El Sisi meets Trump at G7 summit.

Good morning, friends, and welcome to yet another slow news day. We have coverage of the final day of the G7 — during which El Sisi met with US, UK and French leaders — as well as the news that we’ve signed the final USD 500 mn agreement with India’s Lulu Hypermarket for a series of new shopping malls. Aside from that, it’s tumble weeds as far as the eye can see. We do hope that things start happening again soon.

Fresh from the G7 summit, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi is heading immediately to Yokohama, Japan, to take part in the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), Ahram Online reports. The event begins tomorrow and will run until 30 August.

The G7 summit came to a close yesterday, rounding off a busy three days that were mostly focused on The Donald and his beef with China. The US president struck a more conciliatory mood yesterday, hinting at delaying or canceling raising tariffs on Chinese products just 24 hours after telling reporters he regretted not going higher with the hikes. Trump coupled his about-face with claims that China had initiated a resumption of trade talks, prompting Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang to say he was “not aware of” China making such a phone call.

Chinese vice-premier Liu He maintained in separate remarks that China wants to de-escalate hostilities. “An escalation of the trade war is not good for China, it’s not good for the US, and it’s also not good for the interests of people across the world,” he said.

Could a Trump-Rouhani meeting also be in the cards? Literally anything is possible. French President Emmanuel Macron appears to be on a diplomatic roll, announcing in a press conference that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani could be open to meeting Trump. The Donald also said a meeting would be possible, describing Iran as a country of “tremendous potential,” but ruled out lifting economic sanctions.

One positive non-Trumpian outcome from the summit: Pledges of financial support for the Amazon rainforest. International leaders at the summit vowed to provided USD 22 mn and immediate logistical support, including military personnel, to help battle the fires that have been raging in the Amazon for two weeks, the BBC reports.

The plan is being spearheaded by Emmanuel Macron, who has been embroiled in a war of words with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro over the fires, and who has threatened to block the EU-Mercosur trade deal if the crisis is not addressed. Bolsonaro, who initially claimed his government didn’t have the resources to tackle the fires, has since dispatched 44k troops and military aircraft to six states struggling with them. He has said that the support from the G7 treats Brazil "as if we were a colony or no man's land."

Wildfires in Brazil, though common in the dry season, have increased by up to 89% this year. This comes amid extensive rollbacks to environmental protections by Bolsonaro’s government, and a significant increase in deforestation. International outcry has abounded over the Brazilian government’s perceived lack of action to stop the fires, and now Brazilian businesses and trade groups, reportedly fearing boycotts of their products, are also strongly expressing their concern.

Goldman Sachs took the lion’s share of this year’s M&A transactions in terms of value thanks to its management of three major tech M&As, Alex Sherman writes for CNBC. Dealogic data shows that Goldman’s share of the tech M&A market has increased to 39%, taking a 12% lead over rivals Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan Chase. The investment bank was tapped to lead Salesforce’s USD 15.7 bn purchase of Tableau Software — this year’s biggest tech acquisition — as well as Ultimate Software’s USD 11 bn acquisition by a consortium of private equity outfits and Broadcom’s USD 10.7 bn acquisition of Symantec’s enterprise business.

Is WeWork’s IPO doomed to flop? Communal workspace WeWork’s planned IPO next month is “the most ridiculous IPO of 2019,” New Constructs Investment Analyst Sam McBride tells Yahoo Finance. According to McBride, WeWork has positioned itself as a tech company but is really no more than “a brick-and-mortar leasing business.” And as companies are beginning to face economic headwinds, one of the first cost-cutting measures they are likely to take is to lay off employees and cut down on office space — including coworking spaces offered through WeWork. Investors are already somewhat bearish on the company, which reported USD 900 mn in losses in 1H2019 and is now looking to raise some USD 3.5 bn when it goes public in September.

Yearly gains on EM ETFs have almost evaporated as trade fears bite: Gains made by EM ETFs this year have been all but wiped out after outflows extended into a seventh consecutive week, according to Bloomberg data. Investors withdrew USD 972.3 mn from US-listed ETFs last week, meaning net inflow now stands at just USD 109.9 nm for the year. Equity ETFs were responsible for the selloff, with the iShares MSCI EM ETF losing USD 556 mn. Bond funds meanwhile saw small inflows. The market has now lost USD 12.3 bn over the past seven weeks, substantially higher than the USD 7.8 bn loss during the six-week sell-off during May and June.

The weakening lira: A bad omen for EM currencies? The Turkish lira weakened against the USD on Monday “as Japanese investors cut risk assets” over concerns of the escalating US-China trade war, according to Reuters. The latest installment in the US-China soap opera pushed investors towards safe haven investments such as sovereign bonds and gold, and away from EMs such as Turkey. The rising tension “means that EM FX will continue to weaken for the foreseeable future. In the absence of a thawing in trade frictions it remains a market to be structurally short EM and buy USD on any dip,” according to currency analysts at Societe Generale.

Is Big Tech losing its luster? The likes of Facebook and Google, once seen as the pinnacle of cool for talented young creatives, are increasingly being run as “state-like global bureaucracies,” the Financial Times says. And with an increase in high-profile cases that call their ethics into question (ahem, Cambridge Analytica), a lack of diversity, and the very real costs of a burnout-heavy work culture, more prospective employees are now eschewing the high salaries and Big Tech dreams.

And employee activism is rising: An increasing number of employees in the sector are protesting against the ugly side of Big Tech, the AP reports. Workers Amazon, Microsoft and Salesforce are mounting campaigns against industry ties to the US military and border security, while Google employees have protested against the company’s complicity with Chinese censorship.

Sawiris wants to get in on Egyptian mining: Naguib Sawiris told Reuters yesterday that the new Mineral Resources Act may persuade him to invest in Egypt’s gold and copper mining industries once the details of the legislation have been revealed. “We’re waiting for the details of the law. They issue a law and then the devil is in the details. Once this is done, we intend to look for gold and copper,” he said. El Sisi ratified the legislation last week.

We will apparently find out who will be taking the helm of the national football team today, according to Ahram Online. After several foreign coaches proved disappointing, the Egyptian Football Association is set on tapping an Egyptian for the top job, EFA interim head Amr El Ganaini said yesterday.

It was a quiet night on the airwaves yesterday, with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s meetings with Trump and Boris Johnson on the sidelines of the G7 summit meriting only a brief mention by Masaa DMC’s Eman Hosary (watch, runtime: 00:21). The president mainly focused on exploring solutions to Africa’s challenges, fighting terrorism and climate change during his France visit, she noted (watch, runtime: 00:39).

Egypt officially joined the Metz Charter on Biodiversity during the summit, Hosary said (watch, runtime: 00:36). The charter aims to promote the implementation of the three Rio conventions on climate, desertification and biological diversity. Africa is the continent most impacted by climate change despite accounting for only a fraction of the world’s emissions, El Sisi reportedly said. We have more on the El Sisi’s visit to the G7 in this morning’s Speed Round, below.

It’s a busy week for El Sisi, who will be meeting with African and Asian businessmen this week on the sidelines of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), El Hekaya’s Amr Adib said (watch, runtime: 02:00). The event is being co-chaired by Egypt and Japan and runs from 28-30 August.

A USD 500 mn agreement signed with India’s LuLu Hypermarket also earned some airtime with Hona Al Asema’s Lama Gebriel (watch, runtime: 00:38). We have more on the agreement in the Speed Round, below.

Egypt’s rate cut makes the market even more attractive to investors, says Credit Suisse: The CBE’s interest rate cut last week is making Egypt — already a “fundamentally attractive” market — all the more appealing for institutional investors, Credit Suisse’s Managing Director and Head of MENA equities Ahmed Badr told Bloomberg (watch, runtime: 04:49). Badr singled out companies such as Juhayna and Domty for being particularly attractive investments thanks to the recovery in consumer spending, but noted that real estate is not faring so well, with supply outweighing demand considerably. While it had been expected that the rate cut would make highly leveraged outfits like Palm Hills more attractive to investors, this hasn’t really proven to be the case because of the market dynamics, Badr added.

It may take time for the market to feel the long-term impact of monetary easing: The CBE made the right move with an aggressive rate cut, and is likely to continue its easing cycle, Badr says. But given the global sell-off, which is being driven by stock losses and risk withdrawal from emerging markets on the back of the trade war, the impact of the rate cut has not yet reached the Egyptian market as a whole. “In the long-term…[it’s] definitely positive for many high-leverage names, and for assets. But in the short-term, given what’s happening in the markets now, it’s not really filtering through,” he said.

INVESTMENT WATCH- Egypt signed a USD 500 mn agreement with India’s LuLu Hypermarket on Monday for four new retail outlets in Sixth of October City, New Cairo, and Obour City, the cabinet said in a statement. The company is also planning to build two logistics centers from which it will be targeting exports, particularly frozen fish, to markets in the GCC and Europe, the cabinet previously said.

Advisers: Arab Legal Consultants acted as counsel on the transaction.

DISPUTE WATCH- Health Ministry permanently suspends El Ezaby, Roshdy from pharmacy registry: A Health Ministry body has permanently removed pharmacists Ahmed El Ezaby and Hatem Roshdy from its registry over licensing-related breaches, Al Shorouk reported. The ministry’s Central Administration for Free Treatment and Licensing (CAFTL) has reportedly notified the Pharmacists Syndicate of its decision to suspend the two pharmacists. A number of other pharmacists have also been removed for one year.

Licensing-related breaches: A court ruling earlier this year ordered that El Ezaby and Roshdy be removed from the registry after finding them guilty of illegally buying the commercial names of 14 and 11 other pharmacists, respectively. This allowed them to open more than one pharmacy in a breach of the law. A Cairo court in 2017 ordered that an El Ezaby branch be shut down following a lawsuit brought by the Pharmacists Syndicate which alleged that the company had violated licensing regulations.

El Ezaby says decision is not valid: El Ezaby, who heads the Pharma Cosmetics & Appliances Chamber, told AMAY yesterday the decision was “illegal”. The owner of the locally recognized brand said that the CAFTL does not have the legal authority to take the decision, which he said should fall under the authority of the Central Administration for Pharma Affairs. El Ezaby said that he is in talks with the ministry to resolve the issue.

Business as usual: Most of the pharmacies affiliated with El Ezaby and Roshdy will continue to operate as normal,saida source from the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (FEDCOC)’s pharma division. Only the two pharmacies to which El Ezaby has licenses were ordered shut down while 150 other branches, which are under his brand but not license, are still operating normally, the source said. El Ezaby could pass on the license to another pharmacist to ensure the two branches remain open. The same applies to Roshdy’s 70 branches, the source said.

LEGISLATION WATCH- Parliament to review Data Protection Act in October: A draft of the Data Protection Act will be presented to the House of Representatives in October, Mohamed Hegazy, the head of the Communication Ministry’s legislation committee, told Al Mal. The legislation would introduce minimum one-year prison terms and fines ranging between EGP 100k and EGP 1 mn for anyone who illegally collects, trades, or discloses users’ personal data. Global tech companies have been lobbying the House to replace prison terms with fines, warning that severe punishment could scare investors.

Background: The 54-article legislation lays out the ground rules for how businesses use personal information collected online. The bill, which was initially expected to be presented to parliament last year, guarantees users’ right to access their private data at any time as well as give them the right to take legal action against parties responsible for data breaches and misuses of private information. The legislation also stipulates that a unit to protect personal data be established under the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) whose members shall be selected by the Justice Minister and given powers of arrest.

Warm words between El Sisi and Trump at G7 summit: US President Donald Trump said that Egypt has made “tremendous progress” during talks with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi yesterday, according to a White House statement. The two leaders met for the first time since April on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France to discuss trade, efforts to combat terrorism and solutions to the conflicts in Libya and Syria, an Ittihadiya statement said. “Egypt has made tremendous progress under a great leader’s leadership,” Trump said ahead of the talks. “[El Sisi] is a very tough man, I will tell you that. But he’s also a good man, and he’s done a fantastic job in Egypt.” El Sisi wrote on social media following the meeting that the talks “entrenched the strength and depth” of US-Egyptian ties.

Kushner’s Mideast peace plan coming soon? El Sisi and Trump also discussed the situation in Palestine, the statement says, without providing any further details. Trump told the press ahead of the meeting that his long-awaited Mideast peace plan may be revealed by the Israeli elections in September, the Jerusalem Post reported. El Sisi, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, and intelligence chief Abbas Kamel had met earlier this month with White House advisor Jared Kushner to discuss the Trump administration’s Israel-Palestine peace plan. Palestinian sources alleged in June that Kushner’s “Peace to Prosperity” plan involves trying to persuade us to give up a chunk of Sinai in order to create a greater Gaza area stretching to El Arish.

El Sisi holds talks with Macron, Johnson: El Sisi discussed economic ties, counterterrorism and regional issues with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron at the summit. The president raised the Middle East peace process and efforts to contain illegal immigration with Macron, and talked tourism with Johnson, presumably as it pertains to the resumption of British flights to Sharm El Sheikh.

EARNINGS WATCH- Elsewedy Electric’s net profit dropped 2.6% y-o-y in 2Q2019 to EGP 957.8 mn, down from EGP 983.8 mn during the same period last year, the company said in its earnings release (pdf). Revenues increased 2.1% to EGP 10.3 bn, which the company says was driven primarily by its turnkey projects segment. “Elsewedy Electric is well on its way to meeting the strategic objectives management has laid out for the year,” CEO Ahmed El Sewedy said. “Driven by our dynamic turnkey segment, Elsewedy’s top line has continued to display solid growth, registering an expansion of 7% year-on-year to record EGP 21.6 bn during the first half of the year.”

MOVES- Ahmed El Bassiouny named CBE sub-governor for economic research: Ahmed El Bassiouny (LinkedIn) has been appointed as sub-governor of the economic research at the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE). El Bassiouny succeeds Naglaa El Nozahy, who is currently the governor’s advisor on African affairs, Middle East News Agency reported. El Bassiouny will also maintain his position as sub-governor of the monetary policy sector.

Correction : 27/08/2019

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated El Bassiouny’s new title as head of the economic research division, rather than sub-governor of the division.

Countries across Africa have the potential to “leapfrog” the Fourth Industrial Revolution, with their “strong economic growth, increasing regional economic integration and diversification and young entrepreneurial demographic,” Dow Chemical’s president of sub-Saharan Africa Craig Arnold writes for the World Economic Forum. The key to this growth, Arnold says, is doubling down on boosting manufacturing by creating an attractive investment climate and carefully crafting public policy that can support industry. That includes good governance, a regulatory environment that helps rather than hampers investment, and a legislative framework that protects investors.

But it’s not just any manufacturing: Arnold says that African countries need to focus on “advanced manufacturing” as opposed to “sub-optimal scale manufacturing.” This means the development of a high value-added industrial base capable of supplying the world with cutting edge technologies. How do we do this? By sourcing cheap and reliable energy supplies, increasing trade, investing in education and training, building efficient relationships between public and private sectors, and optimizing the usage of resources, he says.

Coinciding with the El Sisi-Trump meeting at the G7 yesterday, human rights are once again getting attention in the foreign press: The Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Seib looks at the number of US citizens currently detained in Egypt, and asks why Trump hasn’t used his influence to secure their release. The Trump administration has had successes in freeing people in the past, but Seib says they have had a “limited impact” as more are detained after.

Syrians face renewed hostility: Syrians living in Egypt are concerned that the government will place harsher restrictions on their businesses after a popular Syrian restaurant in Alexandria was closed for “health code violations”, Al-Monitor reports. ِِِA video of the restaurant owner prompted a hostile social media campaign calling for the expulsion of Syrians, two months after lawyer Samir Sabry stoked fears of a “Syrian takeover” and called for tighter controls on Syrian businesses.

Other stories getting attention in the press:

• At Kabab Café in New York’s Little Egypt, improvisation and originality are the name of the game. Craving some cow-foot stew, lamb brain, camel, crocodile, or ostrich meat, or some spicy alpaca sausage? All are on the table, courtesy of chef and owner Ali El Sayed, the New Yorker reports.
• The Economist says that Egyptians are feeling nostalgic for the Mubarak era, which the magazine says was “less awful” than the country’s current climate.
• Egypt has been flagged as the top high-risk location for British holidaymakers to get food poisoning, with 95% of travel illness claims from British tourists coming after a trip to Hurghada, the Lancashire Post reports. It’s safe to say this is not a list we actually wanted to top.

It’s the story of space travel, but not as we know it, Jim. A group of women who trained in secret to become astronauts in 1961 narrowly missed out on going into space because of gender bias. The Mercury 13, female aviators who took the same grueling physical endurance tests as their male counterparts — and in some cases, outperformed them — are only now becoming known for their role in the first US human spaceflight program. After the private funding that had financed them was cut in 1962, members of the Mercury 13 pushed for a government sub-committee hearing in the hope of forcing NASA to start admitting women, but they were ultimately unsuccessful. One male astronaut from the Mercury Seven even testified that it “went against the social order” to have women in space.

The largely untold contribution of women to our early space history — through their work as engineers, in the control room, and as astronauts — is the theme of this episode of the When Women Win podcast. Science journalist Sue Nelson and Rana Nawas have a chat about why sidelining female talent is to the ultimate detriment of science and technology (listen, runtime: 34:04).

Egypt’s exports of chemicals decreased 10% in 1H2019 y-o-y to USD 2.4 bn from USD 2.7 bn in 2018 due to the delay of export subsidies and the low participation of companies in international exhibitions, Chemical & Fertilizers Export Council executive manager Walid Azzab said, according to AMAY. The government last month announced a new EGP 6 bn per year export subsidy framework.

BP is preparing to drill two new wells in the Atoll and Katameya natural gas fields in its North Damietta offshore concession in the Nile Delta, according to an Oil Ministry statement. The drilling work will cost USD 280 mn. The Atoll field is expected to produce 100 mcf/d of gas when it comes online in 4Q2020, while the Katameya field will produce 60 mcf/d of gas from 2Q2020.

Shell is set to begin drilling at the Montu well in its West Delta deep marine concession in the Mediterranean Sea this month, the company said in a statement (pdf). The Discoverer India drillship will drill 6k meters below the water’s surface, setting a new record as the deepest well in Egypt. The well is estimated to have a reserve of 4.7 tcf of natural gas and will take five months to drill.

Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker met yesterday with Huawei’s regional corporate head, Michael Li, to discuss the ministry’s plans to transition to a smart electricity grid, according to Al Masry Al Youm.

Cheesemaker Obourland is planning to begin operations at its new cow farm by the end of 2020 to help reduce the cost of buying raw milk, Investor Relations Manager Ramy El Ghazaly told the local press. The farm is initially set to produce 10 tonnes of milk per day, with production expected to increase to 50 tonnes per day in two years’ time.

ORA Developers is planning to invest between EGP 4-5 bn in its ZED project west of Cairo in 2019 and 2020, CEO Haitham Mohamed told Reuters’ Arabic service. The company is also looking to buy 850 feddans in the North Coast.

Transport Minister Kamel El Wazir met on Sunday with a World Bank delegation to discuss a potential cargo railway line connecting Alexandria with the Sixth of October dry port, according to a ministry statement. El Wazir tapped the Egyptian National Railways to conduct a feasibility study on the line. The USD 100 mn dry port has yet to be constructed.

Public Enterprises Minister Hisham Tawfik discussed with Chinese Ambassador to Cairo Liao Liqiang incentives the government will offer to partners in the joint project between China and El Nasr Automotive to set up an electric car factory, the ministry said in a statement (pdf), without providing further details. The ministry signed last month an agreement with an unnamed Chinese auto company to establish the factory, and is expected to sign the partnership MoU soon. Tawfik will travel to China next month to meet with auto manufacturers and visit their factories.

Food security startup Proteinea wins first place in Changelabs accelerator cycle: Proteinea, an Egyptian startup that provides food security and agriculture services, won first place in startup accelerator Changelabs’ first cycle, Al Mal reports. The startup was awarded EGP 1.5 mn from Blom Bank and the Dutch Development Bank (FMO).

The Environment Ministry is slapping fees on the use of Egypt’s “natural reserves,” including beaches, according to Egypt Today. According to the ministerial decision, Egyptians will be required to pay a EGP 25 “entrance fee” for any area that falls under the “natural reserves” category, while foreigners will be required to pay USD 5 during the daytime and USD 10 in the evening. It remains unclear whether these fees are applicable to privately owned beaches.

Egyptian college student Nancy Awad is offering female orphans in Egypt digital literacy classes with her initiative, Benat Seshat, according to StepFeed. Awad tells Stepfeed the initiative is meant to give the girls and women a concrete skill that will better equip them for the workforce. Benat Seshat’s pilot program brought together 40 young women aged 13-40.