Amer wants prosecutor general to investigate parallel market

TL;DR

CI Capital, OTMT extend transaction timeline as they await EFSA approval. (Speed Round)

Amer sends list of companies, FX bureaux to Prosecutor General’s Office for investigation. (Speed Round)

EGPC, Aramco ink five-year petroleum product supply agreement. (Speed Round)

Egypt ranked 37 out of 40 in Deloitte’s 2016 Global manufacturing competitiveness index. (Speed Round)

Barclays boss: “a lot of interest” in sale of Egypt subsidiary. (Speed Round)

Wael Ghonim sells out. (Speed Round)

Rice export ban is back this week. (Speed Round)

Fertilizer co’s waiting for feedstock interruption to pass. (Basic Materials + Commodities)

Hilton adds Alexandria King’s Ranch to its portfolio. (Tourism)

Two political blocs compete for power in House of Representatives. (Legislation + Policy)

House subcommittee approves national security agenda, recommends tighter restrictions on media. (Egypt Politics + Economics)

Saudi plans USD 2 tn sovereign wealth fund. (Speed Round)

By the Numbers

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

Agreements with Mauritania: President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz are expected to witness the signing today of six cooperation agreements between the two countries in health, mining, housing, shipping, animal resources, and cultural exchange, Al Ahram reports.

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING THIS WEEK

The Purchasing Managers’ Indexes for Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will be out on Tuesday by 7:30am CLT.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman will visit Cairo on Thursday for talks with senior Egyptian officials including President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, according to a statement by Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, which ran in Al Borsa. The visit expected to be used as platform to announce the creation of a number of companies with “bns” in Saudi investments, according to Abdullah Bin Mahfouz, representative of the Council of Saudi Chambers in Egypt. Saudi investors have finished the legal paperwork to form the companies and will begin transferring the required capital to Egyptian banks before the King’s visit, he added. While he would not name the companies or who will be heading them, Mahfouz did say they will be in manufacturing, agriculture, tourism, and real estate. Sources tell Al Borsa that Investment Minister Dalia Khorshid has been in talks with investors involved.

Arabian Cement is holding its 4Q2015 results conference call tomorrow at 3 pm CLT. Joining the call are CEO Jose Maria Magrina, CFO Allan Hestbech, and IR Manager Haitham El Shaarawy.

ON THE HORIZON

Egypt is bringing the big guns to the International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings in mid-April. Egypt’s delegation will include CBE Governor Tarek Amer, Finance Minister Amr Al Garhy, and International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr. Finance Ministry sources tell Al Masry Al Youm that the delegation will present the government’s reform plan and national agenda. Egypt’s participation comes amid chatter in the market, and hints from Amer last week, that Egypt intends to push for an IMF loan. The landing page for the spring meetings is here.

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SPEED ROUND

CI Capital and OTMT extend acquisition timeline: CI Capital and OTMT have agreed to extend the acquisition timeline by two weeks, after the initial deadline was set to expire on Thursday, sources told Al Mal. The parties have not yet received clearance for the lash-up from the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority; EFSA chairman Sherif Sami has said the body is not bound by any timeline and is yet to issue an opinion on the agreement.

And while we’re on CI Capital, the investment bank’s brokerage arm has received regulatory approval to trade on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, Al Borsa reports. The company is now waiting to receive its license to begin trading, said CI Capital head of brokerage Khalid Abdel Rahman. He added that the company’s regional and international expansions are moving forward regardless of the status of the Beltone acquisition.

Meanwhile, Naguib Sawiris is defending his op-ed of last week, telling the German News Agency (DPA) that his story about a government plot to hamper the Beltone-CI Capital acquisition was true and no official can prove it false, Al Masry Al Youm reports. A bulky portion of the DPA interview focused on the Egyptian economy, where Sawiris espoused the importance of privatization, saying, “if I was the Public Enterprise Minister, I would immediately sell all state-owned companies which are not performing well.” He criticized how privatization was being used as a bogey man to rile up people against the wealthy for political purposes, and stressed the need for the government to “pick an economic identity and stick to it”. He lashed out against the lack of progress in cutting red tape for investments, which he points to as the primary reason why many of the EEDC’s agreement’s haven’t materialized. Overall, he stated that he supported the government’s national plan and praised Prime Minister Sherif Ismail for being shrewd and calm. Sawiris went on to advocate for reconciliation and settlement with exiled businessmen, adding that they have not committed capital crimes. Sawiris also took the opportunity to showcase his patriotism, stating that he will not invest in Turkey, Qatar and Iran, the first two for taking a hostile stance towards Egypt, and Iran for attempting to destabilize the GCC.

Naguib appears to have dodged a (metaphorical) bullet in Iraq. As we report this morning in our GCC edition, an Iraqi appeals court upheld a ruling that will see Zain Iraq, the local unit of Kuwait telecommunication company Zain, pay USD 187 mn in taxes stemming from its acquisition of rival operator Iraqna from Orascom Telecom in 2007, Reuters reported on Thursday. Iraq’s tax authority had frozen some USD 430 mn in Zain’s funds in Iraqi banks, claiming Zain Iraq owed USD 185 mn in unpaid capital gains taxes on its USD 1.2 bn acquisition of Iraqna, an unusual move since the tax burden was placed on the buyer and not the seller.

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CBE, Prosecutor General investigating parallel market for FX?: Central Bank of Egypt Governor Tarek Amer apparently sent a list of companies and FX bureaus he suspects of manipulating the parallel market exchange rate to Prosecutor General Nabil Sadek on Saturday, according to sources at the Prosecutor General’s office. The meeting also looked into ongoing stock market manipulation cases and the investigation into Ikhwan-affiliated businessman Hassan Malek, Al Mal reports.

Speaking of the parallel market: the exchange rate held steady at EGP 10.10 to the USD on Friday and Saturday. FX bureau managers speaking to Al Borsa attribute this to a normal calm in demand during the weekend.

The Central Bank of Egypt’s decision to begin divesting its holdings of commercial banks is “a welcome move for Egypt… further pushing it out of an acti­vity it had no business entering in the first place,” Patrick Werr writes in The National. He describes the Egyptian government’s ownership of banks as a move that pulled them back “into deep decline” and left them, for the most part, lacking “modern treasuries and risk-management departments” and using outdated methods.

And while we’re on banking: The CBE will apparently issue regulations governing mobile and wireless money transfers from abroad, an issue it reportedly discussed at a meeting with retail banking heads and representatives from telecommunications companies last Thursday, Al Mal reports. The meeting focused on facilitating these transfers, with sources reporting that the CBE seemed very interested in allowing telecoms to act as platforms for these transactions. Sources also expect that the cap on mobile transfers from abroad, which has not been set yet, will be in the USD 500 range.

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EGPC, Aramco sign five-year petroleum product agreement: The state-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) has concluded a five-year supply agreement with Saudi Aramco, according to an Oil Ministry statement issued Friday that gave little additional detail. Reuters-funded news site Aswat Masriya reported that, “The [agreement] comes after the state-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation had signed an agreement with the Saudi Fund for Development in March, on the sidelines of the fifth meeting of the Egyptian-Saudi Coordination Council held in Riyadh, to help Egypt finance its petroleum needs.” Youm7 has also picked up the statement while offering no additional detail.

Shell’s acquisition of BG Group will have a positive impact on the company’s investments in Egypt, Shell Egypt Country Chairman & Managing Director Aidan Murphy told Al Ahram. Murphy says Shell is looking to continue exploration and production activities in Egypt along with marketing oils and lubricants domestically. He added that the company will continue to play a “major role” in supplying Egypt with its fuel needs.

Egypt was ranked 37 out of 40 with a score of 29.2 in Deloitte’s 2016 Global manufacturing competitiveness index. Egypt fell by one position from the 2013 edition of the index, which assigns a score of 0-100 for industry competitiveness by weighing criteria such as talent, cost competitiveness, economic, financial and tax policies, and local market attractiveness. Deloitte expects Egypt to retain this ranking in five years’ time with a score of 28.3. Egypt was the lowest scoring Middle East country, trailing the UAE (ranked 30) and Saudi Arabia (ranked 34).

MOVES- Among those playing musical chairs on Thursday:

• Telecom Egypt appointed Maged Othman as chairman of the board and company veteran Tamer Gadallah as chief executive officer, Reuters reported.
• Prime Minister Sherif Ismail appointed Asmaa Hosny the head of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA). Hosny is the CEO of Wasla and formerly the business development manager at Mobinil.
• Federica Guidi, the Italian minister of economic development who has led high-profile trade delegations to Egypt (including one that was cut short after the discovery of the brutalized body of a missing Italian graduate student) resigned on Thursday amid allegations she had tried to shape last year’s budget in her partner’s favor, the Financial Times reports.

EGX league table out: EFG Hermes again topped the Egyptian Exchange’s league table for March 2016, ranking number-one overall with a 17.6% market share of executions. The region’s largest investment bank was followed in the top five by CI Capital (7.7%), Pioneers (6.0%), Sigma (5.3%) and Naeem (3.7%). For the first quarter, the top five players were: EFG Hermes, CI Capital, Pioneers, Sigma and Naeem. (A word on methodology: We rank brokerage houses using the EGX’s monthly bulletin and use the table that excludes special / one-off transactions, the majority of which generate little or nothing in the way of fee income. We also sum the two licenses held by EFG and the two held by CI.)

Barclays boss: “A lot of interest” in sale of Egypt subsidiary. In Dubai to reassure markets that his institution has “critical mass” after laying off 200 staff in the UAE and pulling back from lending, Barclays boss Jes Staley told Bloomberg: “The sale of the Egyptian unit is in the ‘early stages’ and ‘there is a lot of interest’ in the business.”

Blom Bank Egypt to increase capital by EGP 250 mn: Blom Bank Egypt will increase its capital by EGP 250 mn to reach EGP 1.250 bn to finance expansions, CEO Mohamed Ozalp told Al Borsa. The bank registered EGP 372 mn in profit in 2015 with a return on equity of 24.6%, making Blom one of the top five banks in ROE terms, according to Ozalp. Daily News Egypt, the sister publication to Al Borsa, has far more extensive coverage of what it says was a press conference by Ozalp and his senior lieutenants. Among the highlights: Blom Bank Egypt, the second-largest contributor to its parent company’s bottom line, will open eight branches in Egypt this year and two more in February 2017. The bank has also filed an application with the CBE to be allowed to provide mobile and Internet banking following the upgrade of its tech infrastructure.

Wael Ghonim sells out: Quora announced it acquired Wael Ghonim’s discussion platform Parlio. Wamda explains that Parlio users “won’t be able to post any content, starting today, but all published content will remain, and some of it will be re-published on Quora in the coming months. Members can download their content for the next 30 days.” Ghonim founded Parlio in 2014 using USD 1.68 mn in seed funding “from Betaworks, Founder Collective, Marissa Mayer, Wesley Chan, and other angels.” Neither Parlio nor Quora disclosed the value of the acquisition, which will see the Parlio going to work at Quota. Ghonim and co-founder Osman Ahmed Osman have written a Quora-style answer to the question “Why did [the] Parlio team decide to join forces with Quora?” The acquisition is getting attention in the mainstream tech press, including TechCrunch and TNW.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi endorsed the state draft budget and economic and social development plan for 2016-2017, according to an Ittihadiya statement issued after a sit down with Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, Finance Minister Amr El Garhy and Minister of Planning Ashraf El Arabi. The president stressed the importance of reforming tax policies and the need to pursue deficit reduction, the statement adds. The draft budget and the economic and social development plan were sent on Thursday to the House of Representatives. Ittihadiya recapped the basics in its statement, including a GDP growth target of 5.2% compared with 4.4% in the current fiscal year and cutting unemployment to less than 12% compared with the current 12.8%. The budget deficit is set to fall to 9.8% from 11.5%. Of the EGP 936 bn in state spending for next year, the government will spend 22.4% on subsidies and 24.4% on salaries. Notably, the readout emphasizes that “The President underscored the importance of enhancing coordination between all authorities in charge of fiscal and monetary policies including the Coordinating Council of the Central Bank. He stressed that the health and education sectors must be given due consideration to advance them and improve the level of services offered to the citizens.” El Sisi also touched on population control and tax reform in the statement. The budget has been with the House of Representatives since Thursday.

Finance Minister Amr El Garhy issued a decree that will allow the establishment of stand-alone factoring companies in a bid to boost company liquidity, according to an MOF statement. Factoring companies buy accounts receivable at a discount from companies that value cash flow over the full collection value of their outstanding invoices.

Rice export ban is back effective this week: Trade and Industry Minister Tarek Kabil issued a decree banning rice exports effective 4 April, Al Masry Al Youm reported. The ban is to provide for the domestic market needs, Kabil explained, and comes after the ban on exports was relaxed last October. Bloomberg says “the decree comes just days before the government’s grain purchaser seeks to buy rice in an international tender on Saturday. The General Authority for Supply Commodities tender comes with the condition that the government pay traders 180 days after delivery, according to Al Borsa.  Even as Egypt produces a surplus of the grain, the country has been hit by local traders holding back supplies to try to push up prices. That has left rice in short supply for weeks at stores selling state-subsidized food.” Kabil says the export ban will help stabilise selling price to consumers and reduce smuggling. Scientists have also cautioned that foreign sales of water-hungry rice is essentially the export of a precious natural resource.

Russia will carry-out final inspections of Egyptian airport security in April as planned, the Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov told Sputnik. “I do not link it to anything. We are planning [the security check],” Sokolov told RIA Novosti, answering a question on whether the audit of security checks at Egypt airports is still on the agenda in light of the recent hijacking incident.

Egypt invites global experts to May conference on Tut’s Tomb: Writes the Associated Press’ Hamza Hendawi: “Egypt on Friday invited archaeologists and experts from around the world to examine new data from new, extensive radar scanning conducted on King Tutankhamun’s tomb to explore a theory that secret chambers could be hidden behind its walls. The open invitation to a conference in Cairo in May, issued by the antiquities minister at a news conference just outside the tomb, aims to bring broader scientific rigor to what so far have only been tantalizing clues.”

Saudi plans to expand its USD 5.3 bn sovereign wealth fund to USD 2 tn with Aramco IPO proceeds: Mohammed bin Salman: Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) sat down for a long interview with Bloomberg, with the primary talking point being to announce his plans to expand Saudi’s Public Investment Fund to eventually control USD 2 tn in assets, Bloomberg reported on Friday (autoplay video embedded). The plan entails “IPOing Aramco and transferring its shares to PIF [Public Investment Fund]” which “will technically make investments the source of Saudi government revenue, not oil” MbS said in the interview. The prince confirmed the IPO in the country’s state oil company, which would initially see up to 5% of Aramco’s shares floated, could happen as soon as next year but by 2018 at the latest. The Public Investment Fund already exists; established in 1971, the fund currently holds USD 5.3 bn in assets. The move comes to help Saudi meet its goal of diversifying its economy away from a reliance on oil in 20 years time, according to MbS.

Among the international headlines this morning that either carry implications for Egypt or that are simply worth noting in brief:

• The International Monetary Fund wants to pull out of the Greece bailout and leave the matter to the European Union, reports the Financial Times (paywall). According to the New York Times, that leaves Greece asking the IMF “to explain whether it was seeking to usher Athens toward bankruptcy ahead of a pivotal referendum in June on Britain’s membership in Europe.”

• Syrian troops have found at least 45 bodies have so far in a mass grave in Palmyra, Syria, after being recaptured from the Islamic State. The site reportedly includes the remains of women and children, Reuters reports, citing a Syrian news agency filing.

Egypt isn’t the only emerging market grappling with the impact of ride-sharing apps. The Transportation Ministry in Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, has called for a ban on the apps, the Jakarta Post reported a couple of weeks back, and the story has now crossed over into the international business press.

Swap “mukhabarat” for “CIA” and imagine how differently this story would play in the international press: “CIA borrowed school bus for training, left explosive material on board while bus carried kids.”

THE MACRO PICTURE

Keep an eye on U.S. earnings and oil prices over the next couple of weeks, writes John Authers over at the Financial Times (paywall), suggesting the data shows that global markets are marked by a “lack of confidence [that] shows itself in collapsing profits forecasts, and in rising gold. Meanwhile, the oil price, which has led other risk markets for almost two years now, has ticked down in the last week.”

The global slump in the steel industry shows few signs of abating as Chinese steelmakers seem singularly unprepared for the slowdown of their domestic market, suggests the Financial Times (paywall). That has broad implications for producers across the globe: With most of China’s top-10 steel producers state owned, there’s little appetite for restructuring and plenty of interest in ramping-up both production capacity and exports. Writes the FT: “Any notion that a European or international backlash might foil such plans is brushed aside by Beijing, which claims China’s global exports are a product of competitiveness and strong end user demand. As Mr Li put it: ‘If the [end users of Chinese steel] were unhappy, then [China] would lose a lot of lawsuits.’”

EGYPT IN THE NEWS

Geneina case makes international business press: The dismissal of Central Auditing Organization head Hisham Geneina has made it to the international business press, with the Wall Street Journal noting that, “Egyptian authorities have placed the country’s chief corruption watchdog under house arrest, his lawyer said, days after he was dismissed by the president following his allegations of widespread government graft.” Geneina’s lawyer is quoted as saying that the dismissed CAO chief “now has plainclothes police officers stationed outside his home.” The Journal says, “The developments followed months of political moves against Mr. Geneina that began when he alleged publicly last year that from 2012-15, some USD 76 bn were siphoned from Egypt’s coffers through pervasive corruption from the bottom of the nation’s massive public sector to the top.”

Our new Chinese pals have served up “Rift growing between government and businesses in Egypt,” which includes a main report (run time: 2:35) as well as a separate interview with University of Waterloo professor Bessma Momani (run time: 4:44). The report, from state-backed CCTV America, was out last Wednesday, but was clearly filed before the cabinet shuffle.

“Egyptians ‘to admit’ they kept tabs on Regeni”: The Mediterranean-focused arm of Italian state news agency ANSA reported on Friday that “Egyptians authorities are set to admit at a keenly awaited Rome meeting on Giulio Regeni that they kept tabs on the Cambridge University researcher before he was tortured and murdered,” citing Egyptian media on Friday. The report notes that Egyptian investigators are set to hand over the results of investigations over to Rome’s prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone on Tuesday. “The Italian media has speculated the [Italian] government might recall its ambassador from Cairo or even go as far as imposing economic sanctions if Egypt keeps up the alleged stonewalling on the case,” according to ANSAmed.

Egypt blocked Facebook’s Free Basics internet service after the U.S. company refused to give the state agencies the ability to spy on users, a Reuters article claims citing unnamed sources. The service was suspended on 30 December, with the official government response claiming it only granted a temporary license to Etisalat to offer the service for two months.

The police NCO arrested for allegedly shooting a tuktuk driver over a fare was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murder on Saturday, reports Reuters. Sergeant Mostafa Abdel Hasseb shot Mohamed Ismail in February. The article goes on to detail recent cases of police brutality including the incident at the Matariya hospital and Giulio Regeni.

The “Messi’s shoe” story is back, this time in the international press after CNN picked up on the notion that Lionel Messi’s goodwill gesture “turned into a great offense against the Egyptian people.” Messi had donated his football boots to Egypt on a TV show. The move reportedly provoked witch doctor-slash-TV-presenter-slash-parliamentarian Said Hasasin to threaten hitting the Argentine footballer with his shoe, “as he held up his own shoes, and mockingly said he would donate his leather lace-ups to Argentina.”

“Security-sector reform cannot be undertaken in isolation from the wider process of democratic transition and national reconciliation,” Yezid Sayigh writes in Project Syndicate about reforming the security state in Arab countries. “Today’s Arab states in transition are discovering how difficult it is to replace deep-seated authoritarian practices and relationships with sustained democratization, a process that depends crucially on transforming their security sectors. The added focus on counter-terrorism is further impeding reform, though the failure of unreformed security sectors to fulfill this role effectively, such as in Egypt and Tunisia, should cause it to have the opposite effect,” Sayigh adds.

The media followed up on some of the individuals who found themselves entangled in the hijacking of EgyptAir 181 in one way or another, including the BBC’s interview with Egyptian neurosurgeon AbdAllah El Ashmawy whose Facebook post describing the ordeal went viral. “Now a lot of people are making fun of it [the hijacking]. These things [the now-notorious frozen chicken] make it seem like it was a joke from the start. But it wasn’t. We were all under real stress and fear.” The AFP spoke with the hijacker’s ex-wife, who said “Most of the media painted a picture of romance in which a man was trying to reach out to his estranged wife. But that couldn’t be further from the truth and they would have a different opinion if they knew what he was really like,” Marina Paraschou said, describing years of domestic violence with Seif Eldin Mustafa.

WORTH READING

Stranger than fiction: Bradley Hope, who once plied the Cairo beat, leads a team of three Wall Street Journal reporters who claim, “Investigators believe much of the cash used to make the Leonardo DiCaprio film about a stock swindler originated with embattled Malaysian state development fund 1MDB.” Read: “The Secret Money Behind ‘The Wolf of Wall Street.’”

WORTH WATCHING

Our image of the day on Thursday was of Alexandria-native Farrah El Dibany, who was aboard hijacked flight MS181 and followed that by giving CNN’s Becky Anderson a calm and composed account of what happened on the flight. On more normal days, the talented El Dibany sings the title role in opera Carmen at the Neuköllner Oper in Berlin, Germany. You can watch her here singing “En vain pour eviter” from the Bizet opera. (Run time 03:16)

DIPLOMACY + FOREIGN TRADE

Shoukry, Kerry meet on sidelines of nuke conference
“Cairo has said Washington is keen to help stabilise Egypt’s battered economy and bolster its development plans, while stressing that there are strong ties between the two countries,” reports Ahram Online after the two met Thursday on the sidelines of a two-day nuclear security summit.” Kerry stressed that Washington is keen to assist Egypt in the economic woes it faces,” state news agency MENA quotes Shoukry as having said, with Ahram adding that, “During the bilateral discussion, both leaders discussed possible US efforts to promote investment in the Egyptian market.” A very brief readout from the State Department noted that, “The Secretary reiterated the US commitment to help Egypt fight terrorism, increase economic growth, govern democratically, and bolster regional security. The Secretary also discussed the importance of easing restrictions on association and expression in Egypt and of allowing human rights non-governmental organizations to operate freely.”

A US congressional delegation headed by Sen. Lindsey Graham is in Cairo for the next few days to meet with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Defense Minister Sedky Sobhy for talks on regional security and the war on terrorism. The delegation will also be taken on a tour of USAID-funded projects, according to a US embassy statement released on Ahram Gate.

Government studies establishing direct maritime route to Russia
The Ismail government is studying the feasibility of direct maritime routes to Russia in a bid to boost Egyptian exports, the Trade and Industry Ministry announced yesterday. Most of Egypt’s exports to Russia consist of crops and agricultural products that require a fast shipping mechanism, said Trade and Industry Minister Tarek Kabil. The Agricultural Export Council and Food Export Council have been tasked with conducting a feasibility study on the route. The Ministry of Agriculture is communicating with Russia’s agricultural quarantine agency (Rosselkhoznadzor) to speed up relieving Egyptian products. Egyptian exports to Russia were up 45% in January to USD 35.6 mn, with Egypt hoping to boost exports to Russia to USD 700 mn by 2018. (Read in Arabic)

President El Sisi met with Algeria’s Interior and Local Communities Minister, Noureddine Badawi to discuss security cooperation and the Libya crisis, according to a statement from Ittihadiya.

ENERGY

Turbines for Burullus and capital city power plants to arrive in June
The four gas-powered turbines for Siemens’ power plants in Burullus and the capital city will arrive in June, according to sources with the Power Ministry. Turbines for the Beni Suef power plant have already arrived, sources tell Al Borsa. (Read in Arabic)

BASIC MATERIALS + COMMODITIES

Fertilizer co’s waiting for feedstock interruption to pass
EGAS informed fertilizer manufacturers early last week that it will fully cut their supplies of gas for the subsequent two weeks, Al Borsa reported yesterday. Gas supplies will resume on 7 April, with EGAS anticipating full production to resume three days later. The reported cause of the cuts appears to be delays in gas imports, according to sources from fertilizer companies. These companies are naturally unhappy about the move, with some fearing a return to fuel shortages that plagued industry and manufacturing last year. We note that the supply cuts coincide with the FSRU Höegh Gallant being offline for maintenance, as reported last week.

FIHC cancels cooking oil tender after receiving no offers
The Food Industries Holding Company (FIHC) cancelled a tender to import sunflower and soy oil after not receiving offers, Reuters said. FIHC was looking to buy 40k tonnes of soy oil and 30k tonnes of sunflower oil. The newswire adds that trader have complained that letters of credit related to their shipments have been delayed repeatedly. (Read in Arabic)

HEALTH + EDUCATION

Ismail forms committee to overhaul Vacsera
Prime Minister Sherif Ismail formed a committee to study and come up with a “development plan” for state-owned vaccine and serum manufacturer Vacsera, Al Masry Al Youm said. The committee will assess the economic and financial position of the company to overhaul its operations. (Read in Arabic)

REAL ESTATE + HOUSING

Saudi Egyptian Construction Company begins ElReyad Secon project in New Cairo
The Saudi Egyptian Construction Company (SECON) has begun construction on the ElReyad Secon compound in New Cairo, announced company Chairman Mohamed Al Mozeed. The project has an estimated investment value ranging between EGP 2.8-3 bn, and includes 120 buildings with 1,928 apartments over 68 feddans. The compound will also include commercial complexes and a social club. The first phase represents 40% of the project and has tapped Egyptian contractors under the Egyptian Federation for Construction and Building Contractors to complete the phase in 18 months, said CEO Darwish Hassanein. (Read in Arabic)

TOURISM

Hilton unveils new hotel in Alexandria
Hilton Hotels & Resorts announced the official opening of its 18th property in Egypt, the  Hilton Alexandria King’s Ranch. “The property offers 199 rooms, including 20 suites and 21 executive rooms. It also features Egypt’s first Premedion Spa which is the first spa and prevention centre in the Middle East.” Hilton Worldwide MEA president Rudi Jagersbacher says the chain continues “to build on our long-standing legacy in Egypt, a country we have served for more than 50 years.” (Read)

Tourism Development Authority organizes workshop to promote regional tourism
21 regional hotel and tourism companies took part in the Tourism Development Authority’s (TDA) workshop on Saturday aimed at increasing travel from Arab countries, Al Masry Al Youm reports. The workshop is a chance for regional tourism policy decision makers to see developments in Egypt’s tourism hotspots including Sharm El Sheikh, said TDA head Samy Mahmoud. He added that Arab tourists made up 18.6% of the 9.3 mn tourists who visited Egypt in 2015. (Read in Arabic)

AUTOMOTIVE + TRANSPORTATION

Egyptian Airports Company looking to task Arab Contractors with Sharm El Sheikh Airport expansion by direct order
The Egyptian Airports Company is looking to to task the Arab Contractors by direct order to complete the Sharm El Sheikh Airport expansion. The company chose the Arab Contractors because the contracting giant built the existing terminal and would need less time than anyone else to complete the new terminal, said company chairman Adel Mahgoub, noting that they will pursue the Cabinet’s approval. The government plan presented by Prime Minister Sherif Ismail to the House of Representatives states EGP 300 mn have been allocated to increasing the airport’s capacity to 9.5 mn passengers annually. The Ministry of Civil Aviation had scrapped an earlier tender to expand the airport following the Metrojet crisis. (Read in Arabic)

Auto market slump due to FX crunch to continue as prices soar and sales plummet
Egypt’s auto industry association is expecting prices of 1,600 cc cars to rise over 5%, while projecting a 10-11% mark up on cars higher than 1,600 cc. The FX crunch, devaluation and import restrictions are being blamed for continued hikes in car prices and drop in sales by auto insiders speaking to Al Borsa. Just last week prices of popular brands including Hyundai, Kia, BMW and Nissan rose 3-5%, according to Mohamed Rayan, the chairman of El Masria Auto. Other car dealers claim the hike was around 5-9% predicting a further 12% increase in prices with some raising the serious possibility of closing down. Rayan is expecting the industry sales to fall 30% this year. (Read in Arabic)

BANKING + FINANCE

Transfast negotiates expanding its domestic business with CBE
Money transfer service provider Transfast is negotiating with the CBE to expand its domestic business by expanding its services to three major banks, CEO Samish Kumar told Al Shorouk. Transfast currently operates out of Banque Misr and the United Bank, adds Kumar, without revealing the banks his company are considering. Transfast does not operate its own branches, but Kumar says the company’s plans to do so rely on the CBE approving the new agreement. (Read in Arabic)

United Bank’s chairman sets five-year plan despite pending privatization by year’s end
United Bank of Egypt’s Chairman Ashraf El Kady has set in place a five-year strategy for the bank despite last week’s announcement by CBE Governor Tarek Amer that it would sell the bank to a strategic investor by the end of 2016. Under the plan the bank hopes to increase market share through geographic expansions, increase SME lending, and diminish the bank’s portfolio of bad loans. El Kady had stated that the Amer’s announcement of the sale was news to him. (Read)

LEGISLATION + POLICY

“Two political blocs compete for power in Egypt’s parliament”
With MPs now having sent the House of Representatives’ internal bylaws off to President Abdel Fattah El Sisi for sign-off for approval, the jockeying has begun as our elected representatives look for plum committee appointments. It is, as expected, a case of the largely pro-Sisi Support Egypt bloc going head to head with the Free Egyptians, Ahram Online’s Ganmal Essam El Din reports.

EGYPT POLITICS + ECONOMICS

House subcommittee approves national security agenda, recommends tighter media restrictions, summons finance minister to discuss projects
The House subcommittee on national security fully endorsed the national security and defense pillar of the government plan and will present its final report to the House of Representatives on Monday, Ahram Gate reports. Among the committee’s recommendations was to call for a comprehensive strategy on policing both morals and the media. The subcommittee also recommended that legislation form three media governing councils (as per the Media and Journalism Act) be swiftly adopted. The economics subcommittee is summoning Finance Minister Amr El Garhy to discuss details of financing the projects announced in the plan, as some members feel that felt that the plan was vague on this point. According to sources, Al Nour Party is planning to vote-down the plan and is actively seeking alliances with like-minded coalitions, Daily News Egypt reports. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail reaffirmed that the deadline for all projects mentioned in the government’s plan will be towards the end of 2018 (27 months from the presentation) in a statement which followed a cabinet meeting on Saturday. He also stated that the cabinet is undertaking a full review of ongoing and halted projects, an apparently unprecedented move, according to Al Mal.

NATIONAL SECURITY

Civilian, police conscript killed in Arish blast: A police conscript and what reads like an innocent bystander were killed in a bomb attack in Arish on a police patrol yesterday. Separately, the Egyptian Army’s spokesman said troops had killed65 militants in operations on Friday in Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah, Ahram Online reports.

Daesh releases video of Al Safa attack
Daesh Sinai Province have reportedly released a video of their 19 March attack on the Al Safa checkpoint, Daily News Egypt reports. The video is raising concerns about the fate of Mohamed Abdul Rehim, a policemen missing in action since the attack. (Read)

Canadians say Daesh is a growing threat to Sinai’s MFO mission
Canada is worried that its observers in the Sinai may be at risk, with a briefing document for the country’s foreign minister noting that “escalation of terrorist activity in the Sinai Peninsula poses new challenges with respect to the security of (Multinational Force and Observer) personnel, and has raised concerns about force protection,” Canada’s CBC reports

SPORTS

Egypt’s top-ranked tennis player is starting to make his mark on the international scene, writes ATP World Tour. “Mohamed Safwat has enjoyed plenty of success on tour in his home country, but Egypt’s top player is now starting to produce big wins worldwide.
Competing this week at the ATP Challenger Tour event in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, Safwat recorded one of the biggest wins of his career in dispatching No. 8 seed James McGee in the opening round. The 25-year-old then followed that victory up by defeating Lorenzo Giustino to reach his first Challenger quarter-final of the year.”

ON YOUR WAY OUT

Writer Fatma Naoot’s prison sentence was upheld in the court of appeals, BBC Arabic reported. Naoot was out of the country, which meant that the decision was upheld without her having a chance to present her appeal, according to her lawyer, who noted that she has 10 days to lodge an objection to the verdict. Naoot is on trial for criticising the ritual slaughter at Eid Al Adha.

Forget your clothing-optional paradise in Sahel: The head of Matrouh Governorate’s investment bureau felt the need to deny an April’s Fool article that a clothing-optional beach resort was set to open in Marsa Matrouh.

CALENDAR

31 March-22 April (Thursday-Friday): The Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-CAF), various locations, Cairo.

04 April 2016: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman visits Cairo.

07-10 April 2016 (Thursday-Sunday): Cityscape Egypt Conference, Cairo International Convention Centre, Cairo

13-16 April 2016 (Wednesday-Saturday): Cafex, Cairo.

17 April 2016: German economic delegation visits Cairo.

25 April 2016 (Monday): Sinai Liberation Day (national holiday)

26-28 April (Tuesday-Thursday): Arabian Hotel Investment Conference, The Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai.

01 May (Sunday): Easter Holiday / Labour Day (national holiday)

02 May (Monday): Sham El Nessim (national holiday)

02-03 May (Monday-Tuesday): The Middle East Investment Summit 2016, Ritz-Carlton DIFC, Dubai.

10 May (Tuesday): Business News Foundation’s Third Annual Energy Conference: Energy and Sustainable Development, InterContinental Hotel Citystars Cairo. Register here.

16-17 May (Monday-Tuesday): Egyptian-Bahraini committee meets, Cairo.

25-26 May (Wednesday-Thursday): The Middle East and North Africa Solar Conference and Expo MENASOL 2016, Hyatt Regency, Dubai.

06 October (Thursday): Armed Forces Day (national holiday)

27 November 2016 (Sunday): 2016 Cairo ICT Conference Group

04-06 December 2016 (Sunday-Tuesday): Solar-Tec Conference, Cairo International Convention Centre, Cairo