EnterpriseAM — What next term looks like for the nation’s schools

TL;DR

CTP Invest to build business parks in Egypt at a cost of up to USD 600 mn. (Investment Watch)
Sarwa and state-backed Al Taamir are teaming up on securitization. (Debt Watch)
Daily covid-19 cases inch up — and deaths surge after weekend respite. (Covid Watch)
Non-bank lenders could soon scrap charges for clients aged 16-21. (Financial Inclusion)
Natgas companies are going to pay more to use the national grid to move product this year. (Energy)
Luxor + Aswan tourism is slowly crawling back to a recovery. (Tourism)
Catch up from EnterprisePM: Aton Holding acquires Pharos Asset Management + Ebtikar starts its march towards an IPO. (What We’re Tracking Today)
What second term looks like for the nation’s schools. (Blackboard)
Planet Finance: The SPAC bandwagon rolls on…

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

Good morning, wonderful people, and welcome to the slowest domestic news morning of 2021 so far.

THE BIG STORY HERE AT HOME is the Sisi administration’s plan to allow international, private and public schools to move back to in-person classes with flexibility for parents who want to keep their kids at home. We have chapter and verse in this morning’s Blackboard as well as in Last Night’s Talk Shows, including coverage of Education Minister Tarek Shawki’s press conference yesterday and a statement by President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.

THE BIG STORY globally this morning: Bupkis. It’s crickets this AM. Everyone in the US of A has a Trump acquittal hangover and markets are closed today — 15 February is a federal holiday in observance of Presidents’ Day in the US, so the NYSE and the Nasdaq are closed. Much of Canada is boarded up today in observance of Family Day.

CATCH UP QUICK– Missed yesterday’s EnterprisePM? These were the big stories:

The guys who brought you Prime Medical and Prime Speed are getting into finance: Aton Holding acquired Pharos Asset Management and its Pharos Fund I back in mid-January for an undisclosed amount, Mostafa Attia, managing director of Pharos Asset Management and a founder at Aton, told us.
Payments firm Ebtikar has started its march toward an IPO, transferring the shares of Tamweel Holding to a new parent company as part of a plan to spin off activities not related to e-payments, Ebtikar owners B Investments and MM Group said.
Egypt has weathered the worst of the pandemic, but authorities must now push on with “deep” structural reforms to empower the private sector, the Institute of International Finance said in a report.

FOLLOWUP on the Aton / Pharos story: Pharos’ Elwy Taymour confirms that the asset management business, including the company itself and the funds it controlled, were both on the auction block. “This furthers what we were doing in exiting the investment banking business overall and pivoting toward fintech,” he said. “This was the final part of the puzzle, and with the asset management sale, we’re now out of the investment banking business overall. Kashat is the flagship of our expansion into fintech and there’s more to come.” Our friend Karim Nour joined Kashat as co-founder last fall; the outfit launched its first national nano-credit campaign last month.

WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY-

The House of Representatives is catching up today and tomorrow on bills and reports that were originally on its agenda for yesterday. These include the Senate’s bylaws and a bill that would grant an income tax break to investors on interest earned from bonds issued abroad. A committee report on Information Minister Osama Heikal’s policy statement was also scheduled for yesterday but appears to have been postponed as the minister asked for time to prepare his defense.

Justice Minister Omar Marwan is also set to deliver his address to parliament tomorrow.

Shiny gauge to watch this morning #1: Oil rose overnight to hit its highest level in more than a year on “fears of fresh Middle East tensions,” Reuters suggests. Or maybe because … traders like a rally? And are buying into the climate-destroying commodity after it broke the somehow psychologically important USD 60 / bbl barrier last week?

Shiny gauge to watch this morning #2: You know things are getting frothy with BTC when Bloomberg starts discussing how a unit of Morgan Stanley is debating whether to take a position. The price of BTC is on the verge of hitting USD 50k for the first time and Canada has just become the host of the world’s first BTC exchange-traded fund ETF provider Purpose Investments said in a statement. “The ETF will be the first in the world to invest directly in physically settled Bitcoin, not derivatives,” and will trade on the Toronto stock exchange under the ticker BTCC, the company said. What could go wrong?

PSA- A cold front is set to move in tonight, blanketing Cairo and Alexandria with cold temperatures and likely some rain for the next several days. Our favourite weather app warns us to expect a low of 14°C tomorrow and 12°C on Wednesday in the capital city. Cairo could see showers both days, but Alex is facing the prospect of nearly 30 mm of rain on Tuesday and as much as 15 mm on Wednesday.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Madbouly to chat with business community: AmCham Egypt and the Egypt-US Business Council will host a webinar headlined "Egypt: 2021 and Beyond" on 18 February. Guest speaker Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly will talk about Egypt’s strategy to mitigate the effects of the global downturn as well as the country’s future plans to maintain economic growth.

The Columbia Entrepreneurs Organization will be hosting a MENA x CEO panel on venture capital and entrepreneurism in our neck of the woods. The gathering headlined “Investor Perspectives from New York to North Africa” takes place this Wednesday, 17 February. Lots of friends are among the panelists, including Global Ventures Managing Director Amal Enan, HOF Capital Managing Partner Onsi Sawiris, AAF Management General Partner and CFO Omar Darwazah and AUC Entrepreneurship Professor Ayman Ismail. Tap or click here to register.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

CORRECTION #1- We slipped up in a story on financial services company Ebtikar’s IPO plans, incorrectly stating that the EGX listing is planned for 1H2021, in yesterday’s EnterprisePM issue. Ebtikar is looking to make its debut in 2H2021. The story has since been corrected on our website. We regret the error.

CORRECTION #2- We incorrectly wrote yesterday that Donald Trump had avoided impeachment for the second time. The former president avoided conviction at his second impeachment trial. We have updated the story on our website and sent the offending (sleep-deprived) writer to their room without desert in punishment.

(Speaking of The Donald: He may have been acquitted in his second trial, but the guy’s legal troubles [potentially both civil and criminal] are just beginning. The Financial Times has a hard time keeping a straight face with its report.)

*** It’s Blackboard day: We have our weekly look at the business of education in Egypt, from pre-K through the highest reaches of higher ed. Blackboard appears every Monday in Enterprise in the place of our traditional industry news roundups.

In today’s issue: After being ordered to go online, public, private, and international schools and universities have been waiting for instructions on how to proceed with term two of the academic year. Parents, students, and administrators finally got some more clarity on when (and how) teaching will resume, as well as how standardized exams and assessments on the national curriculum will be administered.

INVESTMENT WATCH

DEBT WATCH

FINANCIAL INCLUSION

ENERGY

TOURISM

EARNINGS WATCH

This publication is proudly sponsored by

Pharos Holding - https://pharoslive.com/

ENTERPRISE+: LAST NIGHT’S TALK SHOWS

The airwaves were awash with coverage of the government’s plans for the second term of the academic year, with each of Education Minister Tarek Shawki and Higher Education Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar blanketing last night’s talk shows to break down the plans. We have chapter and verse on the plans in Blackboard, below.

Balancing educational continuity with fair assessments: The decisions laid out in the plan, including the resumption of classes and how exams will be administered, are designed to give students the best education possible while assessing them as fairly as possible, all things considered, Shawki told Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi. Although in-person exams do run the risk of spreading covid-19, last year’s experiment with exams administered entirely online had mixed results, with some students abusing the system and others feeling like they were not able to put their best foot forward, he said (watch, runtime: 26:57).

Shawki had similar conversations with each of Masaa DMC’s Eman El Hosary (watch, runtime: 5:03), El Hekaya’s Amr Adib (watch, runtime: 25:01), and Ala Mas'ouleety's Ahmed Moussa (watch, runtime: 25:01).

Universities and other higher education institutions are largely moving ahead as normal, and students will be examined on their full curricula with no content expected to be removed, Abdel Ghaffar told Masaa DMC’s Eman El Hosary (watch, runtime: 3:37). Students have the right to decide to postpone their exams, or re-take the school year if they don’t think they can do their best in the current circumstances, he told Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa (watch, runtime: 21:41)

The government is prepared to handle several scenarios that could unfold as the year moves ahead, with instructions from President Abdel Fattah El Sisi to take strict precautionary measures to protect students’ health, Ittihadiya spokesperson Bassam Rady told Al Hayah Al Youm’s Lobna Assal (watch, runtime: 10:17).

Egypt has proven its ability to make good on its debt payments and the economy has been able to withstand major shocks, while registering one of the highest GDP growth rates globally last year despite the pandemic, Banque du Caire’s Tarek Fayed told Ala Mas'ouleety's Ahmed Moussa (watch, runtime: 27:07).

WATCH THIS SPACE- There’s tension brewing down south at the border between Sudan and Ethiopia, after each country accused the other’s forces of crossing over. Sudan sees a threat in Ethiopia’s alleged move to transfer heavy weaponry to the border, while Ethiopia has been on guard since Sudan dispatched army forces, Sudanese newspaper Al Tayyar’s editor-in-chief Osama Mirghani told El Hekaya’s Amr Adib (watch, runtime: 5:54).

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PLANET FINANCE

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The SPAC bandwagon rolls on: VC firm Khosla Ventures filed plans on Friday to raise a combined USD 1.2 bn for three special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), according to Bloomberg. The single-day triple filing underpins what has so far been a banner year for blank-check firms in the US: after setting new records in 2020, this year has already seen 143 SPACs attract more than USD 44 bn — and there are at least another 113 firms looking to raise USD 30 bn lining up for IPOs.

The USD’s recent slide is good news for investors in emerging markets looking to make bank in greenbacks when they exit a position — just don’t mistake that as good news for actual EM economies, whose exports just got more expensive. (Bloomberg)

EGX30	11,506	-0.3% (YTD: +6.1%)
USD (CBE)	Buy 15.56	Sell 15.66
USD at CIB	Buy 15.55	Sell 15.65
Interest rates CBE	8.25% deposit	9.25% lending
Tadawul	9,036	+1.0% (YTD: +4.0%)
ADX	5,666	– (YTD: +12.3%)
DFM	2,623	-0.4% (YTD: +5.3%)
S&P 500	3,935	+0.5% (YTD: +4.8%)
FTSE 100	6,590	+0.9% (YTD: +2.0%)
Brent crude	USD 63.40	+1.6%
Natural gas (Nymex)	USD 3.02	+3.9%
Gold	USD 1,823.30	–
BTC	USD 48,383.04	+1.6%

The EGX30 fell 0.3% yesterday on turnover of EGP 1.53 bn (6.3% above the 90-day average). Local investors were net buyers. The index is up 6.1% YTD.

In the green: MM Group (+7.4%), Fawry (+2.5%) and CI Capital (+1.1%).

In the red: Eastern Company (-2.8%), GB Auto (-2.8%) and Heliopolis Housing (-2.8%).

Asian shares are having a great morning today. Futures suggest European markets should follow suit in a few hours’ time, while US and Canadian markets are closed today for national holidays.

AROUND THE WORLD

How Egypt’s schools will resume teaching in the second term: After being ordered to go online, public, private, and international schools and universities have been waiting for instructions on how to proceed with term two of the academic year. The Madbouly Cabinet announced over the weekend that public schools and universities are getting an extension to their mid-year break. At a press conference yesterday, Education Minister Tarek Shawki laid out the full details of what the rest of the academic year will look like for public, private, and international schools — including exam schedules and covid-19 precautions public schools will be required to follow.

International schools will be able to resume teaching on 21 February, with each school given the freedom to set its own schedule and policies, Shawki said at the presser. The ministry will follow up with more details on back-to-school procedures for these schools at the end of the month, according to the minister.

Public schools, on the other hand, will resume in-person teaching on 10 March, but parents will be given the choice of not sending their kids to class, provided they submit a formal request to the relevant education administration, the minister said. The government had temporarily allowed this option in December, and President Abdel Fattah El Sisi instructed his government yesterday to continue allowing parents to choose what they see as best for their children, according to an Ittihadiya statement.

Egyptian universities, meanwhile, are expected to resume classes next Saturday, 27 February, and colleges of theoretical specializations will hold their exams online, said Higher Education Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, according to the local press.

The decision to resume in-person schooling received positive responses from international school administrators: Despite good feedback from parents, students, and teachers on the blended learning model, administrators are keen to resume in-person learning, particularly for younger children. “There is an urge from parents, from kids, wanting to go back,” said El Alsson Executive Director Karim Rogers. AIS Director Kapono Ciotti told us the school’s staff were “really excited to get kids back in school. That's important for learning, specifically for our younger kids. So it's in general very good news.” This meshes with the findings of our blended learning poll last December, where only 17% of respondents said they would prefer fully online learning going forward, and 83% saying they would prefer either full time in person teaching, or a blended learning model.

International schools are opting for different models to resume teaching: El Alsson will be going back to full-time in-person classroom learning with safety measures in place, according to Rogers, with the option to close down the class or year group if covid-19 cases are detected. Malvern College will welcome students back on a 50-50 rotation schedule, with one group attending Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and another attending on Mondays and Wednesdays to minimize contact, said Malvern College CEO Azza El Sherbiny. Malvern will be following the “flipped learning system,” where students will be given material beforehand to prepare for their in person classes. AIS, on the other hand, is looking at adopting a hybrid system that involves custom in person and online learning times for younger and older students, depending on their needs, with a focus on “getting as much face to face time for all of them as we can,” AIS’ Ciotti tells us. Little will change for education provider CIRA’s 19 schools, says CEO Mohamed El Kalla, as they were already running a hybrid system in the first term, though they will “need to increase the online component a bit to cover those who decide to study fully from home.”

But the alternative teaching systems are expected to come with higher operational costs for some: Malvern College plans to have teachers assist primary school children with online learning, which will come with significant OPEX costs, El Sherbiny tells us, in addition to running buses at 50% capacity and covering the regular sanitation of facilities. “But we have to make sure the kids are able to come to school … irrespective of what we have to pay,” she tells us. Schools had been increasing spending on sanitation and maintenance over the past year of blended learning, with some witnessing an increase of as much as 30-40%.

IGCSE exams will take place in Egypt as usual, despite their cancellation in many other countries, said the minister. The decision came as a surprise to several international school administrators. Exam boards Pearson and AQA had both said they would not be holding IGCSE exams in Egypt this year, El Alsson’s Rogers told us, though the British Council and Cambridge have yet to announce whether they will do the same. The minister’s announcement leaves room for Pearson and AQA to backtrack and go on with exams as normal. Malvern College CEO Azza El Sherbiny said they would welcome the return of the IGCSEs, as it has been a burden on teachers to prepare in-house teacher assessments in lieu of exams.

What about American system + standardized exams? The Egyptian Scholastic Test (EST) will be the only recognized exam for admission into Egyptian universities, said the minister, while the SAT will only be used for admission into international universities. It is unclear how the SATs will be used for admissions in light of their cancellation till June 2021, which has driven an increasing number of students towards the alternative ACT exam in Egypt. “I know that our kids have applied for EST and ACT because these are the only two functional exams at the moment,” said El Alsson’s Karim Rogers, adding that some students who had the means had traveled abroad in order to sit the SATs. The use of the EST as the primary admissions test for Egyptian universities is seen as “a good equalizer, that allows everybody and all schools to have an equal shot at making it into university,” AIS Director Kapono Ciotti tells us.

Public school students will sit for their first term exams (which were postponed) in person between 27 February and 9 March, said the minister. Year groups that are required to take in-person exams (fourth grade and above) will only be made to come in on one day to minimize exposure. Children in fourth grade up to the second year of prep school (equivalent to eighth grade) will sit one combined and abridged exam on all essential subjects for term one, and will have their assessments for “non-essential” subjects postponed until the end of the school year. Students in the first and second years of secondary school will sit an electronic exam for term one essential subjects at their schools, and will take a monthly electronic exam for each subject from their homes during the second term.

Term 2 assessments for public school students will take place through a combination of in-person written and online exams: Children between fourth and eighth grade will sit one monthly exam for all subjects and will be awarded grades based on the average results on the three exams. Students in ninth grade, or their third and final year of preparatory school (a so-called certificate year) will take their written exams in June. Students in their 12th grade, which is the third and final year of secondary school and also a certificate year, will sit a trial electronic exam from home in April, and will sit their Thanaweyya Amma final exams electronically at school, according to the standard schedule.

For international school students, exams in so-called “identity subjects” — Arabic, religion, and social studies — will be postponed till the end of the year.

Everything could change if the covid situation gets worse: A government source told Al Shorouk that second term exams may have to be canceled if Egypt sees an upsurge in cases in April and May. The Health Ministry had floated a proposal to take term one exam results as students’ final score in the event that schools and universities need to halt in person teaching again. Parents wishing that their child repeats the school year can also submit an official request to the education administration. This comes after Health Minister Hala Zayed said over the weekend that we could be on track to see covid cases peaking again sometime in April.

What we’re still waiting to hear: The exam schedule for students abroad and those enrolled in vocational schools will be announced before the end of the week, the minister said.

Your top education stories for the week:

University operator Taaleem Management Services is planning to make an initial public offering of its shares on the EGX some time in 1Q2021.
Public schools and universities are getting an extra week tacked onto their mid-year holiday, and will begin their second term on Sunday, 28 February.
Teachers and university professors will likely be prioritized when distribution of the upcoming large-scale deliveries of vaccines begins rolling out.
Samsung will manufacture 1 mn tablets each year in Egypt under a tender led by the education, communications and military production ministries.

CALENDAR

Your essential business calendar on 15 February 2021

February: France’s finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, is set to visit Egypt.

6-27 February (Saturday-Saturday): Mid-year school break (public schools — enjoy the break from bumper-to-bumper traffic).

7-28 February (Sunday-Sunday): The Finance Ministry will receive applications from companies wishing to take part in the second phase of its program for the immediate payout of export subsidy arrears to exporters, minus a 15% fee.

12-15 February (Friday-Monday): Students will be able to apply for placement at private universities on the Higher Education Ministry’s electronic university admissions site

17 February (Wednesday): MENA x CEO MENA Entrepreneurship & VC Panel: Investor Perspectives from New York to North Africa will be hosted by the Columbia Entrepreneurs Organization.

20 February (Saturday): Final results of applications for private university places will be announced on the Higher Education Ministry’s electronic university admissions site

22-24 February (Monday-Wednesday): Second Arab Land Conference on land management, efficient land use, among other topics.

22 February- 5 March (Monday-Friday) Egypt will host the World Shooting Championship in 6 October’s Shooting Club, with 31 countries set to participate

26 February (Thursday): The Afro Future Summit will take place virtually.

28 February (Sunday) Deadline for businesses, sole traders, and those generating income from sources other than their day job to file wage tax returns through the electronic filing system.

March: Potential visit to Cairo by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

1 March: Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum comes into effect.

1-5 March (Monday-Friday): Aswan Forum for Peace and Development will take place virtually.

4-6 March (Thursday-Saturday): Cairo Fashion & Tex trade show, Cairo International Convention Centre, Cairo, Egypt

8 March (Monday): The IDC Future of Work Egypt conference will be held virtually featuring experts from Egypt and Jordan.

9-11 March (Tuesday-Thursday): EduGate 2021 – Enter The Future conference, Kempinski Royal Maxim Hotel, Cairo, Egypt.

18 March (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

1-3 April (Thursday-Saturday): HVAC-R Egypt Expo.

8-10 April (Thursday-Saturday): The TriFactory’s Endurance Festival at Somabay.

13 April (Monday): First day of Ramadan (TBC).

25 April (Sunday): Sinai Liberation Day.

29 April (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Sinai Liberation Day (TBC),

29 April (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

1 May (Saturday): Labor Day (national holiday).

2 May (Sunday): Easter Sunday.

3 May (Monday): Sham El Nessim.

13-15 May (Thursday-Saturday): Eid El Fitr (TBC).

25-28 May (Tuesday-Friday): The World Economic Forum annual meeting, Singapore.

1 June (Tuesday): The IMF will conduct a second review of targets set under the USD 5.2 bn standby loan approved in June 2020 (proposed date).

7 June-9 June (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt Petroleum Show, Egypt International Exhibition Center, New Cairo, Egypt.

17 June (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

24 June (Thursday): End of the 2020-2021 academic year (public schools).

26-29 June (Saturday-Tuesday): The Big 5 Construct Egypt, Cairo International Convention Center, Cairo, Egypt.

30 June (Wednesday): 30 June Revolution Day.

1 July: (Thursday): National holiday in observance of 30 June Revolution.

30 June- 15 July: National Book Fair.

1 July (Thursday): Large taxpayers that have not yet signed on on to the e-invoicing platform will suffer a host of penalties, including removal from large taxpayer classification, losing access to government services and business, and losing subsidies.

19 July (Monday): Arafat Day (national holiday).

20-23 July (Tuesday-Friday): Eid Al Adha (national holiday)

23 July (Friday): Revolution Day (national holiday).

5 August (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

9 August (Monday): Islamic New Year.

12 August (Thursday): National holiday in observance of the Islamic New Year.

16 September (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

30 September-2 October (Thursday-Saturday): Egypt Projects 2021 expo, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

1 October (Friday): Expo 2020 Dubai opens.

6 October (Wednesday): Armed Forces Day.

7 October (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Armed Forces Day.

18 October (Monday): Prophet’s Birthday.

21 October (Thursday): National holiday in observance of the Prophet’s Birthday.

28 October (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

1-12 November (Monday-Friday): 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), Glasgow, United Kingdom.

13-17 December: United Nations Convention against Corruption, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

16 December (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

27 June – 3 July 2022 (Monday-Sunday): World University Squash Championships, New Giza.

Note to readers: Some national holidays may appear twice above. Since 2020, Egypt has observed most mid-week holidays on Thursdays regardless of the day on which they fall and may also move those days to Sundays. We distinguish below between the actual holiday and its observance.