More investment in solar.
Plus: Backward integration in food, and El Sisi meets Macron today in Paris.

This is day two of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s three-day visit to France. Look for a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and the signing of cooperation agreements.

Random takeaways from a gathering last night at the UK embassy hosted by our friends at BNY Mellon and the London Stock Exchange: British Ambassador John Casson waxed very eloquent indeed about the UK’s role as Egypt’s leading investment partner — the man can speak. Vice-Minister of Finance Ahmed Kouchouk is not just an exceptional policy architect, but a gentleman. New EGX boss Mohamed Farid clearly wants to get things done on the new-product front. And a veteran banker made a passionate case for why more multinationals and domestic players alike should be looking at Egypt as a natural manufacturing base. Let out past our usual bedtime to paint the town red, we were delighted to see so many friends, colleagues, readers and clients in one place. We’re told that’s how people who don’t sleep before 9pm live on a regular basis.

Saudi: So much potential, so little delivery. Fresh off news that the kingdom may allow foreigners to own more than 10% of a listed firm — what officials there are calling “strategic stakes” (groundbreaking, right?) — comes a report that Saudi’s Public Investment Fund is “troubled by disappointing investments” and faces “turmoil” behind the scenes, the Wall Street Journal writes this morning. Bloomberg then piles it on: “Saudi Arabia’s market regulator is implementing reforms at breakneck speed to attract foreign investors, but stocks have little to show for it.”

Sound smart: Global capital markets stuff you should know about: China is gearing up for an IPO supercycle in which “ventures backed by likes of Tencent and Alibaba are lining up wave of hefty floats,” the Financial Times tells us. It’s difficult to wonder when it should start feeling a little frothy when an “online reading platform” is looking to raise USD 1.1 bn. “Chinese companies have raised USD 38.6 bn through IPOs” YTD, the newspaper tells us. Elsewhere in the world, Netflix is looking to fuel the world’s binge-watching habit by spending USD 7-8 bn on content next year. Some USD 1.6 bn of that figure will be financed by a high-yield bond issue, MarketWatch writes, the entertainment giant’s largest bond offering to date.

UAE is pushing to broaden what you can trade: “Nasdaq Dubai and the Dubai Financial Market will this year launch futures contracts linked to the DFM General Index that will trade on Nasdaq Dubai’s equity futures market, in a move aimed to expand the exchanges’ offerings to investors,” the National reports.

Everybody Hates Bitcoin, episode 126: Goldman Sachs may be debating showing cryptocurrency some love, but the so-called “Wolf of Wall Street” and celebrity bn’aire Alwaleed bn Talal are lining up on Jamie Dimon’s side of the field. Jordan Belfort is banging on about how cryptocurrency will prove to be the “biggest scam ever,” and Alwaleed thinks the burgeoning industry is going to “implode” and turn into the next “Enron.”

The executive regulations for the Investment Act are expected to be issued this week, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail had said.

Friday is a big day for gadget geeks, Eighties fans and game aficionados:

• The iPhone 8 and 8 plus will officially launch in Egypt;
• The iPhone X becomes available for pre-order in many markets;
• All episodes of season two of Stranger Things drop on Netflix;
• The new Assassin’s Creed: Origins — set in Ancient Egypt — launches.

US President Donald Trump is “‘very, very close’” to declaring his nominee for the Federal Reserve’s top job, he told the press yesterday, Bloomberg reports. A Reuters’ poll of some 40 economists saw the odds tipping in Fed Governor Jerome Powell’s favor in replacing current chair Janet Yellen when her term expires in February.

EFG Hermes will hold its 7th Annual London Conference on 6-9 November.

The Investment Ministry’s investment map of some 600 projects will reportedly be ready by December and be out for bid by January.

El Sisi arrives in Paris, is expected to negotiate purchase of 12 new Rafale jets: President Abdel Fattah El Sisi met with Dassault Aviation CEO Éric Trappier in Paris yesterday reportedly to discuss the purchase of 12 additional Rafale fighters and two new Gowind corvettes from Dassault, French newspaper La Tribune says. Negotiations for the new equipment reportedly began last year, but were stalled over financing issues, as France “does not wish to grant the same guarantees as two years ago.”

Egypt and France had signed a EUR 5.2 bn agreement in 2015 for 24 Rafale jets, a Fremm naval frigate, and MBDA air-to-air missiles. “In 2015, the French industry had extended loans covering 60% of the cumulative value of arms sales to Egypt (with the remaining 40% paid upfront by Egypt from its national funds). These loans were underwritten by the French government,” defense news and analysis website Quwa notes.

El Sisi also discussed strengthening military ties with French Armed Forces MinisterFlorence Parly, according to a statement. The war against terror and regional security headaches in Libya, Syria, and Iraq also featured in the discussion.

Today, the President is set to meet with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, with whom he will sign 17 MoUs, Ittihadiya spokesperson Alaa Youssef told the press, according to Al Ahram. In addition to bilateral ties and cooperation, the two leaders are also expected to delve into a discussion on human rights, Youssef also said, adding that there is “increasing international understanding” of Egypt’s position on the issue. France 24 says Macron — who had previously told rights groups his top priority was supporting Egypt’s anti-terror fight — is “unlikely to want to rattle Sisi too much,” despite pressure from human rights groups, since Egypt is important to French financial interests.

El Sisi briefly addressed the human rights question in an interview with France24yesterday, where he confirmed that members of the Ikhwan are being tried fairly and denied that Egypt holds political prisoners. He said a reconciliation with the group, however, would only be possible if demanded by the public. The interview also addressed ongoing economic reform, as well as regional issues, including the situation in Syria and the rift with Qatar.

You can watch the interview in full here (runtime 26:08). The president sat down for a similar interview with French newspaper Le Figaro (paywall).

Egypt’s exports to France have grown 21% so far this year to about EUR 500 mn according to Trade Minister Tarek Kabil, who is accompanying El Sisi.

M&A WATCH- Middle East Glass Manufacturing has signed a non-binding agreement to divest its 74% stake in Medco Plast for Packing and Packaging Systems. The unnamed bidder is starting due diligence, according to a bourse disclosure.

M&A activity in the MENA utility sector hit USD 845 mn in 2Q2017, up 6x q-o-q, according to the EY Power transactions and trends report covered by CPI Financial. “The Middle East and Africa continue to offer opportunities for investors looking to diversify their portfolio. As low-risk, high-value projects dry up in developed countries, investors are starting to move into higher-risk regions where they can expect less competition and higher returns,” David Lloyd, EY’s Middle East Power and Utilities Transactions Leader, said. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are expected to remain hot spots for investments regardless of the region’s political and economic constraints.

Egypt is attracting investments in solar power with USD 500 mn in funding coming in from the EBRD and an agreement with Scatec Solar to build a 400 MW solar power plant. Lloyd says “with sustained [transaction] activity in conventional generation still subdued, P&U transactions are taking on more unpredictable characteristics. Quarterly reports of transactional activity are dominated by the anticipation of asset sales flowing from privatisation related structuring and market reform combined with a steady undercurrent of smaller renewables and new energy [agreements]. The continuing low interest rate environment and a surplus of global capital against available opportunities provide a favourable environment and outlook for P&U assets.”

And speaking of investment in solar power: The EBRD has partnered with Green Climate Fund (GCF) and Dutch Development Bank FMO to extend a USD 87 mn syndicated facility to Egypt’s Infinity Solar and Germany’s IB Vogt GmbH to fund two solar power plants, a press release says. The two plants will add a combined 80 MW to the 1.8 GW solar power complex in Benban in Upper Egypt. The EBRD will provide USD 44 mn from its own accounts and USD 14 mn through the GCF, with the FMO contributing USD 29 mn. EBRD is funding 16 other solar power projects under its USD 500 mn renewable energy framework for Egypt. EBRD became the largest investor in Egypt’s renewable energy sector after it approved a USD 73 mn financing package for another three solar power plants in Benban last week.

The name of the game for the food industry: Backward integration and exporting to Africa: The food industry, which has been reeling from lower sales and higher costs of imported production inputs since the float of the EGP, has been forced to invest further up the supply chain, says Prime Holdings’ Omneyah El Hamamy. The most recent evidence of this is cheesemaker Obour Land investing in a EGP 105-115 mn dairy facility to offset the higher costs of imported dairy goods, she tells Al Borsa. Juhayna, meanwhile, had already started diversifying into dairy production. Beyond backward integration, food companies have been eying markets in Africa for exports. These included Domty, which launched a branch and distribution center in Rwanda with plans to expand further into Kenya. Edita, the nation’s largest snackfood maker, has also said that it is eyeing expansion markets after signing an agreement to distribute some of its products in Saudi Arabia.

The European Union has agreed to remove Egyptian grapes from its list of high-risk crops and lower inspection rates to below 20%, Agriculture Products Export Council (APEC) Chairman Ali Issa tells Al Shorouk. The decision, which has yet to be formalized, will pass inspection costs onto the importer and comes at Egypt’s requests to the EU to reassess the quality of its exported produce. The Agriculture Ministry has been developing a strategy to boost the quality of Egyptian exports that appears to be paying dividends. A number of Gulf states lifted earlier this week temporary bans on Egyptian produce including strawberries and peppers.

The central bank will set up a new unit for consumer protection to handle complaints from folks who transact with the banking system, Al Mal reports. The details of the unit and its scope of work are yet to be announced, Sub-Governor for Risk Management and Banking Supervision Tarek El Kholy said. He added that, with only a third of adults having bank accounts in Egypt, the central bank remains committed to promote financial inclusion.

Banque Misr has opened a representative office in Moscow “to facilitate Egyptian investment in Russia,” Chairman Mohamed El Etreby tells Reuters. The bank is looking to open branches and set up a chain of ATMs in major Russian cities to meet demand from the crowds of Egyptian football fans that will visit the country for the World Cup next summer.

Our wheat import policies are becoming schizophrenic: Supply Minister Ali El Moselhy announced that the two Romanian and French wheat cargoes that were held for allegedly containing poppy seeds have been released and will be added to strategic stocks, Reuters reports. The decision, which came as President Abdel Fattah El Sisi sits down with French President Emmanuel Macron, is the latest twist in a mosalsal eerily reminiscent of last year’s ergot flip-flop. We had noted on Sunday reports that the state’s wheat buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), had taken an “informal decision” to suspend imports of French wheat as a result of the shipment. GASC then denied on Monday it had made any such decision, according to Ahram Gate. Last week, El Moselhy had sat down with France’s ambassador to Cairo Stéphane Romatet on Wednesday, during which the ambassador said his country is keen to continue its participation in Egypt’s wheat tenders. Traders had been accusing Egypt’s wheat inspectors with deliberately holding up wheat shipments out of pettiness for losing their travel privileges under the old wheat inspection system, something inspectors deny. It doesn’t take Freud to see the whole system still needs some fine tuning, if not some Prozac.

On a related note, El Moselhy noted that Egypt has built wheat reserves sufficient to last another four months and sugar reserves for another five and half months.

Separately, El Moselhy also announced that newborns will not be added to supply subsidy rolls before January. The Supply Ministry is expected to complete purging the rolls from subsidy fraud and inconsistencies by January, and only then can the system afford to add newborns, he added according to Youm7.

Egypt, US, Israel to discuss QIZ program next month: Egypt will push to reduce the mandatory Israeli content in goods exported to the US under the Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZ) program to 8% instead of the current 10% during a meeting with US and Israeli officials next month, head of the Trade and Industry Ministry’s QIZ unit Ashraf El Rabie said, Al Mal reports. The ministry also sent a joint letter with Israel appealing to Washington to resolve Egypt’s “crisis” with Disneyland, which banned imports from 28 Egyptian textile manufacturers earlier this year over concerns about labor conditions in Egypt, according to Rabie. Trade and Industry Minister Tarek Kabil had been lobbying since April to bring down the Israeli content quota and to resolve the issue with Disneyland.

Rabie also called on Egyptian businesses to take greater advantage of the QIZ agreement and put aside their personal feelings about Israel, the newspaper reports. As we noted earlier this week, the three countries are currently in talks to expand the program to include tech companies, since ready-made garments and food products account for the lion’s share of industries benefiting from the agreement.

Egypt’s former lobbyist in DC is being investigated, but it seems we’re in the clear: Washington lobbyist Tony Podesta and the Podesta Group are now the subjects of a federal investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, sources told NBC News. “The sources said the investigation into Podesta and his company began as more of a fact-finding mission about the [European Centre for a Modern Ukraine] and Manafort’s role in the campaign, but has now morphed into a criminal inquiry into whether the firm violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act, known as FARA.” The Podesta Group was lobbying for the Egyptian government in Washington from 2007 until 2012.

Mutual fund giant Fidelity Investment is combating a [redacted] harassment problem of its own, Sarah Krouse and Kirsten Grind write for The Wall Street Journal. “The issue of workplace conduct has been simmering within Fidelity’s stockpicking unit in particular for years. A 2015 internal report warned of cultural problems particularly adverse for women, according to interviews with more than a dozen former Fidelity analysts and portfolio managers.

Other international stories worth a quick look this morning:

• General Electric’s “deteriorating outlook” sent its stock price spiraling to itslowest level in six years yesterday, Bloomberg reports. The share price began to tumble when “banks from RBC Capital Markets to UBS Group AG” lowered their valuations for GE after CEO John Flannery announced a cut in the company’s projected revenues for 2017.
• European and German officials raided the offices of Volkswagen and Daimler on Monday as part of an investigation into alleged collusion, Reuters reports. BMW’s offices in Munich were also searched.

On an otherwise quiet morning of Egypt in the international press, a drive by activists to draw attention to Cairo’s human rights record while President Abdel Fattah El Sisi is in France is getting some traction.

Human Rights Watch urged French President Emmanuel Macron to end France’s “disgraceful policies of indulgence” towards Egypt in a report covered by the AFP. HRW says Macron should make future economic cooperation and military support contingent on improvements in human rights. “A statement from Macron’s office last week said the talks would focus on security and regional security “but also the human rights situation to which France is particularly attentive.’” HRW France Director Benedicte Jeannerod says the fight against terrorism “is tarnished by huge abuses and is a pretext to stifle all kind of pacific protest, and we fear that this creates an atmosphere that is conducive to radicalization,” according to the Associated Press.

2018 is likely to bring to a head tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia over water that have been building for almost a decade, Michele Dunne and Katherine Pollock write for The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. There are concerns about what the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) could mean for Egypt’s water supply. Domestically, Dunne and Pollock say that “so far it seems that development projects to improve water usage—the rational solution to this problem—are neither of a proper size nor sharply focused enough to [cope] with the possible loss of as much as one-quarter of the country’s renewable fresh water.” On an international scale, they suggest that “while Cairo has until now relied heavily on diplomacy, it might be preparing more extreme backup options to put pressure on Ethiopia and attract international attention should its efforts fail.”

LGBT dating apps are sending users in Egypt tips on how to protect themselves from entrapment, Heba Kanso reports for Reuters. “It will make people take more precautions … we know that the police are under pressure to arrest people and they are going about doing that through all the avenues that they have,” a director at one of the apps says. Breitbart also covers the story.

This comes as MPs currently talk over a bill that seeks to make homosexuality a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison, signaling that Egypt could soon be dealing the “final blow” to its LGBTQ community, Zvi Bar’el writes for Haaretz. The legislation is unlikely to meet significant resistance in parliament and there are few other figures or organizations willing to stand up for LGBTQ citizens.

Beating up on the foreign press: The Interior Ministry’s slowness in releasing information about the Wahat attack left room for rumors and false reports, a prominent columnist writes, but the real bad guys in are international media outlets that have run casualty figures that don’t square with official totals. In a not-so-veiled reference to BBC and Reuters’ coverage of the incident, Emad El Din Hussein writes for Al Shorouk that claims of a higher death toll should be backed up with the victims’ names. Youm7’s Karim Abdel Salam and Dandarawy El Hawary, meanwhile, called out the two outlets directly, saying they should be held — legally — accountable for their alleged false reporting and the “chaos” it created. El Hawary claims that both outlets have published false news before.

Meet the Egyptian-American FBI agent who foiled an Al Qaeda plot: By dispatch time, some of us here will be on Amazon looking to snap up a copy of American Radical: Inside the World of an Undercover Muslim FBI Agent. The book takes a look at a year-long FBI investigation that foiled a 2013 Al Qaeda plot to derail a Canadian passenger train. Its protagonist: an Egyptian American undercover agent who goes by the alias “Tamer Elnoury.”

The book, which channels other tell-alls on Hollywood blockbuster-worthy operations that run the risk of unveiling classified information, also dives into Elnoury’s transition from a New Jersey narcotics officer to his first sting operation with a member of the Al Qaeda cell. It apparently ends with a Le Carre-like scene in which Elnoury is almost caught. He has since retired from the FBI, but remains an active counter-terrorist operative for the bureau.

Elnoury tells the Wall Street Journal that publishing the book risks blowing his cover, but he wrote it to honor fellow FBI agents and, as a proud Muslim, to expose what he called the “sometimes vast and sometimes subtle” divide between radical and mainstream Islam. You can also check out a clip from his interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes, in which he wears facial prosthesis and alters his voice (watch, runtime: 1:34).

The ninth annual King of the Lagoon kitesurfing competition wrapped up a few weeks ago in Ras Sudr. Although geared mainly toward amateur-level competitors, King of the Lagoon has attracted a diverse crowd of international and local kitesurfers over the years, helping put Ras Sudr — with its idyllic conditions for the sport — on the map. Forgive us for the sponsor-heavy video. It takes nothing away from the experience, we promise. (watch, runtime 1:15)

Egypt will be administering an industrial zone established by the Burundi government west of its capital of Bujumbura, Ahram Gate reports. The General Authority for Freezones and Investment, the Industrial Development Authority, and the Foreign Ministry will all take part in running the industrial zone, the Burundi government’s brainchild.

Oil Minister Tarek El Molla invited Global engineering and construction giant Bechtel to participate in some of the biggest energy projects taking place in the country, Al Masry Al Youm reports. The MOPCO and Ethydco refining complexes, as well as a number of oil and gas finds, were among the projects El Molla pitched to CEO Brendan Bechtel in a Monday meeting.

Military Production Ministry subsidiary El Maasara For Engineering Industries signed an agreement with Huawei and Shenzhen Clou Electronics Company that will see the Chinese companies manufacture smart electricity meters, Al Shorouk reports. The Electricity Ministry had contracted local manufacturing of meters to the ministry, with an eye towards installing 20 mn smart meters over the next decade.

The cooperation protocol between Egypt and Japan to build schools that operate using Japanese curricula has not been canceled, but was postponed for “one semester or one school year,” a source from JICA told Al Mal. The source did not give a reason behind the delay in implementing the pilot program, which the Education Ministry said last week would be postponed.

Health Minister Ahmed Rady has agreed to cancel the so-called “box system” for the registration and trademarking of medicines, which recently resulted in market shortages, MP Mohamed Elsewedy announced yesterday, according to Al Masry Al Youm. Elsewedy expects the shortages to be resolved in six-months’ time. The box system has been criticized for limiting generic products’ availability in the market.

The Saudi Egyptian Construction Company (SECON) plans to invest EGP 4 bn in new developments in the 70 feddan area it has purchased in the new administrative capital, said the company’s CEO Darwish Hassanein, according to Ahram Gate. The company had signed its first design and consulting contracts for the projects, he said. SECON is also investing EGP 350 mn in its Riyadh compound in New Cairo.

Archaeologists discovered a Coptic tombstone in Luxor whose exact origins and date have yet to be determined, Supreme Antiquities Council Secretary General Mostafa Waziri tells Ahram Online. The limestone tombstone was discovered during renovation works meant to turn the Sphinx Avenue area into an open-air museum.

The Export Development Bank (EDB) is waiting for the central bank’s approval on a USD 500 mn credit facility agreement with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), which will be used to fund trade activities between Egypt and other African countries, EDB Chairman Mervat Sultan tells Al Borsa. The bank is also in talks with a bond fund affiliated with Germany’s KfW Development Bank for a USD 10 mn facility to finance local SMEs, Sultan adds.

Online medical booking company Vezeeta is eyeing expansion into Africa and the Arab world, according to a statement picked up by Al Mal. The firm is looking at North African markets, as well as the UAE and KSA. Vezeeta which has raised USD 11 mn from investors, recently made noise by getting on the Forbes Middle East’s Top 100 Startups of the Arab World list for 2017.

Al Reef Al Masry plans to tender 120k feddans under the second phase of the 1.5 mn feddans project in the first half of November, Chairperson Atter Hannoura tells Al Borsa. The land will be granted to companies that met requirements in the first tender but were not awarded land plots. The tender includes 45k feddans in Moghra, 10k feddans in Toshka, and 65k feddans in west Minya.

The Social Welfare Act is nearly complete and will be sent to the House of Representatives for discussion before the end of the year, Social Solidarity Minister Ghada Wali told reporters yesterday, Ahram Gate says. The House Manpower Committee said earlier this month that it would begin discussing the bill whether or not it receives it from Cabinet, after waiting for over a year. The legislation amends the social welfare and pension systems, guarantees the right to unemployment benefits, and establishes a new pension fund.

The Air Force bombed eight four-wheel-drive vehicles carrying arms and explosives in the Western Desert on the borders with Libya, the Armed Forces said in a statement on Monday. The statement said the individuals who were part of the convoy were killed. Security forces in the area have been on high alert following last Friday’s attack in the Wahat area, which saw 16 policemen and conscripts killed. As part of efforts to secure the border, Egypt is apparently expected to receive a mobile surveillance sensor security system for border guards personnel from the US Air Force. The US Department of Defense has contracted the project out to STARA Technologies, a subsidiary of Advance Technology Systems Company. Egypt is expected to receive the systems in August 2019, according to a statement from the Defense Department.

It was too much to hope for that the creature that is Ahmed Moussa would be silenced and sentenced to Hades for airing “incorrect” information on the Wahat attack. It appears the Supreme Media Council made do with a slap on the wrist after the mutant apologized, AMAY reports.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane received top honors at the Best FIFA Awards in London yesterday, according to FIFA’s website. The player/coach duo picked up the Best FIFA Player and Best FIFA Coach awards, with Juventus’ goalie Gianluigi Buffon picking up the Best FIFA Goalkeeper award. The FIFA FIFPro World11, which was largely Real Madrid-dominated listed, Ronaldo and Buffon, as well as Sergio Ramos, Dani Alves, Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi, and Neymar, among others.

ON THIS DAY- On this day in 1956, Israel, France, and the UK signed the secret agreement known as the Protocol of Sèvres. The agreement was for the countries to collude militarily and politically to topple President Gamal Abdel Nasser by invading and occupying the Suez Canal zone in response to Nasser’s Suez Canal nationalization, which led to the Suez Crisis. In 1945, the United Nations Organization was formally inaugurated. On this day in 2003, British Airways flew its last transatlantic flight using the Concorde. British Airways had decided to retire the famous aircraft because it was no longer profitable. Enterprise was reporting on the weird move by the government to confiscate sugar owned by Pepsi and Edita, which led them to halt some production lines this time last year.