A blessedly slow news day as Cairo recovers from King Salman’s visit

We would call this morning the world’s slowest news day, but the last time we said that, the following day was nutty. Suffice to say not much happened in the capital city yesterday as journalists finished binging on the MoUs, agreements and other announcements attendant to King Salman’s visit.

How slow a news day is it? Bad enough that we’re taking seriously the ins. industry’s proposal that tuk-tuk owners be forced to carry coverage. Let’s get nine- and ten-year-old drivers their licenses, first.

Oh, and the EGP strengthened fractionally against the USD yesterday, rising to about EGP 10.25 (selling) and EGP 10.15 (buying), according to Al-Mal.

Meanwhile, you can expect the international press and think-tank types to gnash their teeth today as Anne W. Patterson, the assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs and former US ambassador to Cairo, testifies at a US House Committee on Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on President Barack Obama’s FY2017 budget request for the Middle East and North Africa.

Finally: Your U.S. or Canadian passport may not get you as far as it once did. As we reported this past weekend, the European Commission will meet today to discuss imposing visa requirements on nationals of both countries in retaliation for what the EC says are strict visa requirements for some eastern and central European countries. The Financial Times has a moderately alarmist take; Canada’s Globe & Mail is more sanguine, noting that “experts doubt the visa requirement will actually come to fruition.”

Garhy, Nasr and Amer heading to D.C. for IMF, World Bank spring meetings: International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr will be in Washington, DC, to take part in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings of from 15-17 April, Al Shorouk reports. Nasr is paving the way for the arrival of Finance Minister Amr El Garhy and Central Bank of Egypt Governor Tarek Amer, although it is unclear, based on El Garhy’s statements earlier this week, whether the Egyptian delegation will request an IMF facility. Nasr said she would discuss the status of the World Bank’s USD 8 bn loan package pledged last year and hold meetings with other international financial institutions. Al Masry Al Youm reports that the World Bank aid is now in the hands Egypt’s House of Representatives; the Bank has previously said that disbursement of the first tranche of support is conditional on the acceptance of cabinet’s economic program — presumably including the VAT — by the House. The agendas for the meetings are here.  

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will meet tomorrow with a number of members of parliament, representatives of the National Human Rights Council, heads of syndicates and labour representatives, and members of the press corps to discuss “issues of national importance,” a source at Ittihadiya said, according to Al Shorouk.

Tomorrow: The three-day café / restaurant equipment and furniture exhibition Cafex kicks off in Cairo, and in Cambridge, MA, Harvard Law School is playing host to “As Goes Egypt, So Goes the Middle East.”

Orascom Development Holding expects to announce its FY2015 results on Thursday, 14 April and will hold an analyst call at 1:30 pm CLT, according to a statement.

German Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Sigmar Gabriel will lead a delegation of representatives from 100 German companies and financial institutions on a two-day visit to Cairo on 17-18 April. The delegation will meet President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and the ministers of industry, finance, foreign affairs and investments, according to DNE.

French President François Hollande is expected in Cairo right after on 18 April, according to Ahram Online. The French president, who will head a delegation of around 60 businessmen and two ministers, is expected to sign 30 cooperation agreements with Egypt, said French ambassador André Parant, Al Borsa reports. Look for about EUR 1 bn in arms agreements and others in energy, transportation, and tourism.  

Egypt to receive fuel shipments from Saudi Arabia, gets solid credit terms: Saudi Arabia will provide Egypt with monthly shipments of 700k tonnes of petroleum products for five years, an EGPC official told Reuters. “The Saudi Fund for Development will pay Aramco for the petroleum products directly, and receive in return the amount from Egypt in instalments,” the source explained. The shipments will include 400k tonnes of gas oil, 200k tonnes of benzene, and 100k tonnes of fuel oil (mazut) a month, Reuters adds. All in all, the USD 2 bn in loans provided to Egypt by the Saudi Fund for Development will carry an interest rate of 2% over 20 years with a five-year grace period, sources tell Al Mal.

The fate of Tiran and Sanafir islands is already an issue before the court. The two islands, returned to Saudi Arabia by Egypt this past weekend during the King Salman’s visit to Cairo, are apparently to be the subject of an Administrative Court hearing. The first session in the inquiry into the ownership of the two islands is set for 17 May, according to Daily News Egypt. Rights lawyers Khaled Ali, Tarek Al-Awady, and Malek Adly submitted a lawsuit to the State Council on Sunday petitioning the court to return the islands of Sanafir and Tiran to Egypt. “It is a constitutional right granted to all citizens to file such a lawsuit to safeguard their rights. This decision has a lot to do with Egyptian sovereignty and the land right of Egyptians throughout history, as well as upcoming generations,” Al-Awady said. The House of Representatives is also said to be interested in holding hearings, with Ahram Online reporting that “a number of MPs have requested the government provide parliament with all documents” related to the agreement.

Tour operators in South Sinai are questioning whether they will still able to send tourists on diving trips near Tiran Island, Al Shorouk reported. The island is a popular diving destination for tourists, with one operator describing it as “the Pyramids of Giza” for South Sinai. He expects the decision to demarcate the maritime border to include the Tiran and Sanafir islands within Saudi Arabia’s maritime border to impact tourism negatively, but says operators have not been informed of this decision officially yet.

The Egyptian Businessmen’s Association’s Tourism Committee is calling for the Egyptian end of the King Salman Bridge to be built away from Sharm El Sheikh to ensure the link does not have an adverse effect on tourism there. Overall, the committee has expressed its support for the project, stating that it will help boost tourism in the area, according to reports in the domestic press.

Grant Thornton has reportedly been commissioned to assess the fair value of Abraaj Group’s Cleopatra Holding as part of its IPO process, sources told Al Borsa. The sources added they expect Cleopatra Holding to receive the necessary approvals to offer its shares on the EGX by early 3Q2016 at the latest. EFG Hermes is reportedly managing the IPO. Cleopatra applied at the end of this week to the EGX for permission to list its existing shares, but has so far not announced details of any planned equity offering.

Economic group discusses VAT, remittances, inflation: Prime Minister Sherif Ismail chaired a meeting yesterday of the cabinet economic group, where discussions focused on improving the investment climate and following up with parliament on the value-added tax. It’s the last meeting before Finance Minister Amr El Garhy, International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr and Central Bank of Egypt Governor Tarek Amer head to Washington, DC, for the World Bank and IMF’s spring meeting. While speculation is rife the Egyptian delegation will open at least informal talks on an IMF facility, there are no signs policymakers have the political backing they would require to sign up for such a plan. Meanwhile, the CBE’s Amer appeared to have dropped by yesterday’s cabinet meeting, where he reportedly discussed a plan to encourage banks to open more branches abroad to increase remittances. Ismail also ordered the formation of a committee to develop an accurate measuring system of inflation of basic supply goods, Al Shorouk reports.

Former Agriculture Minister Salah Helal was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a fine of nearly EGP 1 mn after he was found guilty of corruption, BBC reported. Helal’s office manager also received a 10-year prison sentence hit with a lesser fine. Helal resigned last September and was promptly arrested on suspicion of taking bribes in return for land licences. Businessmen Mohamed Fouda and Ayman El Gameel were acquitted, according to Al Mal.

Beltone Financial’s net profit for FY2015 sunk 65% y-o-y to EGP 5.4 mn from EGP 15.3 mn, according to an EGX statement. Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding (OTMT) told the EGX on 5 April that it was putting off sending in financials for FY2015 because they will for the first time include Beltone Financial’s.

Jury still out on negative rates: While supporters of negative interest rates say the policy, adopted by Japan and some European economies, has “saved” the eurozone from “disastrous deflation”, the evidence is still tentative, according to the Financial Times (paywall). But the longer negative rates remain in place, the greater the risk of “unintended consequences.” Larry Fink, head of asset manager BlackRock, warns that the rates are taking a toll on savers, saying those who want a certain income at retirement must now invest far more to get there and make spending cuts in the meantime. This makes the policy largely counterproductive as it was originally intended to get people to spend. Senior IMF official José Viñals, agrees, saying, “If low or negative rates persist, they could undermine the viability of life insurers, pensions, and savings vehicles.

US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has called on the IMF to play a more aggressive role in “policing exchange rate fluctuations, global imbalances and its members’ failures to live up to commitments to boost ailing global demand,” the FT reports (paywall). In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, Lew said it the fund needed to “intensify scrutiny of critical issues like exchange rates, current account imbalances, and shortfalls in global aggregate demand” and demanding “greater transparency” about members’ economic data, especially foreign reserves.

Egypt informed Israel in advance that it was intending to transfer sovereignty of Sanafir and Tiran islands to Saudi Arabia, Haaretz reports without citing its sources. “Israel made clear that it doesn’t oppose the move as long as Israeli ships are guaranteed freedom of navigation in the area, and as long the rest of the commitments Egypt made as part of the peace agreement with Israel are honored.” For its part, Saudi Arabia has promised to keep peace: "There are agreements and commitments that Egypt has agreed to regarding these islands, and Saudi Arabia is abiding by these commitments without having a relationship or communication with Israel," Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Adel Al-Jubeir during an interview with Lamees El Hadidy on Sunday (watch, run time 29:29).

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is still at the forefront of Egypt’s agenda, newly appointed Water Resources Minister Mohamed Abdel Aati tells Al Monitor, as Egypt is “currently going through a critical phase.” Cairo is studying various solutions to resolve the crisis with Ethiopia, he said, stopping short of doling out details. “We will work on clarifying the issue of water deficit, both at the domestic level in Egypt … or at the level of external communication, because clarifying this issue is of great importance in our negotiations with the Nile Basin countries and Ethiopia.”

“Egypt is failing to provide a safe and enabling environment for civil society in the country,” United Nations experts Michel Forst, David Kaye, and Maina Kiai said on Monday. Pointing to the Nadeem Centre for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, they accused Egypt of cracking down on NGOs so human rights violations would be buried. “We are also seriously alarmed by the interrogation of several human rights defenders and the risk that they may face in detention or prosecution for their work, as well as the improper use of travel bans and asset freezing,” they said.

Egypt is hungry for Ukrainian food, KyivPost reports, outlining trade relations between Egypt and Ukraine. “Egypt is an attractive market in the world arena as it has purchasing power,” an agricultural markets advisor says. The piece also points to increased interest in livestock, with one expert noting that the devaluation in the Ukrainian hryvnia devaluation “made our cattle competitively capable …  Egyptians were looking to buy life [sic] animals to slaughter [in] accordance [with] all their laws.”

Reuters uploaded a video version of the Egyptian tourism industry piece they carried a day earlier. The video contains Tourism Minister Yehia Rashed’s comments about the increase in the number of tourist arrivals from the GCC, which he sais is up 45% y-o-y. (Run time 01:04)

Palmyra, before and after ISIS (View image gallery via the Guardian)

Batman v Superman was horrible — in a surprise to no one with any sense. The movie has a 29% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 44% on Metacritic. A few weeks ago, someone edited an interview of Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill being asked about the “mixed reviews” the film was getting. Affleck’s gaze goes a little, distant. (Watch, 1 minutes 16 seconds)

The US Department of State’s Special Advisor for Children’s Issues, Ambassador Susan S. Jacobs, “met with Egyptian officials in Cairo to discuss issues such as the status of children wrongfully removed from their homes and taken across an international border by a parent or guardian,” the US Embassy in Cairo said. Both parties pledged to “deepen bilateral cooperation.”

Afreximbank will form a new investment vehicle to encourage intra-African trade that will include the Nile Holding Company for Development and Investment, said Nile Holding’s managing director Ahmed El Saeed. Nile Holding is the primary investment arm of Egypt’s biggest state-owned banks (Banque Misr, Banque du Caire, NBE), focused on channeling Egyptian investments into the Nile Basin and East Africa, Al Mal reports.

A delegation from the Free Egyptians Party arrived in Rome to meet with the head of the Italian parliament’s foreign affairs committee. The move was meant as an attempt to help thaw Italian-Egyptian relations in the aftermath of the Regeni investigation and to stress the importance of European-Egyptian bilateral relations, said the party’s spokesperson Shihab Wageeh. The delegation was headed by the party’s head, founder and secretary general. On another note, Wageeh stated that the party gave its vote of confidence to the national plan, Al Mal reports.

A delegation of 33 investors from Bavaria led by State Secretary of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs Franz Josef Pschierer visited Egypt to discuss investment opportunities. The delegation met with Suez Canal Authority chairman Mohab Mamish, who gave a presentation about the investment opportunities available along the Suez Canal Axis as well as the development plans afoot in the Suez Canal Authority. The delegation also met with the housing minister to discuss how the ministry can use German technology — particularly clean energy and green building principles — in new housing projects.

E&P companies have agreed to pay what they owe under a since-scrapped 5% surtax on income over EGP 1 mn, ending a months-long stand-off with the Tax Authority after the EGPC brokered the settlement, Al Borsa reports. As we noted back in January, as many as 30 E&P companies had objected to paying the surtax on the grounds that a special income tax system had been already been set for the industry, following a notice sent out by the Tax Authority. Under this system, E&P companies pay a 40.6% income tax on top of a 22.5% general tax on corporations.

Supply Minister Khaled Hanafy signed an agreement with three firms, including Egyptian Mazex Import & Export and Russian wholesale firm Alexandrina Ltd, to supply Egyptian subsidized food, wholesale, and truck outlets with poultry imports. Ministry officials also discussed the possibility of exporting goods including sugar, rice, and oil to Russia through government-owned Food Industries Holding Company. (Read in Arabic)

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail met with representatives from UAE-based Al Dahra Agriculture,  with Investment Minister Dalia Khorshid, and Agriculture Minister Essam Fayed to discuss agricultural investments in Toushka and Sharq Al-Owainat. The meeting is part of the government’s mandate to remove obstacles facing foreign direct investors, said Ismail, adding that agricultural investments are high on the list of new investments to create sustainable economic growth. (Read in Arabic)

The General Authority for Supply Commodities launched an international wheat tender on Monday for a delivery deadline of 31 May, Al Masry Al Youm reports. GASC will announce the winners of the tender today. (Read in Arabic)

The Sohag governorate has agreed to allocate a 12,000 sqm plot to El Nasr for Manufacturing to build a new factory with an investment cost of EGP 20 mn, which falls under the company’s plan to boost its onion-powder exports to the European market, said Managing Director Mohamed Mekawy. The new factory’s output is estimated to bring in EUR 8.4 mn a year. The company’s Kafr Selim factory was sold to AlexBank for USD 11 mn, said Mekawy, adding that the value of their Beni Suef factory, which is set to reopen in April after being shut down since 2012, had tripled to EGP 150 mn. El Nasr for Manufacturing exports 93% of its production, and is working on entering the U.S. market. (Read in Arabic)

Pharmed Healthcare has released hepatitis C treatment Heterosofir Plus, the second generation Egyptian-made Harvoni generic, at a price of EGP 1,100 per unit, Al Mal reports. The company plans to sell 20,000 units as part of the first phase roll out, which Pharmed’s CEO Mohamed Mabrouk claims to have a 98% success rate in treating the disease. He added that the company has the capability of producing as much Heterosofir as needed by the Egyptian market. (Read in Arabic)

Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG) signed a number of cooperation agreements with the Saudi Housing Ministry. TMG will begin assessing housing projects on land provided by the Saudi government and, in return, will receive ownership of a number of units it constructs to compensate for the price of land. TMG also stressed in the bourse statement that the cooperation agreement is non-binding, but that all parties will work to move forward with it. (Read in Arabic)

Russian experts will visit Sharm El Sheikh to conduct another round of airport safety talks next week, TASS reported. Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said the experts “will hold another round of talks and dialogue with our Egyptian partners to address the issue of our justified safety demands at the airports where our tourists fly." (Read)

Elliott Bay Design Group (EBDG) has presented an offer to develop infrastructure and manage all six ports of the Suez Canal Axis for USD 4 bn to the General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone, Al Borsa reports. EBDG plans to form a consortium for the project if its offer is accepted by the SCZone, said EBDG managing director Khalid Naguib. (Read in Arabic)

CI Capital plans to grow its assets under management 20% in 2016, up from its current EGP 10 bn, said head of asset management Amr Abu El Enein. The investment bank also plans to draw in top-tier clients from large financial institutions, ins. funds, and government funds, he told Amwal Al Ghad. CI Capital is in talks with a number of GCC investors to manage their portfolios, he added. (Read in Arabic)

Leaders of the Free Egyptian Parties and Al Wafd in the House of Representatives were among those who have granted the national plan a vote of confidence following deliberations on the House report on the plan on Monday, Al Shorouk reports. While it is not surprising that the leaders of Free Egyptians and New Wafd were among the nine parties that approved the plan, the shocker came from Al Nour, whose leadership also approved the plan after numerous statements that it would vote it down. (Read in Arabic)

The French-made Mistral class helicopter carriers Egypt is acquiring from France will be delivered between June and September 2016, France Ambassador André Parant said. “The ships are designed to carry 16 Ka-27 / 29 Helix anti-submarine / assault and Ka-52 Hokum B strike helicopters,” Ahram Online says, and were originally built for Russia before the agreement was terminated. (Read)

The CBE issued a general notice warning against abuse of the lifting of deposit caps to import non-essential goods and ordering that banks comply with the directive issued back in March eliminating caps on USD withdrawals and deposits for individuals, Al Mal reports.

The EGX has joined the UN Global Compact and the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles, according to a statement.

The International Data Corporation announced that was opening a dedicated new office in Smart Village Business Park. The technology and research firm expects Egypt’s ICT market to grow to around USD 8.95 bn in 2016 to USD 10.32 bn by 2019 driven by increased spending on IT services and packaged software, which are expected to grow by a compound growth rate of 9% until 2019.

Trade and Industry Minister Tarek Kabil announced that an investigation is being conducted into allegations Pakistan is dumping matches on the Egyptian market. The result of the investigation will determine whether or not a dumping fee will be applied to Pakistani matches. In other news, truck and bus import taxes have dropped to 12.6% from 60%, he said.