Taaleem shares pop 6% in EGX debut, ending the nation’s IPO drought

Good afternoon, everyone. The pre-Ramadan news rush is in full swing, making us very happy campers today.

THE BIG STORY at home this afternoon: Shares of Taaleem rose 6% in their EGX debut today, implying a very well-priced transaction indeed. The multi-brand higher education company’s hotly anticipated IPO marks the first real listing on the EGX since late 2019 — and sets up a string of IPOs that we hope will bring institutional investors back in from the sidelines. Next up before this year’s first IPO window closes: The IPO of cosmeceutical giant Macro and the technical listing of consumer healthcare outfit IDH. We have chapter and verse in this afternoon’s Speed Round, below.

Oh, and we have news of two big M&A today, too. It’s a great day for finance nerds.

CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from this morning’s issue of EnterpriseAM:

• IMF more upbeat on global growth, says covid-end “increasingly visible.” The IMF upgraded Egypt’s growth projection for FY2021-2022 by 0.2 percentage points to 5.7%, up from its 5.5% growth forecast in January. Output is expected to accelerate to 5.8% by FY2025-2026.
• The Madbouly government delivered a primary surplus of EGP 25 bn during the first nine months of FY2020-2021, despite the economic shock of the coronavirus heaping pressure on public finances, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said yesterday.
• Covid cases are rising in Egypt again + we have an agreement to make Sinovac here at home. It’s the less popular sibling of the Sinopharm vaccine now being deployed in Egypt, but still appears to protect against 100% of “hospitalized, severe and fatal” cases of covid-19.
• Algebra Ventures doubles down on Egypt with USD 90 mn fund, with a first close expected in 3Q2021.

HAPPENING NOW- Egypt’s digitization drive just got a shot in the arm after President Abdel Fattah El Sisi this morning inaugurated a centralized records center that will use “smart technology” to help eliminate the counterfeiting of official documents, Ittihadiya said. The new facility will set nationwide standards to authenticate everything from passports to university graduation certificates and national ID cards (which will in the future be chipped). It will create databases that will include biometric data and be linked to all state bodies — and secured against cyberattacks. El Watan has more.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD- Depending on who you ask, it’s the end times (for the stock market) or the best of times (for the market and the global economy). Capturing the global business press’ imagination this afternoon is JPMorgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon, whose annual letter to shareholders makes the bold claim that the US economy is about to go on a two (or more) year tear. “I have little doubt that with excess savings, new stimulus savings, huge deficit spending, more QE, a new potential infrastructure bill, a successful vaccine and euphoria around the end of the pandemic, the U.S. economy will likely boom. This boom could easily run into 2023 because all the spending could extend well into 2023,” Dimon writes.

Dimon’s call tops the front pages of the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg and CNBC. Reuters, meanwhile, is leading with General Motors CEO Mary Marra’s vision to transform her company’s “century-old business model. The goal is to become the automotive equivalent of Apple.”

On the other side of the optimism spectrum: The guy immortalized in The Big Short has deleted his Twitter account. After months of warning about bubbles in everything from stonks to crypto, Michael Burry got a visit from the SEC last month — and promptly took down his Twitter feed. Business Insider has the story here and here.

Other global stories worth knowing about this afternoon:

• A small network of Facebook and Instagram accounts in Egypt associated with a disinformation campaign “that targeted Ethiopia, Sudan, and Turkey” have been disabled as part of 14 networks in 11 countries Facebook has taken down. El Face has also dismantled accounts and pages in Iran, Albania, Spain, and Argentina. (Press release)
• There’s cautious optimism about nuclear talks with Iran after diplomats agreed to meet again in Vienna this Friday to resume talks over the 2015 nuclear agreement. (Bloomberg)
• Global renewable energy generation capacity grew 10.3% last year, according to data from the International Renewable Energy Agency, with 91% of that new energy capacity coming from solar and wind sources. But we’re still lagging behind the global average, with the Middle East accounting for only 1% of the 261 GW increase in capacity. (Report, in pdf)

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Your statutorily required afternoon dose of covid news:

• France has a new entrant in the covid-19 vaccine race: VLA2001, which has reportedly proven more than 90% effective in early-stage clinical trials, manufacturer Valneva said in a press release (pdf). A third phase of trials will begin at the end of the month and the vaccine should be manufactured in Scotland, with the UK having already placed a 100 mn dose order.
• A top European regulator is poking into the quality of Sputnik trials amid allegations the trials may not have been “conducted ethically,” the Financial Times writes.
• Some folks with “long covid” report their symptoms improve after receiving covid vaccines, according to CNBC.
• “Covid passports” are the next major faultline in the “coronavirus divide” in the United States, the New York Times reports.

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???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

The TriFactory’s Soma Bay Endurance Festival is kicking off tomorrow and will run until Saturday. The multi-sport event offers challenges including the sprint, supersprint, olympic, and the youth race.

ITIDA is hosting a “Hangout with VCs” tomorrow in collaboration with The Next Web, a unit of the Financial Times, according to a press release (pdf). Startups can submit applications until the day of the event here.

???? FOR YOUR COMMUTE-

Object of desire #1- The Tom Bihn Synik bag. The more we think about traveling (whether that’s getting back into the daily commute to the office or — please, God — hopping on a jet plane), the more we want a new bag. The Synik comes in a 22 litre and a 30 litre version, each of them with suspended internal laptop compartments, removable internal tie-down straps, a removable internal frame — and a simply perfect set of exterior organizational pockets. You can feel good buying from them, too: The firm has solid labor and environmental creds. Check out the bag here online (their site is excellent) or catch reviews in the Brooks Review or on Pack Hacker. Ships to Egypt.

Speaking of objects of desire: High-end Swiss watch brands are boosting their digital presence to boost sales hit by covid-19, launching a new all-digital Watches & Wonders event on Wednesday to show off their latest products, reports Reuters. Often hesitant to turn to the internet, these luxury watchmakers are rethinking their strategy after seeing the success of online platforms for pre-owned watches. Hermes, who was an early adopter of digital platforms, saw its watch business outperform the industry last year due to their customers already being used to shopping online. Others, including Patek, are unconvinced, with President Thierry Stern saying that when buying the expensive watches online “you lose the beauty, the magic.”

Need to geek out on watches? Or want to get into the (very expensive) passtime? Hodinkee is your starting point.

Sorry vegans, but that “oat milk” you love? It ain’t fit for humans. Unless you’re into guzzling down sugar and canola oil — both of which contribute to everything from diabetes to Alzheimer’s (the latter is literally metabolic poison), even more so when consumed together. Go read this (admittedly polemic) takedown: Oatly: The New Coke. Fool me once, shame on you…

Don’t trust Big Oil, lesson #329: You know how we’re all supposed to care about our personal carbon footprints? The idea doesn’t lack merit, but do you know where it came from? Look no further than a USD 100 mn marketing campaign by BP back in 2005 “designed to deflect responsibility for climate change away from the corporation and onto the individual consumer.” This Twitter thread is your reading list if you want to dive deeper.

Need an escape from it all? It’s coming: The cast of Friends is due back together this week to start filming a one-off reunion special. Hollywood Reporter has the lowdown.

???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-

(All times in CLT)

The documentary Coded Bias has landed on Netflix and explores the blurring of real and imaging AI. The doc follows M.I.T. Media Lab computer scientist Joy Buolamwini, along with data scientists, mathematicians, and watchdog groups from all over the world, as they fight to expose the discrimination within algorithms now prevalent across all spheres of daily life. While conducting research on facial recognition technologies, Buolamwini made the discovery that some AI programs could not detect dark-skinned faces or classify women with accuracy, leading to the realization that the very machine-learning algorithms intended to avoid prejudice are only as unbiased as the humans and historical data programming them. Vice and First Post can’t urge you enough to go catch this documentary.

There are two matches to look out for in the Champions League tonight at 9pm: Bayern Munich will play against PSG and Porto will face off against Chelsea.

Inter Milan is going up against Sassuolo and Juventus is playing against Napoli in Serie A. Both matches will take place at 6:45pm.

In La Liga, Real Sociedad will compete with Athletic Club at 9pm.

The Egyptian Premier League has on three matches today. El Gouna is already on the field with El Gaish, while Wadi Degla will play against National Bank at 7pm and Ismaily is up versus Al Masry at 9pm.

???? OUT AND ABOUT-

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Pink Floyd cover band Gravy Train are performing at The Room Art Space in Garden City at 8:30pm tomorrow.

Go on a Downtown Cairo city tour on Friday with U for Urban Impact’s The Urban Week. The tour has been organized in cooperation with Gazef and participants will explore the beauty of the city’s historical buildings and its hidden gems. The tour runs from 9am-12pm.

U for Urban Impact will also be holding an “urban festival” at the Greek Campus on Friday that features music, food, and activities such as building lego houses, drawing on walls, and a global treasure hunt.

???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

The “master of the mesmerizing head-scratcher” Haruki Murakami strikes again with his latest book First Person Singular. The mind-bending new collection of short stories touches upon many of the writer’s passions including jazz, classical music, the Beatles, baseball, and memories of perplexing young love, all put together in a philosophical way meant to challenge the boundaries between the reader’s mind and the exterior world. In the first short story, Murakami explains what he means by the book title, with the main character writing he saw his reflection in a mirror and felt he was experiencing his life choices at a remove, as if they were dictated by a narrator embodying “a first person singular.” Check out the great review in NPR.

Still our favorite from Murakami: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.

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???? TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Expect daytime highs of 31°C and nighttime lows of 13°C tomorrow, our favorite weather app tells us.

Higher education outfit Taaleem saw its shares rise a bit over 6% in their first day of trading, closing at EGP 6.10 after opening at EGP 5.75. The company’s sale of 49% of its shares in its EGX debut — under the ticker TALM — marks the first real IPO on the EGX since 2019. The offering saw 46.55% of the company’s shares placed with institutional investors in a private placement and another 2.45% stake sold to retail investors, according to an EGX statement (pdf).

Appetite was strong going in: The retail portion of Taaleem’s IPO closed more than 29x oversubscribed last week, while the offering to institutional orders was 2.34x oversubscribed.

Some 65% of the private placement shares were placed with international institutions from the GCC, the United States, South Africa and the United Kingdom, Hisham Gohar, CEO for the investment bank at CI Capital, said at the opening bell this morning. Gohar expects IPO activity to pick up steam in 3Q2021 as momentum grows, backed by a wider market recovery, according to a report in Hapi Journal.

What makes Taaleem so attractive? We have the rundown on Taaleem and its fundamentals here, or you can check out their investor deck here (pdf).

Post-IPO shareholder structure: The selling shareholder — an SPV named Sphinx Obelisk — now holds 51% of Taaleem, while CI Capital investment vehicle Egy Edu Invest holds 30.6% and Ahmed Badreldin’s RMBV holds the remaining 20.4%, according to a Q&A Taaleem prepped on the transaction (pdf).

The country’s first “digital” IPO: “This is the first IPO to be promoted virtually through digital communication channels,” Taaleem Chief Executive Officer Mohamed El Rashidi said. “Achieving strong subscription coverage virtually paves the way for a new IPO marketing model and will stimulate companies to accelerate their listing plans.”

Taeleem is looking to invest EGP 1 bn in new and ongoing projects over the next three years, managing director Mohamed El Rashidi said at the press conference, according to Hapi Journal. The funds will be used to finance the construction of new universities and wrap up work on the company’s current projects. Taleem has so far spent some EGP 750 mn in the past three years on higher education projects like Nahda University in Beni Suef.

Advisors: Our friends at CI Capital, who are also shareholders in Taaleem, ran the sale and served as bookrunners for the offering. MHR & Partners in association with White & Case served as counsel to CI Capital, while Matouk Bassiouny & Hennawy provided domestic counsel to Taaleem. PwC has served as auditor for the transaction, and BDO is the independent financial advisor. Inktank is Taaleem’s IR advisor.

Retail investors who want shares of Macro Group's IPO on the Egyptian Exchange can start placing their orders as of this Sunday, 11 April, after the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) approved the company’s prospectus yesterday, according to a disclosure (pdf) to the EGX. Would-be shareholders will have until next Thursday, 15 April to get their requests in, the company said.

The group is offering up to 45.8% — or some 264.5 mn shares — in a secondary sale. The sale includes offerings to institutional investors locally and abroad, as well as the retail offering for Egypt only.

The shares have been priced between EGP 5.30-6.15 apiece, with the final share price set to be determined by Monday, 12 April — three days before the bookbuilding period wraps. The indicative price range values the company, pre-offering, at between EGP 3.1 bn and EGP 3.6 bn.

Trading on shares is scheduled to begin on 19 April under ticker symbol MCRO.CA.

Background: The company, established in 2005, has a market share of just over 23%, or about 3x its closest competitor, with some 124 cosmeceutical products and one neutraceutical; it has nearly 80 additional products ready to roll out in 1H2021. Macro sells its products over the counter, but physicians are its best allies: The company has over 550 people in its medical sales force that targets physicians and pharmacies nationwide and figures that “85% of sales are estimated to be initially generated via prescription at the physician level.” Despite the challenges of covid-19, Macro last year reported revenues of EGP 430.5 mn (with a 2018-2020 CAGR of 34%) and EBITDA of 187 mn (92% CAGR on the same period). The company’s bottom line last year came in at 135.1 mn, good for a net margin of about 31%

Advisors: CI Capital and Renaissance Capital are joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners. White & Case is international and (with MHR & Partners) local counsel, while Dechert LLP and Zaki Hashem & Partners are counsels to the joint global coordinators and bookrunners. Inktank is the investor relations advisor.

ADQ Holding’s Agthia to move forward with Atyab acquisition soon: Emirati state-owned investment firm ADQ Holding’s food subsidiary Agthia has approved a bid to acquire 75% of Atyab brand owner Ismailia Agricultural and Industrial Investments, according to Hapi Journal. The takeover, which could be valued at up to EGP 3.2 bn, is now pending regulatory approval, Agthia said. Sources previously said the acquisition is expected to be completed before the end of 1H2021.

If completed, the bid would make Agthia one of the leading frozen meat and poultry players in the MENA region, the company said. The Egypt-based target, Ismailia, owns a 60k sqm facility with an annual production capacity of nearly 70k tonnes. It produces several other brands of frozen meat besides its flagship Atyab including Meatland and Shikeeta.

Advisors: Law firms Matouk Bassiouny & Hennawy and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are acting as local counsel to Agthia, and EFG Hermes is the company’s financial advisor on the transaction. Adsero-Ragy Soliman & Partners, meanwhile, is Ismailia legal advisor, and First Capital Financial Advisory is financial advisor to the Egypt-based target.

The Sovereign Fund of Egypt and EFG Hermes look set to wrap up their acquisition of Arab Investment Bank this quarter, SFE CEO Ayman Soliman tells Al Mal. The acquisition is pending regulatory approvals that are now in process with the Central Bank of Egypt, he added. It was due to be completed last month. Sources said some of the legwork took longer than expected. The fund and EFG plan to purchase up to 75% in the state-affiliated investment bank through a capital increase to EGP 5 bn. EFG would become the controlling shareholder with at least 51% — transforming into a universal bank in the process — while the SFE would take no more than 25%.

Meanwhile, the SFE has been working to drum up investor interest in commodities producer El Salhiya Investment and Development, Soliman said. The fund is trying to get investors to partner with the company to modernize its farming techniques without necessarily selling stakes in the company, Soliman said. Instead, the investors, which Soliman says could be anyone, will be invited to set up joint ventures on land owned by the company, with a focus on producing dairy products and agrifoods that can be processed in factories.

What’s El Salhiya? The company is considered parastatal, meaning its activities are separate from the government but is state-owned and subject to oversight by state officials, a government source told Enterprise. The company’s major shareholders are state-owned National Investment Bank (44%), Banque Misr (29.4%), and Arab Contractors (26.6%), our source said. It caters to the mass-market through commodity outlets that sell meat, dairy, and agricultural produce at reduced prices. The company’s capital was nearly EGP 12 bn in 2017 and owns at least 23k feddans of poultry, dairy, and agricultural commodity farmland.

Also from Soliman — SFE to set up database of army companies to drive marketing push: The fund will get a group of lawyers and accountants to build a database with relevant information on army-owned companies and make it accessible to investors interested in acquiring stakes, Soliman said, according to Al Mal. The fund signed an agreement with the Defense Ministry’s National Service Products Organization (NSPO) last year authorizing it to market subsidiaries of military-affiliated companies. Some 10 of those companies are lined up for sales to outside investors, and sales in both gas stations operator Wataniya Petroleum and bottled water company Safi are expected to take place this year. The Wataniya sale is well underway, with a consortium of ADQ and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) having already expressed interest.

CATCH UP QUICK:

Saudi renewables company Acwa Power has finalized an agreement to construct its USD 81.2 mn 200 MW solar plant in Kom Ombo under a 25-year BOO (build-own-operate) framework. The company signed the final agreements with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company and the New and Renewable Energy Authority, according to Al Arabiya. The photovoltaic solar facility will be financed through USD 40 mn in debt financing and a USD 14 mn equity bridge loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Acwa is also expecting to receive a USD 27.2 mn loan from the African Development Bank to finance the project, which is slated to begin commercial operations in 3Q2022.

All options are on the table when it comes to GERD, but let’s cooperate, shall we? That was President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s message to Ethiopia in a public address earlier today (watch, runtime 3:19) after Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia walked away from four days of talks on Monday without reaching an agreement on the mechanism for the filing and operation of the Ethiopian dam. El Sisi reiterated Egypt’s rightful claim to its share of the Nile’s waters under international law, and referred to the natural elevation of the Nile’s path, saying, “What was made by God will not be changed by man.”

Egypt is coordinating with Sudan on next steps, the president said, and cautioned Ethiopia once again not to “let things get to the stage where you affect even a drop of Egypt’s water,” repeating his warning to Ethiopia last week that this would cause instability in the region. Ethiopia has repeatedly rejected Sudan and Egypt’s proposal to bring in international mediators, insisting instead to keep going with African Union-led talks. Addis Ababa meanwhile also hasn’t budged on its plans to press ahead with the second filling of its dam come the rainy season this June.

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry made a brief pitstop in Khartoum early this morning following the conclusion of the talks, before heading to Beirut immediately afterwards, Youm7 reports. It was unclear which Sudanese officials Shoukry met with during his visit.

The EGX30 fell 0.4% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.0 bn (28.9% above the 90-day average). Local investors were net sellers. The index is down 5.7% YTD.

In the green: CI Capital (+3.1%), AMOC (+2.5%) and Telecom Egypt (+0.8%).

In the red: Edita (-3.7%), SODIC (-2.6%) and GB Auto (-2.2%).

Enterprise Explains: Margin Trading. Margin trading has been in the news a lot lately. The Financial Regulatory Authority wants more of it, but it’s also trying to manage risk in the system with a new set of restrictions. But what is it, exactly? And what could current proposals mean for the EGX?

Margin = borrowing: Margin is just a fancy way of saying debt or leverage — specifically, debt owed by traders to their brokers. When market players refer to ‘margin,’ they mean the practice of investors borrowing from their broker to finance trades. Margin trading is exactly what you think it is: buying and selling securities using borrowed money. And when a broker lends to an investor, this is referred to as — you guessed it — margin lending.

Margin trades are done through dedicated margin accounts held with the broker. Money lent out to traders is collateralized by money held in the account and securities purchased with the borrowed funds. Brokerages require investors to have a minimum value of assets held in their accounts and will charge interest on the margin.

Falling below this minimum triggers what is called a margin call. Brokers will demand that an investor deposit more money into the account or offload some stock should its value fall below the required threshold. This is what’s known as a margin call.

Margin calls typically tend to exacerbate sell-offs in the stock market: A broad-based decline in the value of a stock market can force brokerages to trigger margin calls enmasse should accounts fall below the minimum threshold. This tends to prolong the volatility as investors are forced to sell shares in order to top up their accounts.

This happened on the EGX last month when a series of margin calls magnified the scale of a sell-off.

Margin can potentially generate total higher returns, allowing the investor to increase leverage and invest in a greater quantity of assets.

And it’s a must for short-selling: Shorting stock requires investors to borrow shares from a broker, meaning that they have to have a margin account before they can make returns from a declining share price.

But it also amplifies risk: In the same way that leverage can amplify returns, it can greatly increase losses if you’re caught on the wrong side of a trade.

Then there’s the risk of failing to meet a margin call, which is never a good position to be in.

If the investor’s account falls below the minimum equity required and they fail to pay up, the broker could sell off the investor’s securities to stop losses.

You only need to look at the ongoing Archegos meltdown to understand the risks of over-leveraging: The family-run US hedge fund took out bns-worth of loans to finance huge equity purchases with very little asset backing. When it started making losses on some companies it was highly exposed to, its brokers rushed to sell on its behalf, exiting positions worth USD 20 bn and resulting in a massive margin call that wiped off bns from the market cap of prominent names. Archegos was estimated to have held positions of over USD 50 bn, while having only USD 10 bn in assets, and had relied dangerously on borrowing from banks.

The FRA wants more margin lending: The thinking goes that more margin = more liquidity on the EGX. Allowing investors to leverage up their positions should mean more trading activity and more market participants. This is why the central bank is injecting EGP 1 bn into brokerages, why the FRA is now allowing fund managers to trade using margin, and why it agreed to allow non-bank lenders to get involved in margin lending.

But risk management is a thing, too: An FRA’s advisory committee yesterday suggested a number of new margin restrictions, though a final decision by the authority is still to be made. They would place limits on concentration risk and measures designed to avoid a market crash thanks to back-to-back margin calls, as we explained this morning.

GO DEEPER-

• The A-Z of margin: Fidelity has you covered.
• No-one is too big to avoid being burned by a margin call: Just ask Archegos.
• Contagion: How margin intensified last year’s covid-19 market panic.

April: The government’s fuel pricing committee is scheduled to meet for its quarterly review of prices

5-11 April: The Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group will take place virtually.

7 April (Wednesday): British-Egyptian Business Association (BEBA) webinar on digital banking and fintech.

7 April (Wednesday): Uber Ignite virtual panel on Data Privacy and Security.

8 April (Thursday): The Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) will host a matchmaking virtual event, dubbed “Hangout with VCs.”

8-10 April (Thursday-Saturday): The TriFactory’s Endurance Festival at Somabay.

10 April (Saturday): Techne Drifts Grand Finale, New Greek Campus, Mall of Arabia, Cairo, Egypt.

11-15 April (Sunday-Thursday): Retail subscription period for Macro’s IPO.

12 April (Sunday): Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit Egypt for GERD talks (watch: runtime: 1:28).

13 April (Monday): First day of Ramadan (TBC).

19 April (Monday): Shares of Macro start trading on the EGX in the year’s second IPO.

25 April (Sunday): Sinai Liberation Day.

29 April (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Sinai Liberation Day (TBC),

29 April (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

1 May (Saturday): Labor Day (national holiday).

2 May (Sunday): Coptic Easter Sunday.

3 May (Monday): Sham El Nessim.

13-15 May (Thursday-Saturday): Eid El Fitr (TBC).

25-28 May (Tuesday-Friday): The World Economic Forum annual meeting, Singapore.

1 June (Tuesday): The IMF will conduct a second review of targets set under the USD 5.2 bn standby loan approved in June 2020 (proposed date).

7-9 June (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt Petroleum Show, Egypt International Exhibition Center, New Cairo, Egypt.

17 June (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

17-20 June (Thursday-Sunday) : The International Exhibition of Materials and Technologies for Finishing and Construction (Turnkey Expo), Cairo International Conference Center.

24 June (Thursday): End of the 2020-2021 academic year (public schools).

26-29 June (Saturday-Tuesday): The Big 5 Construct Egypt, Cairo International Convention Center, Cairo, Egypt.

30 June (Wednesday): 30 June Revolution Day.

30 June- 15 July: National Book Fair.

1 July: (Thursday): National holiday in observance of 30 June Revolution.

1 July (Thursday): Large taxpayers that have not yet signed on on to the e-invoicing platform will suffer a host of penalties, including removal from large taxpayer classification, losing access to government services and business, and losing subsidies.

19 July (Monday): Arafat Day (national holiday).

20-23 July (Tuesday-Friday): Eid Al Adha (national holiday)

23 July (Friday): Revolution Day (national holiday).

5 August (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

9 August (Monday): Islamic New Year.

12 August (Thursday): National holiday in observance of the Islamic New Year.

12-15 September (Sunday-Wednesday): Sahara Expo: the 33rd International Agricultural Exhibition for Africa and the Middle East.

16 September (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

30 September-2 October (Thursday-Saturday): Egypt Projects 2021 expo, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

1 October (Friday): Expo 2020 Dubai opens.

6 October (Wednesday): Armed Forces Day.

7 October (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Armed Forces Day.

12-14 October (Tuesday – Thursday) Mediterranean Offshore Conference, Alexandria, Egypt

18 October (Monday): Prophet’s Birthday.

21 October (Thursday): National holiday in observance of the Prophet’s Birthday.

28 October (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

1-3 November (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt Energy exhibition on power and renewable energy, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt

1-12 November (Monday-Friday): 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), Glasgow, United Kingdom.

29 November – 2 December (Monday-Thursday): Egypt Defense Expo

13-17 December: United Nations Convention against Corruption, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

16 December (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

27 June – 3 July 2022 (Monday-Sunday): World University Squash Championships, New Giza.

Note to readers: Some national holidays may appear twice above. Since 2020, Egypt has observed most mid-week holidays on Thursdays regardless of the day on which they fall and may also move those days to Sundays. We distinguish below between the actual holiday and its observance.