The taxman won’t (automatically) see your bank records

Mondays are often quiet on the news front in this corner of the world, and today is no exception: The combined effect of Sunday being the first day after an extended holiday in these parts and the weekend in the West was a welcome respite as we tried to kick our brains back into “work” gear yesterday.

The big news of the day is on the foreign policy front: Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel will be in Ethiopia today to meet with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for talks on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), according to a Foreign Ministry statement. The two countries have been in talks over the dam for several years, and finally reached a breakthrough in June. Egypt and Ethiopia agreed at the time to an arrangement through which Ethiopia would amend the timeline for the filling of the dam in exchange for economic cooperation.

Why you should care: One of the underplayed successes of the Sisi administration has been the creation and implementation of a multipolar foreign policy — a role on the world stage that goes well beyond reminding people that “we made peace with Israel a generation ago.” That drive has seen Egypt do everything from deepen ties to Europe and Asia to diversify the list of countries from whom we acquire defense systems. Successful re-engagement with Africa, if it helps resolve the GERD issue before it becomes a crisis, could yet prove one of the key outcomes.

Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang is expected to sign a number of memorandums of understanding with with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in Cairo today in fields including trade, industry, and investment, Ittihadiya spokesperson Bassem Rady tells Youm7. Quang is also scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Parliament speaker Ali Abdel Aal. Vietnamese Planning and Investment Minister Nguyen Chi Dung is also reportedly visiting Egypt within the week to discuss opportunities in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.

Meanwhile, two pieces worth a moment of your time this morning:

Lessons for bankers: How America’s largest bank is recasting itself as a digital-led player: “JPMorgan Chase is rebuilding its consumer business model to create a ‘digital everything’ strategy that trades short-term losses for long-term profits.” The push is running under the banner “Mobile First, Digital Everything” and sees JPM pushing to develop its apps, offering no-charge trading to clients who invest through the bank, and expanding its offering in both mobile payments and credit cards. And, of course, becoming BFFs with the fintech set. Read How JPMorgan is preparing for the next generation of consumer banking on CB Insights.

Remember that “super-OPIC” we told you about before the break? Well, it seems it’s getting traction. America’s bid to get back into the development finance institution game with a successor to the Washington’s Overseas Private Investment Corporation, which we first picked up from the Financial Times, is now getting ink in the New York Times thanks to an op-ed by Devex’s Adva Saldinger. “A bill making its way through Congress would create a new, better funded and more powerful agency that would effectively replace OPIC,” Saldinger writes. The move is “perhaps the most significant shift in American development policy” since 2003. “The new agency has a powerful champion in OPIC’s chief executive, Ray Washburne, who has close ties to the White House. A Texas-based restaurant and real estate investor, he was vice chairman of the Trump Victory Committee and head of the transition’s commerce team. He meets regularly with the White House, and he asked for and received an enclosed area to process classified information, something no previous OPIC chief executive has had.” Read Poor countries have an unlikely ally close to the White House.

Why you should care: Egypt’s private sector has landed significant funding from development finance agencies since the events of 2011 — and this could open the door to even more. OPIC has previously backed or proposed backing Qalaa Holdings (back in 2011), oil and gas player Apache, CIB, Carbon Holdings’ Tahrir Petrochemicals Corporation and microfinance players, among others.

It was another patchwork night on the airwaves, with Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and spy chief Abbas Kamel’s trip to Ethiopia today taking center stage.

Bilateral talks will center around the establishment of a mutual investment fund between Cairo, Addis Ababa, and Khartoum that will be used to fund infrastructure development, according to Masaa DMC’s Eman El Hosary. The fund, which was set to be launched in July, came about as a result of talks to resolve a deadlock on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

The visit comes after Ethiopia announced it was facing delays on the GERD construction timeline that could push the start of operations to 2020. In addition to a holdup in civil engineering work on the USD 4 bn project, a pair of turbines that were set to come online this year have yet to be installed, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told a news conference on Saturday, the Ethiopian News Agency reports. Ahmed had hinted that work could be awarded to a different contractor if the delay persists.

The Egyptian delegation is likely to try and offer solutions to Ethiopia’s current challenges, former assistant foreign minister Soaad Shalaby told El Hosary (watch, runtime: 4:43). Water resources expert Diaa Al Qousi also thought as much, telling Hona Al Asema’s Reham Ibrahim that the issue could serve as an opportunity to expedite stalled talks (watch, runtime: 8:38).

The arrest of former diplomat Masoum Marzouk also received some airtime yesterday. Marzouk was arrested earlier this week pending investigations into alleged ties to the Ikhwan (watch, runtime: 5:15).

Cabinet econ group meets to discuss investment promotion: Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly met with the Cabinet’s Economic Group yesterday to discuss plans to attract new foreign investment to Egypt, Cabinet spokesman Ashraf Sultan told Al Hayah fi Misr. The meeting touched on the EGX’s performance, Sultan said without elaborating (watch, runtime: 9:21).

Mo Salah lashed out at the Egyptian Football Federation (EFA) in a tweet yesterday for “ignoring” messages from him and his lawyer. The Liverpool forward didn’t specify what the messages were about, but he had had a previous falling out with the EFA over an image rights issue that caused a problem with sponsor Vodafone. Sports critic Essam Shaltoot urged the EFA to respond to Salah’s messages when he spoke to Hona Al Asema’s Ibrahim yesterday (watch, runtime: 6:13).

[Redacted] harassment got plenty of airtime last night. A man who claims to have been wrongly accused of harassing a woman is suing his alleged victim for defamation. Mahmoud Soliman — who gained celebrity status overnight after a woman posted a video of him asking her out for coffee — had the internet buzzing last week, arguing over whether he was innocently flirting or really harassing a complete stranger. His lawyer Tarek Gameel told Hona Al Asema that his client did nothing wrong and had even apologized after the woman turned his offer down (watch, runtime: 5:58).

Women’s rights proponents disagreed, labeling the case as clear harassment (watch, runtime: 3:16). Tadwein Research Center Managing Director Amal Fahmy told Masaa DMC’s El Hosary that any unwanted advance is viewed as harassment (watch, runtime: 3:00). “The diverging responses reflect a long-running debate in Egypt over what constitutes [redacted] harassment and who is at fault,” according to the Associated Press.

Man stabbed to death for confronting harasser: This comes as a 40-year-old man was stabbed to death on a beach in Alexandria last weekend after he confronted a man he believed was harassing his wife, according to Al Masry Al Youm. One person has been remanded to custody for 15 days pending investigation and the man’s lawyer claims his client is mentally unstable. El Hosary spoke to House Rep. Hala Aboul Saada and former assistant interior minister Ashraf Amin about Egypt’s widespread harassment problem (watch, runtime: 5:30).

Programming note: You know what word we’d like to use for [redacted] in [redacted] harassment —we’re all adults here. We don’t use it because the algorithms that govern our deliverability to your inbox don’t like it.

Meanwhile, Yahduth fi Misr’s Sherif Amer interviewed Council of State (Maglis Al Dawla) boss Ahmed Aboul Azm about the history of the judiciary (watch, runtime: 2:02).

CBE nixes amendments to income tax act that would have given tax inspectors access to corporate bank data: Central Bank Governor Tarek Amer poured cold water yesterday on proposed amendments to the Income Tax Act that would have allowed the Tax Authority investigators to access corporate bank data as part of investigations of suspicious activity. Amer told Reuters in an email yesterday that the move would not be allowed, after Tax Authority boss Emad Samy confirmed to the newswire on Sunday morning what he had told Enterprise on Saturday: That the proposed measure, positioned as part of the authority’s drive to clamp down on tax evasion, would be contingent on CBE approval. Samy had also told Reuters that he thought the change would not contradict the Central Bank Act.

Amer, however, later told Reuters that the proposal would violate client data privacy provisions. Samy subsequently walked back his remarks, claiming his words had been incorrectly phrased. The tax authority boss warned that the clamor could “harm tax collections and destabilize the banking sector,” Reuters’ Arabic service reports.

FRA to cut regulatory fees on stock market trades to offset increased stamp tax: The Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) has approved a small cut to fees on stock market transaction for brokerage houses and custodians, Al Mal reports. The change will reduce fees brokerage firms pay to 0.01% of the transaction value, down from 0.02%, while providers of custodial services will only be required to pay a fee equivalent to 0.005% of the value of its client’s portfolio, down from 0.011% previously. Proceeds from the fees are typically used to fund the operations of the FRA, the EGX, Misr Central Clearing, Depository and Registry (MCDR) and the investor bailout fund. The fee reduction will only affect the bailout fund’s portion of the proceeds, according to FRA Deputy Chairman Khaled El Nashar. The fee cuts are being positioned as part of a gesture to ease the sting of the annual rise in stamp tax on EGX trades, which increased to 0.15% in June and will rise further to 0.175% next year. The move has been in the works since May.

IPO WATCH- CIRA reportedly taps Grant & Thornton to conduct fair value assessment ahead of stake sale: Leading private-sector education outfit Cairo Investment and Real Estate Development (CIRA) has reportedly selected Grant & Thornton to conduct a fair value report for CIRA’s planned relisting on the EGX, Al Mal reports. The firm’s general assembly had signed off last month on relisting 35% of the company’s shares, sources told us at the time. CIRA has met all listing requirements and is waiting on the fair value report to formally submit its listing request to the Financial Regulatory Authority for approval, sources close to the transaction tell the newspaper. The transaction could come as early as September, the sources say.

Advisers: EFG Hermes is global coordinator and bookrunner for the transaction. Al Tamimi & Co. is acting as the issuer’s counsel. White & Case is said to have been tapped to serve as joint legal advisers on the international offering, while Zulficar & Partners is domestic counsel to the underwriter.

Egypt, South Korea sign EUR 243 mn contract to manufacture and supply metro cars: Investment and International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr signed yesterday a EUR 243 mn with South Korea’s Ambassador to Egypt Yoon Yeocheol to manufacture and supply 32 metro cars, according to an Investment Ministry statement (pdf). The release doesn’t name the winning party, but our read is that this is a local assembly project in which the winning South Korean bidder will be sourcing 30% of the cars’ components in Egypt. Funding for the contract will come from the Korea Economic Development Cooperation Fund. The cars will be used for the third and fourth phases of Cairo Metro Line 3, with the first four scheduled for delivery in time for the inauguration of Phase 4B of the line at the end of 2019, according to Transport Minister Hisham Arafat. The remaining cars will be delivered at a rate of one per month. The order makes up the second half of the 64 cars the government had planned to lock down for the new line. Egypt had signed a EUR 350 mn contract with Korea’s Hyundai Rotem for the other 32 cars last year.

Financing for locomotives, too: The news came as President Abdel Fattah El Sisi signed off yesterday on a EUR 100 mn loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to fund the purchase of 13 locomotives for the Cairo Metro Line 2, according to Al Shorouk. The agreement was inked on 8 December 2015.

MOVES- Moselhy reshuffles CPA’s board of directors: The Consumer Protection Authority has new faces on its board of directors. Supply Minister Ali El Moselhy appointed Council of State Deputy Chairman Essam Abdel Aziz, Federation of Egyptian Industries member Mohamed Gamaleldin Hassan, and Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce member Mohammed Fayoumi, Al Shorouk reports. The board will also include representatives from the Trade and Industry Ministry, the Consumers Cooperative Union, and various consumer protection associations.

MOVES- Former Banque Misr Deputy Chair Sahar Damaty was tapped to join Union Capital to manage its EGP 150 mn bailout fund for idle small- and mid-sized factories.

Uber looking at scooters and e-bikes for short hops: Uber is getting ready to replace cars in its service with scooters and electric bicycles for shorter journeys, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi tells the Financial Times in an interview. The move, which is part of the ride-hailing company’s long-term strategy, will hurt profits in the short-term as it “[snatches] revenues away from Uber’s drivers.” Khosrowshahi said, however, that “investors had to be aware that short-term losses were necessary to achieve longer-term goals — and part of that was a focus away from cars in inner cities.” He explained that the impact of the switch is expected to be offset by a higher frequency of inner-city trips, as more customers opt for the faster bike options, particularly in crowded cities.

In other international news making the rounds this morning:

Emmerson Mnangagwa was inaugurated as Zimbabwe’s new president after a court rejected claims the election was rigged, according to AFP. It is the second time in nine months the country has sworn in a president following the ouster of Robert Mugabe.

Four people are confirmed dead after a shooter opened fire at a live-streamed video game tournament in Florida, according to LA Times. The shooter was reportedly a gamer who was competing in the tournament who had lost.

As many as 16 of the nation’s 27 governors will be replaced in a shuffle expected to take place this week, unnamed sources told Egypt Today. The announcement of the shuffle has been postponed multiple times since since June.

El Sisi in China next month: The president is expected to visit Beijing next month, at which time he will sign cooperation agreements in the education, transport, and housing sectors, according to a Cabinet statement.

Final contracts for Hamrawein coal power plant to be signed during El Sisi’s trip: The Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) is expected to sign the final contracts for the USD 4.4 bn, 6 GW Hamrawein “clean coal” power plant during the president’s Beijing visit. The plant is being built by a consortium that includes China’s Shanghai Electric and Dong Fang and Egypt’s Hassan Allam. The group was was awarded the contract in June.

The House of Representatives is in recess until October.

Egyptian barman helped the British defeat the Nazis — with a cocktail. Developed by Shepheard’s Hotel barman Joe Scialom, the Suffering Bastard cocktail was an unexpected reason behind German general Erwin Rommel’s defeat in the Second Battle of Alamein in the 1940s, writes Blake Stilwell in a piece for We Are The Mighty. The drink was used as a cure for British army personnel’s hangovers, which allowed them to perform better in combat and ultimately stop the Germans’ advances. Not exactly a grand strategy piece, this particular story, but it put a smile on our faces this morning.

The death of two Brit tourists at a Hurghada hotel is still topping coverage of Egypt in the foreign press this morning. The daughter of John and Susan Cooper, the couple who died last week while on holiday at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel, spoke to the BBC about the ordeal explaining that there was “a funny smell” in her parent’s hotel room which she claims is the cause of their death, suggesting that a gas leak might have been responsible. Egyptian investigators had ruled that out, however, and are currently testing food, water, and air conditioning systems at the hotel. The results should be released in 10 days’ time, Thomas Cook Group CEO Peter Fankhauser said, according to the Associated Press.

Around 13 holidaymakers had complained to Thomas Cook “about being served raw meat and drinks from unwashed glasses” at the same hotel, prior to the couple’s death, according to the Guardian. The incident had prompted Thomas Cook to evacuate just over 300 customers from the hotel.

Other headlines worth noting in brief:

• Sugar crush: Egyptians consume more sugar than the country will be able to produce once the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam begins operating, limiting the country’s Nile water supply, according to the National.
• Don’t worry, the Socialists will save our sugar habit: Overthrowing capitalism and turning to socialism could be a solution Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam dispute with Egypt, according to In Defense of Marxism.
• Truce in jeopardy? The United State’s decision to suspend economic aid to Palestinians risks upsetting Egypt-brokered truce, reigniting Gaza violence, Amos Harel writes for Haaretz.
• Anti-business mumbo-jumbo: Egypt is legalizing land ownership for Sinai residents and Al Monitor warns that some will be denied the stamp of approval “to enable the state to put its hands on those lands, as a prelude to allotting them to large-business owners.”

A shift in focus towards industrialization in the mid-twentieth century left Egypt years behind its peers on the agricultural front, Mohamed Youssef writes in a piece for Al Shorouk, which argues that more needs to be done to return the sector to its former glory. In addition to arming farmers with technology that can improve their overall efficiency, measures such as planning and zoning of agricultural land, as well as greater oversight, are crucial, he says. The government also needs to take a more aggressive stance on zoning violations by setting harsher penalties against building on agricultural land, he adds, citing the issue as one of the major obstacles to agricultural development.

It’s not just your phone — cars can collect a lot of your personal data, too: Many of the latest car models allow manufacturers to pull hundreds of data points from these cars when they’re on the road, including where you drive it, Christina Rogers writes for the Wall Street Journal. “With mns of cars rolling off dealer lots with built-in connectivity, auto companies are gaining access to unprecedented amounts of real-time data that allow them to track everything from where a car is located to how hard it is braking and whether or not the windshield wipers are on.”

The data is meant to be used to improve car models, but there are natural privacy concerns that come with the availability of so much personal data. Some manufacturers are putting the data towards creating new and personalized service, such as apps, but others are thinking of monetizing the data by “selling it to mapping firms looking to provide more accurate traffic information.”

A group of Egyptian divers created an underwater museum in Dahab as a way of preserving the Red Sea’s coral reefs. I-Dive Tribe installed statues at popular diving spot, including pharaonic gods Horus and Bes, and a 700 kg elephant, all made from environmentally friendly material. The statues are meant to guide divers away from the reef to promote the creation of new corals (watch, runtime: 2:05).

14 unnamed private Egyptian companies have submitted requests to the Natural Gas Regulatory Authority for licenses for the local distribution of natural gas, a source from the regulator said. Another two private companies are expected to submit their own requests within the next week, according to the source. The authority had set earlier this month the fees that private sector players will be required to pay to use the state’s national grid to transport gas, in addition to the fees for different types of permits and licenses.

The Electricity Ministry is planning to launch a tender in September for the construction of two power transmission control centers in Cairo and Alexandria worth a combined EGP 1.5 bn, unnamed ministry sources tell Al Mal. Offers from Siemens, Schneider, General Electric, and NR Electric Co, will be given priority, since the companies had prequalified for the project in a previous tender that was canceled. The Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) will finance the projects using a portion of a EGP 19 bn loan it had acquired last year from a banking consortium led by the National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr. The EEHC had canceled several control center tenders in May until grid upgrade works were complete. The ministry previously said it was planning to build 20 electricity transmission control centers across the country in 2018.

The General Organization for Physical Planning (GOPP) and UN-Habitat signed yesterday an MoU that will see them develop the conceptual plan for the New Ras El Hekma Waterfront, “following principles aligned with the New Urban Agenda and the sustainable development goals,” according to a UN Habitat press release.

Trade and Industry Minister Amr Nassar and Investment Minister Sahar Nasr met yesterday with representative from Philips Lighting to discuss the company’s plans to expand its local production and exports of LED products, Al Masry Al Youm reports. The company is eyeing export markets in Turkey, Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. Philips, which began manufacturing LED products in Egypt in April, is also planning to double production output from its local factory to 4 mn LED lamps per annum by early 2020.

Egypt launched a new family-oriented cultural tour in a bid to attract more visitors to the country, according to Xinhua. The “Family Cultural Tour” invites parents and children to join a 10-day trip to visit main attractions in Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan.

Tatweer Misr will sign today an agreement with Ireland-based Kerten Hospitality to manage the former’s hotels in the North Coast’s Fouka Bay and Ain Sokhna’s Il Monte Galala, according to Al Masry Al Youm. It remains unclear when the hotels will launch.

Egypt is still the top destination for MENA travelers in 2Q2018, according to online travel marketplace Wego’s MENA Traveller Destination Leaderboard. “Egypt maintains its position as the undisputed #1 most popular destination of 2Q, thanks to the continued patronage of both leisure and business travellers from the region.” India is in second place, followed by Saudi Arabia in the third, Turkey in fourth, and the UAE in fifth. Separately, Cairo’s iconic Marriott Mena House hotel was listed among Time’s Magazine world’s greatest places to stay in 2018.

Archaeologists unearthed yesterday a cemetery in Alexandria that dates back to Ptolemaic Egypt, according to an Antiquities Ministry statement. A number of clay and glass pots and ornamented lamps were also found in the cemetery.

The government is planning to allow the collection of foreign remittances through postal offices by early 2019, ICT Minister Amr Talaat tells Al Shorouk. The decision will pave the way for Egypt Post to also begin disbursing remittances on banks’ behalf.

The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) is in talks with international banks and financing institutions to borrow up to 1 USD bn by the end of this fiscal year, Deputy Chairman Yehia Aboul Fotouh told the local press. Last July, the bank signed a EUR 375 mn financing agreement with the European Investment Bank to expand its SMEs loan portfolio.

The National Bank of Egypt signed agreements with 16 unnamed Egyptian universities to provide them with a range of e-payment services, including prepaid debit cards for students, reports Al Masry Al Youm.

Investors in new Egyptian tech zones could get tax breaks of up to 50% for a period of three years under an incentive scheme that should come into effect soon, Communications and Information Technology Minister Amr Talaat said yesterday, Al Mal reports. The ministry will begin promoting available opportunities in different tech zones, he added without elaborating.

The Environment Ministry is reportedly suing farmers who continue to burn rice residues in aims to curb air pollution, Egyptian Environmental Affairs CEO Mohamed Saleh said, according to Egypt Today.

Daesh claimed responsibility yesterday for the weekend attack on a police checkpoint in North Sinai that killed four policemen and four militants, the terrorist group’s news outlet Amaq said, according to Reuters.

Egypt’s Mohamed El-Beialy will spearhead the country’s campaign for the 2018

International Table Tennis Federation’s (ITTF) African Cup, which takes places from 3-9 September in Mauritius, according to All Africa. The first game will be played against Nigeria. El Beialy will also be aiming to lead his country against Nigeria in the men’s team event, which serves as the qualifier for the ITTF’s World Team Cup in 2020.

Egyptian winger Mahmoud “Trezeguet” Hassan is reportedly in talks to join Spanish football team Sevilla before the end of the transfer window for the 2018-19 season, according to French magazine Futbolistos. Trezeguet is also being chased by France’s Olympique de Marseille and Bundesliga outfit Stuttgart. Trezeguet was set to join Czech football club SK Slavia Prague after they agreed to pay EUR 5 mn to release him from his current contract with Kasimpasa, but the move has fallen through.

The US Senate passed a bill to honor Egypt’s late President Anwar Sadat for his role in bringing peace to the Middle East, the Egyptian Embassy in Washington D.C said in a statement. The Anwar Sadat Centennial Celebration Act S266 awards the Congressional Gold Medal to Sadat “in recognition of his historic achievements and courageous contributions,” which had also earned him a Nobel Peace Prize.