the Middle East and only 39.1% in South Asia reporting a concern about climate change. In China, the world’s biggest polluter, only 20% are actively concerned about climate change.

But, how grave is the situation? Data from a separate study by the ​​Institute for Economics and Peace revealed some 750 mn people globally are suffering undernourishment, while 1.4 bn people in 83 countries are suffering some type of water stress with 2.8 mn lacking access to clean drinking water. Six to 9 mn deaths are caused by air pollution worldwide and it has cost the world USD 8.1 tn. Natural disasters cost the world USD 200 bn annually, up 400% from three decades ago.

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

Interview with the Vampire gets a reVAMP: Anne Rice’s groundbreaking 1976 novel got the big screen treatment in the 1994 Academy Award-nominated film starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, but now it’s on the small screen — in a much racier AMC series. The show sets the scene with journalist Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) traveling to Dubai in 50 years after he first interviewed vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac (played by Jacob Anderson, who you may recognize as Gray Worm from Game of Thrones) to re-do the interview of his career. The show then jumps back to the early 1900s when Louis’ story begins in New Orleans, where he runs a brothel for a living after struggling to land a respectable job because he’s mixed race. Louis is then introduced to vampire Lestat de Lioncourt who begins “hunting” him. You can catch the trailer here (watch, runtime: 2:24).

⚽ The Egyptian Premier League is in full swing: Al Ahly, who came in third place last season, plays Ismaily at 5pm, and Pyramids face Enppi at the same time. Current league champions Zamalek play Smouha at 7pm.

Join the Enterprise Fantasy League by signing up through this link or by using the code 8o4sut.

Premier League:

Liverpool v West Ham (8:30pm)

Brentford v Chelsea (8:30pm)

Newcastle v Everton (8:30pm)

Bournemouth v Southampton (8:30pm)

Manchester United v Tottenham (9:15pm)

La Liga: Real Madrid faces Elche at 9pm fresh off its defeat of rival Barcelona ​​and its striker Karim Benzema landing the coveted Ballon d'Or. Earlier, Cadiz will face Betis and Valladolid takes on Vigo at 7pm, followed by Real Sociedad playing Mallorca at 8pm.

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

Indie rock band Hayajan make their debut performance in Egypt tonight at 9pm at Cairo Jazz 610.

More into hip hop? Head to Cairo Jazz Club in Agouza for Al Intag’s anniversary to hear DJ A.K spin trap and rap beats from around the world.

Egyptian Jazz musician Yehya Khalil is performing at the Cairo Opera House at 8pm.

???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

A Dickensian retelling for the opioid age: Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead is the reimagining of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield set in modern-day southwest Virginia. Damon Fields — nicknamed Demon Copperhead due to his attitude problem and hair color — lives in a trailer with his teenage mother in the late 80s until she overdoses and he becomes a ward of the state. Growing up, he has to endure child labor, opiod addiction, loss and institutional poverty on his journey to becoming a writer. The book is an Oprah's Book Club pick and got kudos from the New York Times for taking “a stab at Dickens and rising above the level of catastrophe.”

The EGX30 was essentially flat at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.26 bn (20.8% above the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is down 15.0% YTD.

In the green: Telecom Egypt (+4.4%), Mopco (+2.1%) and Egypt Kuwait Holding-EGP (+1.1%).

In the red: e-Finance (-2.6%), GB Auto (-2.3%) and Heliopolis Housing (-1.9%).

We hear a lot about universal basic income (UBI) — but nowhere has the idea been fully realized. Guaranteed income experiments are a perennial favorite of the international press, but these test-runs have so far only been deployed on a relatively small scale. Since the outbreak of covid-19, interest in these kinds of cashbased assistance programs has grown in parallel with calls for stronger social safety nets around the world. Since then, more Western cities have tinkered with their own versions of UBI but none have yet gone full-scale.

A quick refresher on UBI, if this is the first time you’re hearing of it: Essentially, everyone gets paid a set minimum by the state, regardless of their employment status and with no strings attached. The idea is to alleviate the burden of living costs and reduce inequality. A form of UBI was first posited by Thomas More in his 1516 book Utopia. The idea continues to resurface in the newscycle, triggered by major economic downturns and celebrity cosigns.

UBI is supposed to help tackle some of the ills of an unfair global economy: The thinking behind UBI is that it could help lift people out of poverty, improve health and educational outcomes, and at the very least alleviate some of the stress brought on by skyrocketing living prices — which in turn could make everyone a whole lot more productive in the process.

In its purest form, these payments would be doled out to everyone: Universal is in the name for a reason. Everyone would be entitled to these payments — which are typically just enough to cover basic living expenses — without having to go through an arduous screening process or qualify for assistance.

Universality eliminates welfare injustice, bureaucracy, and fraud: Proponents of UBI often argue that universality is the best way of ensuring that the most vulnerable are not wrongfully excluded from payments. They also say it’s a whole lot easier (and possibly cheaper) to indiscriminately dish out payments than it is to task bureaucrats with figuring out who deserves help.

The #1 objection to UBI — why should I work if I get paid anyway? Concerns about large scale assistance programs often stem from the belief that they eat away at incentives to engage in economically productive activities. “It’s that a permanent and society-wide system to provide for everyone would destroy fundamental elements of the social contract and create the wrong incentives for people as they make choices about their life’s course,” Oren Cass, executive director of conservative think tank American Compass told the NYT.

But in reality this argument doesn’t really hold much ground: UBI schemes or guaranteed income proposals aim to provide a floor that covers no more than the basic cost of survival. In most places around the world, that figure would be just enough for people to keep their heads above water — let alone to live comfortably on and forgo work entirely. For residents in places where some form of an income guarantee has long been in play, there’s been no evidence of people exiting the workforce en masse, according to a 2018 University of Chicago paper (pdf) that studied recipients of Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend. The study found that, although part-time work does tend to increase, any negative effects “seem to be offset by increases in spending that in turn increase the demand for more workers,” the study’s author told UChicago News.

More and more cities are testing out their own form of UBI. Finland was the first to really spearhead this experiment back in 2017, when it handed a group of 2k randomly selected unemployed people a monthly check of EUR 560 in the hopes that participants would find work. Though participants weren’t more likely to get a job, they did report less stress than the control group and greater trust in other people and in public institutions.

Dozens of US cities have now rolled out similar assistance programs: Some 48 cities across the US including Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Denver and Atlanta have in the past few years launched pilot programs where some homeless and low-income residents are given monthly payments. Some of the financing behind these programs is coming from private organizations — in one example, founder and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey contributed USD 15 mn to UBI programs in 2020.

We’re seeing this take off elsewhere in Europe: In Germany, a privately funded basic income scheme kicked off in 2019, offering 250 randomly selected people up to USD 466 per month. A separate initiative also picked 120 Germans to receive USD 1.4k every month for three years to see how they’ll fare. More recently, the Irish government has budgeted some EUR 25 mn this year to provide basic income to support 2k artists.

And as living costs spiral, we could be seeing more of this: With global inflation reaching record highs, experts in the UK are already proposing that lawmakers give UBI a go to help people — particularly those in the 16-24 age bracket — cope with rising financial burdens.