Corporate Egypt gets an “F” for gender parity on boards

BIG NEWS AT HOME- Egypt is reportedly looking to get USD 3 bn from the International Monetary Fund under the one-year rapid financing instrument and the stand-by arrangement that the government has requested, according to a report in Al Shorouk citing an unnamed government official. Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly did not disclose the size of Egypt’s funding request to the lender, but analysts expect the figure to range between USD 2.8 bn and USD 4 bn.

BIG NEWS ABROAD- There are (very early) suggestions that the first several mn doses of a vaccine could be available in September. “In the worldwide race for a vaccine to stop the coronavirus, the laboratory sprinting fastest is at Oxford University,” former NYT Cairo bureau chief David Kirkpatrick writes for the Gray Lady this morning, noting that researchers at the Jenner Institute “now say that with an emergency approval from regulators, the first few mn doses of their vaccine could be available by September” — if it works. The Oxford team expects to kick off mass clinical trials of their vaccine by the end of May.

Why is the Oxford team so optimistic its vaccine might work? Because scientists in the US last month “inoculated six rhesus macaque monkeys with single doses of the Oxford vaccine. The animals were then exposed to heavy quantities of the virus that is causing the pandemic — exposure that had consistently sickened other monkeys in the lab. But more than 28 days later all six were healthy.” The story comes as the global case count for covid-19 broke the 3 mn barrier overnight.

Big news to start a very, very slow newsday — you’re reading what we figure is the shortest issue of Enterprise in … three or more years.

MORNING MUST-READ- It’s time for companies to shift from “just in time” to “just in case,” the Financial Times’ editorial board writes. In the pursuit of “maximum shareholder value” and “efficiency,” businesses have “sacrificed robustness, resilience and effectiveness. In many cases, they will turn out to have sacrificed the business itself.”

Investors are going to “shun fragile business models. Equity and bond markets are already discriminating sharply in favour of fundraising requests from companies with strong balance sheets and high credit ratings.” Winners could be those who are not just robust and flexible, but actively “anti-fragile” — outfits that can thrive and grow on chaos, if you want to oversimplify Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder.

Got fasting brain and not in the mood to read Antifragile? Start with this video of a presentation and panel discussion featuring Taleb back in 2013 (watch, runtime: 19:19) or this longer presentation by Taleb Microsoft Research (watch, runtime: 1:05:53). Got time? Watch the longer talk.

The markets this morning: Asian markets are down in early trading this morning and futures at dispatch time suggest Europe will open in the green and US shares in the red later today. The EGX30 closed flat yesterday with total turnover of about EGP 1 bn, or 51% above the trailing 90-day average.

So, when do we eat? Maghrib prayers are at 6:31pm and you’ll have until 3:40am to finish caffeinating. Fajr is coming one minute earlier every day through the end of the Holy Month.

COVID-19 IN EGYPT-

Egypt has now identified a total of 4,782 confirmed cases of covid-19 after the Health Ministry reported 248 new infections yesterday. The ministry also said that another 20 people had died from the virus, the highest single-day death toll to date, taking the total number of deaths since the outbreak began to 337. We now have a total of 1,602 confirmed cases that have since tested negative for the virus after being hospitalized or isolated, of whom 1,236 have fully recovered.

A journalist for Al Khamis newspaper is among the dead, State Information Service and Journalists’ Syndicate chief Diaa Rashwan said. Al Masry Al Youm has the story.

The Coptic church has reported two clergy members are the first church officials to have been infected with the virus that causes covid-19, Ahram Online writes.

The Foreign Ministry has resumed notary services as of Sunday following Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly’s decision last week to relax some covid-19 restrictions throughout Ramadan, according to the local press. The office provides authentication services for Egyptian documents that need to be submitted to foreign agencies and institutions, such as diplomas and marriage certificates.

Some Justice Ministry registry offices are also now open, but offering a limited list of services.

Still closed: Passport services for nationals as well as visa and work permits for foreign residents.

The Egyptian Businessmen’s Association is lobbying Cabinet for a raft of measures to support businesses struggling with the impact of the covid-19, according to Hapi Journal. Among the measures proposed by the association:

• Postponing payments on land plots for real estate developers for six months and extending the completion deadlines of real estate projects one year;
• Charging a single, unified price for natural gas regardless of industry;
• Allowing tech-focused companies to apply for help under the Central Bank of Egypt’s stimulus package and SME support initiative;
• Imposing measures to curb imports of products that have domestic alternatives and take a tighter approach on the anti-dumping front;
• Collecting dues from foreign tour operators to Egyptian companies and hotels.

Nestlé Egypt has temporarily suspended operations at one of its 6 October factories after confirming cases of covid-19 among factory employees, according to Al Masry Al Youm. The company is disinfecting its facility and will resume work as soon as possible.

Some 2.5 mn day laborers have received the first of three EGP 500 monthly stipends ordered as part of the national bailout package for covid-19, Manpower Minister Mohamed Saafan told MENA. Distribution of the second of the three payments started yesterday. The ministry has also disbursed EGP 57 mn to 48k workers in the tourism industry from its emergency fund, a cabinet statement said.

The domestic press gave wide attention yesterday to the Tourism Ministry’s decision to yank the license of an unnamed hotel in Sharm El Sheikh for allegedly having laid off workers despite having been directed to stay at full employment and seek bailout funding from the government.

DONATIONS-

DHL Egypt is teaming up with Baheya Cancer Hospital to deliver meds and other supplies to cancer patients at home, according to a statement (pdf). The partnership is meant to protect patients from the risk of covid-19 infection.

IN OUR REGION-

The impact of falling oil prices is ricocheting around the Middle East, the Associated Press writes, saying that Iraq is risks further bouts of social unrest as it plans severe cutbacks to social programs, Saudi crown prince Mohamed bin Salman’s reform ambitions have come to a juddering halt, and remittances to Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon from Gulf workers are under threat.

Protesters in Lebanon’s Tripoli smashed bank storefronts and set at least one on fire in protests overnight that Reuters says were “fuelled by Lebanon’s economic crisis.” Banks in the city are shut starting today “until security is restored.”

Prepare for more unrest: The disruption is likely to give way to destabilization in the hardest hit countries in the Middle East, with Algeria, Iraq and Lebanon likely to face particularly incendiary responses from their publics, Andrew England writes in the FT. “The coronavirus has exposed the fragility of the social safety-net systems across the region,” said Lina Khatib, head of the Middle East programme at Chatham House. “Covid-19 has postponed the inevitable unrest to come.”

GCC countries are ready to flog state assets to prop up finances, Citi says, in bids to ease pressure on public finances, Bloomberg reports. GCC countries have already sold USD 47 bn in bonds this year with more than half of that coming from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi in just the past month.

ON THE GLOBAL FRONT-

Think the recent IMF forecast was bad? Bloomberg just went one step further: The global economy will contract by 4% this year, resulting in more than USD 6 tn in lost output, according to a Bloomberg Economics estimate. The IMF earlier this month forecast global economic activity to fall 3% through 2020 but Bloomberg now warns of a deeper recession “of unprecedented speed and severity.”

This apparently is the optimistic view: The estimate is based on the “optimistic assumption” that the economy begins to recover in the second half of the year. This is hardly a given though: As governments begin to relax the restrictions that have crippled economic activity the risk of a second wave of infections is high. This could cause the world economy to contract by an even deeper 5.6%, and if the policy responses are insufficient we could be looking at a staggering 7.2% drop in output. “Governments should err on the side of doing too much stimulus. In the end, the cost of doing too little would be higher,” the report says.

And this is exactly what they’re doing:

• Bank of Japan takes a leaf from the Fed’s playbook, promises unlimited bond-buying: The Bank of Japan yesterday pledged to buy unlimited amounts of government debt and expand corporate bond purchases fourfold in response to the “grave effect” of the coronavirus on the Japanese economy, the Financial Times reports.
• ECB expected to hoover up junk bonds: Economists expect the European Central Bank to expand its EUR 750 bn pandemic bond-buying programme to include high-yielding corporate debt, the FT says.

US oil prices dipped again, with WTI June futures shedding nearly 24% to settle at USD 12.78 yesterday after the world’s biggest oil-backed exchange traded fund announced offloading short term contracts over price fears, according to the Financial Times. The United States Oil Fund said it has moved to dispose of all its futures for delivery in June.

It’s crazy enough out there that Egypt has just flipped to become a net exporter of gasoline: The Middle East Oil Refinery and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation are back in the spot market and are dumping gasoline cargoes into the Gulf, S&P Global Platts reports, citing market sources. “Egypt’s transition from an importer to an exporter of gasoline comes as more severe measures have been taken to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Exacerbating matters for Egyptian refiners, Europe is facing a glut of motor fuel, and with Egyptian barrels often not meeting European specifications and the possibility of high sulfur, homes for the fuel are limited in the west, with storage east a possibility.”

European banks are preparing for a deluge of non-performing loans, the FT reports.

Global aviation could take two or three years to recover to pre-pandemic levels, Boeing CEO David Calhoun said, according to the Wall Street Journal.

EGYPT BEYOND COVID-

The House of Representatives’ general assembly is set to begin discussing the Banking and Central Bank Act next week, House Economic Committee member Rep. Hassan El Sayed told Al Mal. The latest draft of the bill we saw came a long way from when it was proposed in 2017 and would grant the Central Bank of Egypt greater oversight of the sector, introduce measures governing e-payment, fintech businesses, and cryptocurrencies, and strengthen data protection and consumer privacy.

It remains unclear whether a mooted tithe on bank profits to endow an industry development fund will be part of the version of the legislation that goes before lawmakers next week.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi signed off yesterday on a three-month extension of the nationwide state of emergency, according to Al Masry Al Youm. The House of Representatives had approved the extension earlier this month.

AND IN THE REST OF THE WORLD-

Is North Korea getting its first woman ruler? Uncertainty surrounding the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is spurring questions on whether the nation could see his sister become the first woman ruler, according to Bloomberg. The Financial Times also has a look at Kim Yo Jong, 32, writing that she “was a favourite of her father, late leader Kim Jong Il, who admired her intelligence” who has been “groomed for power since her teens.”

Irrefutable proof that the Ramadan news slowdown is upon us: The talking heads had next to nothing to say on the airwaves last night.

Covid-19 was still the main talking point, with Al Kahera Alaan’s Lamees El Hadidi calling up Presidential Health Affairs Advisor Mohamed Awad Tag Eldin, who urged people to not let their guards down and continue to take precautionary measures, including wearing masks and avoiding crowded spaces (watch, runtime: 2:40). Lamees also recapped the Health Ministry’s daily case tally (watch, runtime: 1:26).

End-of-year exams were of particular importance to Amr Adib, who touched on Education Minister Tarek Shawky’s statement that Thanaweya Amma students who refuse to take the exams will simply flunk out, covid-19 or not (watch, runtime: 0:54). Adib also urged parents to skip the tradition of waiting for their kids outside the exam sites, where they would be at high risk of infection from potential virus carriers (watch, runtime: 3:06).

Egypt’s boards of directors get an “F” on gender parity for 2019: Egyptian companies failed to make headway on gender parity on corporate boards in 2019, with the situation in public sector firms actually regressing to become more male-dominated, the Women on Boards Observatory’s (WoB) 2019 report (pdf) finds. Women filled only 10% of the 5.7k board positions of the surveyed companies.

Listed companies tread water: EGX-listed companies failed to diversify their boards in 2019 and actually saw the percentage of women board members fall marginally to 10.1% from 10.2%.

More than one out of every two boards of EGX-listed companies don’t have a woman member — or 53.6% of them, to be precise.

Public enterprises lead the way in how not to meet diversity targets: State-owned companies saw significant regression in board diversity during 2019 despite the government committing to achieving 30% representation by 2030. The number of firms with 30%+ women board members halved to just 5% while a stunning 73% have zero female representation. Across the sector, just 6.1% of board members are women.

The banking sector provides a ray of light: Banks stand out as the only sector to have made real gender parity gains last year, increasing the percentage of women board members to 14.8% from 11.4%. A quarter of banks remain all-male, down from 41.2% in 2018, and the number of boards with 30%+ women members trebled to 9%.

Companies across the economy are going to need to shape up if the government’s 2030 targets are going to be met: The report estimates that 113 women now need to be appointed to boards every year to achieve the target of 30% representation by 2030.

M&A WATCH- Ezdehar Egypt Mid-Cap Fund is looking to acquire a minority stake in Al Taisier Medical Holding Group, writes Al Mal, citing sources familiar with the matter. The private equity outfit is still carrying out due diligence and has not yet come to an agreement on the stake size or final valuation.

Al Taisier is pushing ahead with its EGP 700 mn expansion plan despite the disruption caused by the covid-19 pandemic and is said to be in talks with several foreign funds and investors for financing and potential stake sales, the sources said. It has begun construction on an EGP 200 mn upgrade to its Zagazig Hospital, which will expand capacity by an additional 90 beds. The company is also looking to expand out of Sharqia, raising EGP 150 mn in fresh capital last year to build a new hospital on the Banha-Mansoura road.

EBRD, AfDB team up with local banks to finance 70% of Sixth of October dry port: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and a handful of unnamed local banks will finance 70% of the USD 176 mn Sixth of October dry port, Al Mal reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. The EBRD will reportedly stump up 25-30% of the bank finance while the exact contributions from the AfDB and local banks are currently being negotiated. The Elsewedy / Schenker / 3A consortium chosen by the government to build the port will cover the remaining 30%.

Background: A consortium consisting of Elsewedy Electric, Schenker Egypt, and 3A International was earlier this year awarded the contract to build the planned 100-feddan dry port under a public-private partnership framework. The port will be able to handle 720k cargo containers a year, and will contain cargo zones, customs clearance offices, and multipurpose storage facilities linked to key seaports. Construction of the port was originally slated to begin at the end of February and reach completion by the end of 2021.

M&A WATCH- Regulator to review Sika Egypt’s MTO for Bitumode: The Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) has received and will begin reviewing a mandatory tender offer (MTO) Sika Egypt submitted for up to 100% of Modern Waterproofing (Bitumode), according to Mubasher. Sika’s offer will price Bitumode’s shares at EGP 3.79 if shareholders agree to sell up to 95% of the company’s shares. If more than 95% of the shares are up for grabs, Sika will set the share price at EGP 3.91.

EARNINGS WATCH- Juhayna Food Industries’ consolidated net profit rose 60% y-o-y in 1Q2020 to EGP 113.6 mn, up from EGP 72 mn during the same period last year, according the company’s earnings statement (pdf).

MOVES- Palm Hills Development has accepted Mohamed Soliman’s resignation from his position as COO and his seat at the company’s board of directors, the company said in an EGX filing (pdf).

Are we at risk of a “hunger pandemic”? Covid-19 lockdowns imposed by governments around the world have led to fears that food security issues are on the horizon. Earlier in the crisis, acute shortages were said to be picking up steam as the outbreak led to a sudden lack of field workers and a worldwide trend of “food nationalism.” More recently, the United Nations singled out countries already embroiled in environmental issues or conflict and unrest as those at a risk of famines of “biblical proportions.” The most pressing issue is that the world post-corona could nearly double its number of people living in poverty and hunger to upward of 250 mn, a report by the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) estimates.

The fundamental threat is not that the world doesn’t have enough stocks of food, but rather rising poverty from the economic slowdown and risks of hunger and mounting unrest in embattled and poor countries, says the Financial Times. Any “unjustified” containment measure that leads to food spikes on international markets, or has potential to restrict food access in vulnerable countries could ultimately lead to a refugee crisis mirroring that of 2016, WFP chief economist Arif Husain said.

One threat to food stability came from a Russian wheat cut-off this week, but only temporarily: Russia, the world’s largest wheat supplier, has temporarily suspended grain shipments to all but four nearby former Soviet countries as it seeks to ensure adequate domestic supply, reports Bloomberg. Although the ban is expected only until Russian farmers start harvesting crops in July, it’s fueling fears of worldwide food shortages.

The ban also threatens heavy importers — and we’re the biggest grain importer in the world. The ban has a direct effect on plans by Egypt state wheat importer, GASC, to purchase thousands of tonnes of wheat during the local harvest season to curb any possible shortage. If conditions in Black Sea countries, GASC’s favorite source markets, worsens, this could imply the state grain buyer will need to rush to stockpile the crop quicker than initially planned, says the business information service.

Measures such as the Russian ban are examples of what G20 agriculture and food ministers warned against in a virtual meeting last Tuesday as “unnecessary barriers to trade” that should be avoided.

Pictured above: Two men are distributing food to help Cairo’s needy break their Ramadan fast (credits to Sima Diab). The image was featured in a New York Times gallery capturing snippets from major Islamic cities during this year’s unusual holy month.

Meet the guy who is taking Egyptian students into e-learning: This week on Making It — our podcast on how to build a great business in Egypt — we talked to Mohamed El Kalla, the CEO of education outfit CIRA. Amidst the global pandemic, school closures, and lockdowns, El Kalla is trying to give the 30k students in CIRA schools a small sense of normalcy. The company had invested in edtech for years now and it's all coming to test now as school children have to act like online grad school students and parents have to become teaching assistants. El Kalla gave us a first hand account of how hard it was to get us here — and discusses why CIRA sees value in serving the nation’s middle class (listen, runtime: 47:11).

Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed Georgy Borisenko as Russia’s new ambassador to Egypt, according to Russian news agency TASS. Borisenko, who is currently head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s North America department, will Sergei Kirpichenko, who died suddenly at a Cairo hospital last year.

We don’t export much cement, and the volume of what we do export slumped in the first quarter. Egypt’s exports of cement dropped 18% y-o-y in 1Q2020 to USD 31 mn, compared to USD 38 mn in 1Q2019, according to figures (pdf) from the Export Council for Building Materials, Refractories, and Metallurgy Industries. The government had been expected last year to start working on an export subsidies program for cement producers, and encourage companies in a sector suffering from chronic oversupply to seek contracts with Africa.

Other export figures released by the council include copper, aluminum, ceramics, and pipes. You can find the full list of first quarter figures here.

The Transport Ministry has launched a tender for the restoration of the Raml tram in Alexandria, according to the local press. France’s Alstom is among the companies bidding for the job, according to Alstom Egypt General Manager Mohamed Khalil. The ministry had awarded a previous tender to design and oversee the restoration to a consortium of French and Egyptian companies. The EUR 360 mn project is partially funded by a EUR 100 mn loan from the French Development Agency.

The Alexandria Port is set to complete its EGP 840 mn cargo truck overpass, EGP 460 multi-storey garage, and new mooring and docking facilities within two years, Transport Minister Kamel El Wazir said (watch, runtime: 6:33). The port’s development, which will cost a total of EGP 6 bn including EGP 5.1 bn of construction work, is one of several port upgrades that have not been slowed down by covid-19.

Lighting products manufacturer Futek Micro Electronics is on track to inaugurate a EGP 500 mn LED lamps factory in Sadat City in two months, Chairman Mohamed Helal told Al Shorouk. The company had put the factory on hold last month as the covid-19 outbreak led to supply disruptions, including preventing the company from importing Chinese machines.

The National Railways Authority is closing in on a EGP 3 bn loan agreement with Banque Misr and the National Bank of Egypt to finance the authority’s transition to an electric railway signaling system and the purchase of spare parts for its fleet, according to Al Mal. NBE is the lead arranger for the loan, with each bank providing EGP 1.5 bn. The loan will carry a 16-year tenor.

The Tourism and Antiquities Ministry launched a virtual tour of Islamic art, including an Ottoman-era door from the Muhammad Ali Dynasty, which is currently on display at the Museum of Islamic Art (watch, runtime: 1:24).