Step away from the dollar: EGP at 12-15.50 as sanity returns to FX market.

*** BREAKING NEWS: The Central Bank of Egypt informed the banking community earlier this morning that it has floated the pound to EGP 13.00 per USD 1.00.

The EGP will initially be allowed to fluctuate in a 10% up / down band.

Our friends in the banking community confirm that an extraordinary auction is scheduled for 13:00 this afternoon.

Today would not be a bad day to buy into the equity market…

Editor’s note: We dispatched the flash note above at 08:45 this morning, after the publication of today’s issue. The full, unabridged text of today’s issue is below.

*** ***

The EGP appreciated sharply against the greenback on the parallel market yesterday. From a low of EGP 18 and change on Monday and EGP 17.50-17.70 on Tuesday night, greenbacks were being priced on Wednesday at EGP 12.00 (per Youm7) to EGP 15.50 (Reuters). This doesn’t mean that today must be devaluation day. It does mean that the state has intervened in the parallel market for FX to restore sanity; other signs suggest devaluation could be around the corner. Here’s our take:

The Ismail government has probably reached an entente cordiale with the exchange offices. As we’ve been saying for a little over a week, the EGP’s free-fall against the greenback in the parallel market isn’t reflective of the pound’s fair value, something Mohamed El Abyad admitted on Tuesday. Who is El Abyad? Essentially the Head Money Changer of Egypt — he runs the FX bureaus section at the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce. What happened? Motivated by a very real fear of being boxed out of their industry by the state — which has been shuttering FX bureaus, suspending licenses, toughening criminal sanctions, and declaring its interest in opening state-owned bureaux de change — foreign exchange offices have been letting the pound slide. Their aim: To pressure the government into giving them a seat at the table — and leaving them market share post-devaluation.

One of the smartest bankers we know — a household name in the finance industry — says the EGP’s appreciation on the black market yesterday came as the government appears to have gotten its ducks in a row. Importers agreed earlier this week to curtail purchases on the parallel market, and yesterday’s events suggest the government “has come to an agreement with the FX guys. Neither side can afford not to come to an agreement — the showmanship of daily changes in the rate is over.”

What evidence of the entente? As we noted yesterday, El Abyad, the titular Head Money Changer, warned on Tuesday that anyone with an open USD position was running a very risky game as the Central Bank of Egypt would soon take action to “stabilize” the FX rate. “Hoarders will lose out,” he said. In return, the CBE appears to have slowed plans by the National Bank of Egypt to decisively (and, essentially, “within days”) enter the FX market: The NBE has since received central bank approval to open an FX bureau subsidiary next year, with plans to open 10 branches at first, expanding to 25 within three years, said NBE chairman Hisham Okasha. Banque Misr is also looking to expand its network of exchanges.

Rumors that the central bank is going to ban the deposit of FX sourced on the black market are overblown. Picking up where we left off yesterday morning, Reuters reported that “Several banks told Reuters that they had not yet received any formal instructions from the central bank to begin implementing such a rule. An official at Commercial International Bank said, however, that the bank had distributed an internal memo to branches on Wednesday asking them to require documentation for all deposits.” Our friends at CIB tell us that the internal memo was simply a reminder to follow CBE regulations on inbound and outbound FCY transfers as well as transfers between accounts within the bank.

The next real “checkpoint” on the slow, inexorable march toward devaluation will be the Central Bank of Egypt’s reserves report for October, which — if the CBE follows tradition — should be out by Monday. Central bank governor Tarek Amer has previously suggested that a reserve base of USD 25 bn or more would give him the liquidity he needs to consider devaluation.
If devaluation is in the cards in the coming days, the IMF’s Executive Board will have multiple opportunities at which to approve the USD 12 bn extended fund facility for Egypt. The board’s public meeting schedule notes sessions scheduled for 4, 7, 9 and 11 November.

And if devaluation does happen today / Sunday / next week, will it be the end of the world? Are we about to become Venezuela? In a word: No. Read on.

We won’t have an Egyptian corralito, the central bank says: Egyptians’ foreign currency-denominated deposits are “safe” and there’s no intention to give them a haircut or forcibly convert them to EGP, the central bank said, as per Al Masry Al Youm. The paper says the Cabinet Information and Decision Support Centre said the central bank had not issued any directive banning dealings in foreign currency domestically, but urged people to stand against “rumours.” What’s a corralito, you ask? It was the informal name given to financial measures take in Argentina amidst its 2001 currency crisis, which included freezing bank accounts and forbidding withdrawals from USD-denominated bank accounts.

Egypt is not following in Venezuela economic footsteps, Patrick Werr writes in The National. “The key difference is ­money supply. Although Egypt has been printing money to help fin­ance its budget deficit for several years, the amount of money creation has been subdued compared with Vene­zuela’s. Although Egypt’s M2 money supply grew by a worrisomely high 18.1 per cent in the year to September, there are few signs that the rate of increase is growing. As a matter of fact, it has been at around this level since early 2013.” Another promising sign, Werr says, is that Egypt is in close contact with the IMF and has already committed itself to reform measures in order to secure the USD 12 bn financial support package.

Okay, so is there anything else going on in Egypt this Morning? Why yes. Funny you should ask. A handful of notes below, then we’re back to the FX crisis in Last Night’s Talk Shows.

The Emirates NBD / Markit PMI is due out at 6:15am today. Sadly, we’re not holding our breath in anticipation of it reversing the trend of the past 12 months. Have faith, though: At least we’re not Hong Kong, where the October reading “marked the twentieth straight month of contraction for Hong Kong’s private sector,” the Financial Times reports.

The two-day EU-Arab World Summit opens today in Athens. Investment Minister Dalia Khorshid, Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce president Ahmed El Wakeel and Chamber of Chemical Industries chief Sherif El Gabaly are all due to attend.

Microsoft launching a “Slack killer.” iSheep though we may be, we’ve made no secret of the fact that we really like what Microsoft boss Satya Nadella has done with the company’s product line. If you’ve wanted software in the vein of group message app Slack (think “IRC on steroids” for the greybeards among you) but are deeply embedded in Office 365, you’ll want to check out the new Microsoft Teams this morning. The full launch won’t come until sometime early in 2017, but a product preview is available this morning. The Verge has more. Microsoft’s announcement is here. You can also check out the Teams promo video (watch, run time: 2:07) or, for the Slack loyalists among you, read Slack’s full-page New York Times ad welcoming Microsoft “to the revolution” on Slack’s blog.

The World Series of baseball ends tonight. We’ve never been fans of that particular game (though we’re appreciative that it was, for years, the only forum in which a black man could publicly wave a bat at a white man in America and not be lynched), but we do like drama. And you can’t have grown up steeped in Americana not appreciate this: The Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians have waited a combined 176 years to win a World Series. Tonight, one will celebrate, the other will be brokenhearted,” writes the New York Times.

The Central Bank of Egypt’s Monetary Policy Committee will convene on Thursday, 17 November to review interest rates.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s MENA 2016 Conference will run from Monday, 14 November till Wednesday, 16 November in Dubai.

The Suez Canal Authority is expecting a decision next week from the three major shipping lines, Maersk, MCS, and CMA, on paying three or five-year advances on fees in exchange for three or five percent discounts respectively, Reuters reports.

High-profile tech and entrepreneurism conference RiseUp has announced dates for its 2016 edition, running 9-11 December at the Greek Campus in Downtown Cairo. The event will focus on “fusion — the fusion that creates the optimum model for startups and entrepreneurs by fusing business, technology, and creativity together.” You can check out the announcement here (pdf).

It should come as no surprise that Wednesday night’s talk shows focused on the appreciation of the EGP on the parallel market, with the heroes of the day being the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce, whose leaders blanketed the airwaves to claim credit for the development.

The Federation has seized the initiative with its boycott of the parallel market, and it’s now the Central Bank of Egypt’s turn to follow with devaluation as soon as possible, the Federation’s head Ahmed El Wakeel said in a call-in to Amr Adib’s “Kol Youm” on OnTV (watch, runtime: 6:36).

El Wakeel thinks prices should deflate following the strengthening of the EGP over the past few days, although he deflected Adib’s persistent and loud nagging over when, exactly, prices will fall. The head of the federation’s automobile division, Alaa El Saba’, told Adib that the automobile division has decided to reduce prices of cars by EGP 10-30,000 for vehicles with a price range of EGP 100-350K (watch, runtime: 3:25). No reports have emerged on how much the appreciation has affected basic commodities, but steel manufacturers have announced that they have reduced prices by EGP 1,200 per to EGP 7,348, AMAY reports.

Adib dedicated a small portion of the episode to praising Investment Minister Dalia Khorshid for the package of 17 investment incentives and tax breaks handed down by the Supreme Investment Council on Tuesday and her effort to rewrite the Investment Law (watch, runtime: 0:26).

Alaa Ezz, the Federation of Chambers of Commerce’s secretary-general, told CBC’s “Momken” with Khairy Ramadan that passenger cars were indeed included among the non-essential goods whose imports were being curbed over the coming three months. This appears to contradict statements made on Tuesday by the head of the federation’s importers division Hamdy El Naggar, who had stated there was no moratorium on car imports. He added that the organization might end the three-month initiative to reduce imports early if the exchange remains stable.

Samy on real estate investment funds: Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority head Sherif Samy also spoke on the show on the potential revenues real estate investment funds will bring in to the state if the government makes use of underutilized state-owned lands.

“People want to get rid of the USD and nobody wants to buy it now,” National Bank of Egypt Chairman Hisham, Okasha told host Ahmed Moussa on Sada El Balad’s “Ala Mas’uleety” (watch, runtime: 2:36). Okasha also credits the Supreme Investment Council’s decisions with contributing to the strengthening of the EGP. That concludes what we hope will be our final coverage of the cretin Ahmed Moussa for something other than satire.

Don’t expect the CBE to restrict deposits of USD sourced from the parallel market: Ahmed Sheeha, head of the Cairo Chamber of Commerce’s importers division, said recent talk was likely sparked by the CBE reinforcing existing guidelines on money laundering and terrorist financing. He urged the CBE to not interfere too much in the economy in a call-in to Al Asima TV’s “Kalam Bi Filoos” talk show (watch, runtime: 2:13). Then again, maybe you don’t want to put much stock in Mr. Sheeha’s analysis: He also said last night that he expects the EGP to strengthen to EGP 7 : USD 1 within a month.

A programming note: Lamees El Hadidy was off last night.

The investment incentives announced on Tuesday by the Supreme Investment Council are a “pleasant surprise” to the market, EGX chief Mohamed Omran told Reuters. Omran’s comment comes after the Council’s decision to postpone the implementation of the capital gains tax for a further three years until 2020. The freeze on the 10% tax was first imposed in July 2014. The decision is a proactive one meant to “ensure the success of future offerings in the market, whether governmental or private offerings," he said. Bloomberg also has the story in English.

Measures get thumbs-up from business: Leaders of prominent business associations have come out publically in support of the 17 pro-investment policies announced by the council, Al Borsa reports. The package includes both investment incentive and tax breaks. Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce head Ahmed El Wakeel called for a clear roadmap to implement the policies, while Egyptian Businessmen’s Association head Ali Eissa called for these decisions to be enshrined in law. No date was given on the implementation of the policies. A notable detractor was Hany Tawfik, chairman of Acumen-Beltone, who complained the measures don’t go far enough.

What’s still unclear to us is how the measures will impact the Finance Ministry’s fiscal targets for FY 2016-17, especially as the policies handed down by the council take precedent over the entire executive branch of government, according to article four of the presidential decree forming the council. As a matter of fact, Finance Minister Amr El Garhy was reportedly not present at the meeting despite being a member of the council, sources tell Al Mal. The Finance Ministry was allegedly not consulted on the measures; as of last night, the ministry had not commented on the package of investment incentives and tax breaks.

Work has begun to implement some of the policies. The New Administrative Capital’s development company has implemented the 25% discount on land in the first phase of the project. Government sources say the will be good for three months after the first tenders go out, which expected to take place in December, Al Borsa reports. Meanwhile, NI Capital has begun valuing the assets of the four power companies that have been added to the list of IPOs.

Amr El Garhy has tendered his first annual report: Finance Minister Amr El Garhy has approved the closing balances of the country’s finances in FY 2015-16 and passed it on to the cabinet for discussion — and House of Representatives for approval. Expenditures grew during the fiscal year by 11.5% y-o-y to EGP 817.8 bn, outpacing growth in state revenues, which were up 5.6% y-o-y top EGP 491.5 bn. This confirmed the recorded budget deficit of 12.2% of GDP for the year. The main drivers behind the expenditure increase were the larger state wages bills and other social programmes. El Garhy said the B3 credit rating assigned to Egypt by Moody’s accurately described the economic performance and risk levels, especially as Egypt’s foreign currency indebtedness remains at low levels. He added that the government’s target is now to improve its revenue collection and increase state-owned companies’ revenues to reduce the deficit.

Banks in another round of cuts to use of debit cards abroad: The National Bank of Egypt has announced new cuts to spending limits on its debit cards when used abroad, Al Mal reports. Withdrawals were cut to the foreign-currency equivalent of EGP 200 from EGP 2,500, while purchases were cut to EGP 300 from EGP 5,000. Al Mal says the bank kept the limits on credit card usage unchanged. That EGP 200 limit is just good enough to buy you this lovely set of toilet paper rolls. The Arab African International Bank (AAIB) and Banque du Caire have also slashed their limits (again). Caps on AAIB’s credit cards and debit cards were lowered by 25-50%, while increasing charges on handling FX transaction by up to 9%, Al Mal reports. Banque du Caire cut purchases on its gold credit cards to the foreign-currency equivalent of EGP 20k, the newspaper notes. The service charge for purchases in FX was increased to 7%.

A blow to freedom of speech: The House of Representatives has voted down a draft that would have struck-down the Egyptian Criminal Code’s prohibition on expressing “contempt of religion,” Al-Ahram reported. The proposed change to article 98 of the code was presented by House rep. Amena Naseer, who argued the provision contradicts article 67 of the Constitution, which protects freedom of expression. The draft was rejected by representatives including “journalist” Mostafa Bakry, who claims “Danish depictions of the prophet will likely be repeated if the article is scrubbed.” God grant us patience … and Rep. Naseer the bravery to keep fighting the good fight.

Egypt scores points with Europe on Regeni and human rights: Italian foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni reacted positively to developments in the investigation into Giulio Regeni’s case, following his last week’s statement that the case was “an open wound” for Italy. Giulio’s documents were returned to his family. The work continues to establish the truth,” Gentiloni tweeted after Italy’s Deputy Chief Prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco’s visit to Egypt, according to ANSA. During the visit, the Egyptian prosecution handed over Regeni’s passport, his Cambridge University ID cards, and ATM card to Italian prosecutors.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi had promised to personally follow developments on the Regeni investigation, said MEP Marisa Matias who headed A delegation from the European Parliament – apparently the first such visit since 2009, Al Mal reports. The delegation also noted their support of the committee formed to look into releasing young detainees, according to an Ittihadiya statement reported by the newspaper.

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail’s cabinet met yesterday. Among the decisions made, Cabinet:

• Approved a law guaranteeing the rights of individuals with physical disabilities;
• Approved an agreement Japan granting Egypt JPY 2 bn (roughly USD 19.3 mn) to import equipment for the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology;
• Approved amendments to the laws governing the possession of firearms and ammunition;
• Approved results of ministerial committee for investment settlements (no further details were made public on this one).

MOVES- Chief of Retail Banking at AlexBank Bassel Rahmy (Linkedin) reportedly resigned from his post yesterday, Al Mal notes. Rahmy is apparently considering other offers from domestic banks.

“The economy, stupid.” James Carville’s 1992 campaign strategy for Bill Clinton could just as easily be used to describe international coverage of Egypt this morning. Notable entries include “Egypt’s sugar shortage a window on economic policy confusion” by Eric Knecht and Maha El Dahan for Reuters (picked up by everyone from Voice of America to Pakistani news outlets) and CNN’s “Sugar crash sparks crisis in Egypt.”

We’re also being pilloried this morning for a travel ban imposed on rights advocate Malek Adly; the ban is getting coverage on the wires and has prompted Amnesty International to issue a condemnation of the practice.

Meanwhile, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina plays a starring role in the Wall Street Journal’s “How Maverick Architects Snøhetta Became One of the World’s Most Sought-after Firms” (paywall). The average age of the team that created the groundbreaking design was all of 29. Writes the Journal: “Barely out of school, having never realized any built work of such scale and complexity, the newly minted design partners were subjected to a slow-motion bureaucratic steeplechase that lasted 12 years and nearly saw the project canceled more than once. Even when the Bibliotheca Alexandrina was finally ready, in 2001, it didn’t open. September 11 intervened, and the official unveiling was postponed till the following year.”

The New York Times has a heartbreaking story by Diaa Hadid and Nour Youssef headlined “Treating Wounded Horses in the Shadow of Egypt’s Pyramids.” They tell the story of how horses are treated from the angle of Jill Barton, an Australian nurse who decides to stay in Cairo to take care of horses in Nazlet El-Samman. She advocates euthanasia, but “Ms. Barton faces strong resistance from an impoverished community that has long seen horses and donkeys as working beasts, with little sentimentality about their pain.”

The Al Masry Al Youm columnist writing under the pseudonym Newton criticizes the lack of policy or awareness to tackle overpopulation in Egypt. Egypt draws an extreme example with China’s one child policy, calling it “brutal but decisive.” China then revised its policy when it hit its lowest growth rate since 1990 in 2014 as a result of a decreasing workforce.

El Watan’s Mahmoud Khalil believes the challenges Egypt currently face boil down to corruption and a general lack of accountability. That’s made worse, he says, when too many citizens simply “blindly listen and follow.” Khalil says he’s not down with calls to oust the Ismail cabinet.

“One of the ‘greatest, freest, richest nations that has ever existed.’”. No, not ‘Murica. The Economist pens a love letter to Canada.

We typically give religion a fairly wide berth, but we were sucked in by National Geographic’s “Unsealing of Christ’s Reputed Tomb Turns Up New Revelations.” Despite the title, NatGeo hasn’t descended into clickbait hell. Instead, it’s the story of for “for just 60 hours, researchers had the opportunity to examine the holiest site in Christianity. Here’s what they found.

The good ol’ days when the rate was USD 4.00 to the EGP 1: You heard, right folks. We take you down a gilded era of colorless entertainment where the EGP 1 was said to be worth USD 4 (runtime: 0:44). Although trouble seemed to have hit paradise, as the rate depreciated slightly in this next clip, which puts the EGP 1 at USD 2.50 (runtime: 0:07) — the horror.

And while we are upset at resurrecting the media-dead Tawfik Okasha, we did manage to find a clip of him being surprisingly prescient, predicting an exchange rate of EGP 18.00 to the USD 1 back when it was EGP 9.00 (runtime: 1:35). His prediction of the apocalypse happening on the 13th day of the 13th month (yup) of 2013 notwithstanding.

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail and FM Sameh Shoukry met with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov during his visit to Cairo this week, AzerNews notes. Egypt is interested in deepening economic ties, Shoukry said at a press conference yesterday

Shoukry also said yesterday that El-Sisi is scheduled to visit Portugal “in the upcoming period…to discuss regional affairs,” Shoukry added.

The US Consulate in Alexandria officially re-opened yesterday, a report from Al Mal notes. “With the new offices, the Consulate plans to broaden its level of engagement and increase the ways it can work with the Egyptian people to promote shared interests in education, economic development, women’s advancement, and entrepreneurship,” according to an e-mailed statement. Its programs and initiatives include “Skills for Success” scholarships as well as partnerships with local educational institutions. The consulate, which had been operating from a temporary location, serves Alexandria as well as surrounding governorates.

A delegation from India’s tea Industry visited Egypt to discuss increasing sales to Egypt. The delegation, which met with Supply Minister Mohamed Ali Elsheikh, was headed by Joydip Biswas, Deputy Director of the Tea Board of India, a government body tasked with the regulation of tea cultivation and promotion of tea.

Six renewable energy companies have reportedly notified the Electricity Ministry they will not be participating in the second phase of the feed-in tariff projects, unnamed sources told Al Mal. Companies backing out reportedly include: Triangle, Cairo Solar, Enel Green Power, Abdel Latif Jameel, and another two Egyptian companies, the source added. The ministry has previously stated that 15 companies had originally expressed interest in phase two.

The Oil Ministry announced it has brought on-stream production from two wells, operated by Shell’s JV in Egypt Bapetco, in the Western Desert, producing at a rate of 4,500 boe/d, Al Masry Al Youm reported. The first well produces 12 mcf/d of natural gas, while the second produces 2,500 bbl/d of crude oil, according to the Oil Ministry report.

Oil Minister Tarek El Molla pitched E&P investments in Egypt to a delegation from Russian state-owned energy company Zarubezhneft at a sitdown on Wednesday, Al Borsa reports. It was agreed that future meetings will take place to outline potential opportunities. The company operates in Vietnam, Cuba, Croatia and Jordan among others.

The New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) is planning to issue a tender for the development of a 250 MW wind farm in as of yet undisclosed location, a source from NREA tells Al Borsa. The authority will complete the terms and conditions for the EPC+Finance project in three weeks’ time, the source added.

The SCZone is in negotiations with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore to manage, operate, and market a new container terminal in East Port Said, SCZone speaker Nasser Fouad told Al Masry Al Youm. The talks come amidst a high-level Singaporean delegation visit to Egypt.

The Egyptian Financial and Industrial Company (EFIC) says it did not collude with the Abu Zaabal Company for Fertilizers to fix prices and limit distribution networks — and was not shown the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) report claiming it did, the company said in a statement. We had reported that the ECA had asked prosecutors to open an investigation into the two companies after a bid to reach a settlement failed.

The Paint and Chemical Industries Company (Pachin) will begin production at its expanded resins factory in 1H2017, head of investor relations Mohamed Ibrahim told Al Borsa. The company plans on releasing five new products to capture new market share, he added. The resin factory expansion has an investment cost of EGP 24 mn and will increase output to 21k tonnes from 15k tonnes annually, he said.

SODIC are set to deliver 900 homes by the end of 2016, Al Borsa reported. The company is targeting recurring revenues of EGP 300 mn over five years, the bulk of which will come from rentals in East Uptown project, the company said. The revenues will cover 80% of annual costs.

"Egyptian tourism will recover starting next year, and it will rapidly return to its pre-2011 levels," Chairman of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) David Scowsill said at UNWTO’s fifth Global Summit on City Tourism, which began in Luxor earlier this week, according to Egypt Independent. Scowsill also praised the tightening of security at Egyptian airports in the past year and said he would urge UK travel agencies to advocate for the flight ban on Sharm El Sheikh to be repealed, Shorouk reports.

The Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) announced a decision regulating microinsurance in Egypt and identifying the terms and point of sale of its certificates. EFSA says this step will increase access to insurance products to wider segments of society. Chairman Sherif Samy said the certificates will be simple, without unclear clauses, and with a maximum coverage of EGP 100,000.

The water is not contaminated, the Holding Company for Water and Wastewater spokesperson Mohey El Serafy told Al Shorouk, a day after deposits of silt caused the Nile to turn coffee-brown. The company stops operations at water treatment plants just as a precautionary measure when turbidity levels increase, he said. All water treatment plants are fully operational in Giza with the exception of the Om Khenan, Hawamdia, and Badrashin stations, while operations have been restored in Qena and Fayoum with the exception of one, he said. Freshwater tankers are being provided to fill the shortage, he added.

The House of Representatives remains divided on whether to begin proceedings for a vote of no confidence on the Ismail cabinet. El Wafd party will submit a motion for hearings with the government required before casting a vote of no confidence, said the party’s spokesperson Mohamed Fouad. The party blames the cabinet’s economic group for failing to get a grip of runaway inflation. El Wafd was joined by the coalition led by the Egyptian National Movement Party, Al Shorouk reports. The Support Egypt coalition was also divided, with some MPs publicly supporting the move despite a statement by the coalition’s political bureaux declaring that it would not support a vote of no confidence. Members of the Free Egyptians Party, including the head of the House Transport Committee Saeed Toeima, came out in defense of the government.

Writes Ahram Online: “Mohamed Elshorbagy and Karim Abdel-Gawad reached the World Championship [of squash] semis in Cairo after beating Ali Farag and Nick Matthew respectively on Tuesday. World number one Elshorbagy avenged his loss at the Ahram Open against compatriot Ali Farag with an easy 3-0 win (11-8, 11-5 and 11-8).”

What startups are doing well amidst the currency crisis in Egypt? Food and local textile startups, Wamda’s Rachel Williamson says. “At least five homemade food delivery companies are fighting for market share in Cairo and others such as Baladini are providing local women with jobs selling home-cooked meals a couple of times a week.” Other startups doing well are ride-sharing apps, the landscaping side of Al Bustani’s business, and, not so surprisingly, an online psychotherapy platform called Shezlong. Williamson says startups are generally struggling as they need to pay for software as service tools, hosting services, and for input imports.

An Egyptian female athlete you’ve never heard off: Egyptian MMA strawweight fighter Mona Samir is looking to “secure her first win” under the ONE Championship banner on 11 November in Singapore. “Samir comes from a strong wrestling background, as she is a four-time African Wrestling Championship silver medalist in freestyle wrestling, and the top-ranked female wrestler in Egypt,” Yahoo Sports writes.

Dubai is backing Mohamed Diab’s “Clash” for consideration at the next Golden Globes, Ahram Online reports. Clash is already Egypt’s official submission as best foreign language film for the 2017 Academy Awards. “Clash explores the confrontations between pro and anti-Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators that emerged following the removal of president Mohamed Morsi from power on 3 July 2013.”