EnterpriseAM — More than 10,000 Egyptians have now died of covid-19

Good morning, everyone. The slow, steady burn of covid-19 remains the big story here at home, with cases stuck above 600 and deaths in the 50s once again last night, meaning that more than 10k Egyptians have now died of the disease.

On the positive side: The Health Ministry has started administering second jabs to medical professionals who have already taken their first of two required doses, and we await news of the next large-scale deliveries of vaccines, expected by the end of this month. We have more in this morning’s news well, below.

CATCH UP QUICK- The big stories from yesterday’s edition of EnterprisePM were:

• UAE property developer Aldar Properties could be looking to ramp up investments in Egypt after the company said it was allocating capital for acquisitions here.
• 2020 earnings season is upon us, with a number of companies releasing their earnings for one of the scariest years in living memory.
• The Federation of Egyptian Industries’ (FEI) board is likely to get a new lease on life after operating for nearly six months without a legal mandate.

THE BIG STORY INTERNATIONALLY- No single story dominates the narrative coming off what was a holiday weekend in Canada and the United States. Canada is now bracing for winter storms as 14 American states moved to rolling blackouts after being clobbered. One common thread: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is making history as the first woman and first African to be named head of the WTO, as we noted in yesterday’s EnterprisePM. She’s warning against “vaccine nationalism” ahead of taking the top job at the trade body on 1 March.

MARKET WATCH- Equities are holding their own this morning as traders push into the twelfth day of a rally. Investors around the world are pinning their hopes on a “global economic recovery and expectations [that] low interest rates [will] drive investments into riskier assets.” It should be good news for EM shares. Asian stocks are solidly in the green this morning and futures suggest Wall Street and Europe will both start the week in positive territory.

SIGN OF THE TIMES: An electric Defender? Jaguar Land Rover will make its last petrol-powered car in the next 15 years as its new chief executive unveiled what the Financial Times called “a radical plan to steer one of the UK’s best-known carmakers into the electric era.” The company’s Jag lineup will be all-electric by 2025, while its iconic Land Rover brand will launch its first EV in 2024, Reuters adds. The news is getting wide coverage, with everyone from The Verge to CNBC picking it up.

PSA- It’s going to be wet and windy today, with the chance of a morning shower in Cairo and heavy rains expected in Alexandria, along the North Coast and in parts of Sinai, according to the national weather service. Our favorite weather app says to brace for low temperatures today (daytime high of 16°C), tomorrow (12°C) and Thursday (15°C). The mercury is going to slide in the single digits overnight — and there’s a chance of a sand storm hitting Cairo and the North Coast on Thursday.

WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY-

An Egyptian diplomatic delegation is in Libya to discuss reopening the embassy in Tripoli and the consulate in Benghazi, state-run MENA reported yesterday.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is in town for three days to hold talks with FM Sameh Shoukry.

FOLLOW-UP on the launch of the new e-invoicing system: Companies could face fines of between EGP 20-100k if they fail to eventually join a new e-invoicing system currently being rolled out nationwide or refuse pay and file taxes electronically, Finance Ministry spokesperson Ragab Mahrous said, according to Extra News.

Phase two of the new system went live yesterday, with 347 companies added to the list of companies that must now log their invoices on a Finance Ministry portal. The new system is still limited to a subset of the companies that fall under the jurisdiction of the Tax Authority’s large taxpayer office, all of whom will need to be on the system by summertime.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Spring conference season is coming up, with early highlights including:

The Real Gate real estate exhibition will kick off from 25-27 March at the Egyptian International Exhibition Center in New Cairo, offering physical and virtual exhibits, it said in a press release (pdf). Showcasing diverse properties by 40+ developers, the four-day event is being organized by ACG-CBE and Coldwell Banker Egypt. You can register for the event here.

The second edition of the Egypt Retail Summit is set to take place at the Nile Ritz Carlton Hotel on 23 March, bringing together 53 speakers and more than 62 retail brands to discuss solutions in the retail sector, and held under the patronage of the Supply Ministry.

Check out our full calendar in this afternoon’s EnterprisePM or right now on our website for a comprehensive listing of upcoming events, national holidays and news triggers.

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EYE ON THE REGION- What’s a little economic nationalism among friends?

Do you want to do business with the Saudi government? Your MENA HQ had better be in Riyadh, or no soup for you. The kingdom’s official news agency says the policy will come into effect at the start of 2024, noting that additional information will be released this year. The Financial Times suggests the policy could go so far as to impact companies that have contracts with Saudi Aramco and the kingdom’s USD 400 bn sovereign wealth fund. This is a direct challenge to the UAE, Bloomberg writes, “as a regional rivalry heats up.”

Is the GCC getting smaller? The populations of Gulf Cooperation Council countries may have fallen as much as 4% last year as migrant workers fled the region due to economic shock caused by covid-19 and the oil crash, S&P Global Ratings said in a report yesterday. The exodus of mainly low-income workers is likely to continue until 2023, it said.

We marked a grim milestone in our battle against covid-19 overnight, with 56 new deaths bringing the official toll above to 10k barrier for the first time. A total of 10,050 Egyptians have now died of covid-19.

The Health Ministry also reported 613 new covid-19 infections yesterday, up from 611 the day before. Egypt has now disclosed a total of 174,426 confirmed cases of covid-19.

The second wave of vaccinations is kicking off here at home as the medical staff at the Abu Khalifa isolation hospital in Ismailia — where the vaccination program began last month — starting to receive their second doses of the Sinopharm jab yesterday, Youm7 reports. Medical teams at some 22 dedicated covid-19 hospitals nationwide have received an initial dose of the vaccine so far.

Next on the priority list for vaccines: Teachers and administrators within the education system, who could be getting their first doses within the next four to six weeks, Education Minister Tarek Shawki said. This timeline is contingent, however, on whether Egypt receives the vaccines it has ordered on schedule, the minister stressed (watch, runtime: 25:01). Prioritizing educators comes as Egypt’s schools and universities are gearing up to resume classes in the next few weeks, with public institutions set to go back to in-person learning, Shawki said at a presser earlier this week.

Taking stock of our vaccine shipment pipeline: We should be getting our hands on the first batch of a 5-8 mn dose order placed through the World Health Organization’s Covax scheme within the next two weeks, Cabinet spokesperson Nader Saad had said earlier this month. China is also expected to deliver 300k doses of the Sinopharm vaccine, which Beijing is supplying as a gift to Egypt, before the end of February. Meanwhile, we’re still in talks to get our hands on (and potentially manufacture) Russia’s Sputnik V, and the government is also pursuing potentially securing doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Heading to Canada? You’re soon going to have to quarantine on arrival (at your own expense) for up to three days at a government-approved quarantine hotel while you wait for results of a PCR test on arrival. That’s in addition to having to show a negative PCR test prior to boarding your flight. You can check out the list of hotels here on Thursday. The new measures go into effect on 22 February.

South Korea has U-turned on its decision to use AstraZeneca's vaccine on seniors aged 65+ until more data proving its efficacy in the elderly becomes available, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) announced in a presser yesterday.

This comes amid an uptick in scepticism about the jab: German authorities have expressed doubts about its efficacy in people aged over 65, while South Africa last week ended its rollout after a study suggested it wouldn’t prevent hospitalizations caused by a local virus variant.

A two-dose administration of Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine prevented 94% of symptomatic covid-19 cases in Israel, confirming the effectiveness levels found in the vaccine’s clinical studies, Reuters reports. The data, gathered from 600k people in what was Israel’s largest study to date, also showed that participants were 92% less likely to develop severe symptoms.

Passenger numbers at Dubai’s airport plunged 70% last year to 25.9 mn, almost three-quarters of which came in 1Q2020 when travel remained unaffected by the pandemic, Bloomberg reported yesterday.

This was still better than some of Europe’s biggest airports: London’s Heathrow saw traffic slump 73% to 22.1 mn, while activity was down 81% in Frankfurt.

Unemployment in Egypt was virtually unchanged in 4Q2020, dipping only marginally to 7.2% from 7.3% in 3Q2020 and 8% in 4Q2019, according to figures released yesterday by state statistics agency Capmas. Although the drop was small, this is the second consecutive quarter during which the official unemployment rate eased after covid-19 caused the jobless count to spike in 2Q2020.

But, but, but: The labor force participation rate — which looks at those between the ages of 15 and 64 — stood at 43.5% in 4Q2020. This is an improvement both on a quarterly and annual basis. The participation rate was 41.1% in 3Q2020, and 43.1% in 4Q2019.

Not a bright spot: Women’s participation in the labor force is still stubbornly low at 16.1%, which is just 0.3 percentage points lower than during the comparable period in 2019, and is well above the 13.4% seen in 3Q2020.

Unemployment hit a near-two-year high in the second quarter last year: The partial lockdown of the economy and the closure of the country’s airspace to passenger flights pushed the unemployment rate up to 9.6%. Official jobless numbers have since fallen as the government eased restrictions on economic activity.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is lending USD 30 mn to the Egyptian arm of Turkish glassmaker Pasabahce to help it grow exports, improve energy practices, and create more jobs, the lender said in a press release (pdf) yesterday. Pasabahce, a subsidiary of Şişecam Group, will use the proceeds to expand a facility located outside Cairo, reduce natural gas and electricity consumption by more than half, and create some 330 new direct jobs across departments. The company sells to the Middle East, Turkey and the US.

In detail: The financing package includes a USD 20 mn long-term loan and USD 10 mn shorter-term facility, the IFC said. The institution has been ramping up support for Egypt’s manufacturing sector in recent years, investing USD 340 mn “helping [companies] improve efficiencies, support innovations, and replenish working capital.”

Manufacturers could get lower natural gas prices if the House Industry Committee gets its way, with the committee lobbying Oil Minister Tarek El Molla to cut prices to factories to help prop up local industry, Al Mal reports. Industry figures are particularly unhappy about local gas prices remaining above international prices, said committee head Moataz Mohamed.

Background: Getting natural gas at a lower price has been a longstanding request from factories. The government agreed to set an industry-wide USD 4.50 / mmBtu price for natural gas in March as part of a wider fiscal stimulus package to help support the economy during the pandemic. Manufacturers are still unhappy, since this is around 30% above the USD 3.07 / mmBtu international spot price right now, and have been pushing the government to slash prices further — with some trying to get prices below the international average to help drive the sector’s recovery from covid-19.

Also on the committee’s wish-list: A “Unified Manufacturing Act” that would disentangle ministries’ mandates when it comes to investments and cut down on the bureaucracy to help streamline investment policies, Mohamed said.

It looks like we’re getting new construction regulations very soon, with Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly presenting a new set of proposed building and planning criteria for Egyptian cities at a meeting with the House Local Administration and Housing committees. The housing and local development ministers also met with the committee, according to a cabinet statement.

What’s in the works? Madbouly suggested the regulations will cover everything from building height, ratios, and usage to urban coordination and hoops builders need to jump through before they can start construction.

Existing buildings are grandfathered in, with the new criteria set to apply only to new buildings in existing cities. New cities and developments on land sold by the New Urban Communities Authority are subject to separate regulations.

Background: The government has sought to crack down on illegal building through the Unified Building Code, and had announced a six-month construction ban last year in an effort to clamp down on wildcat builders.

Meanwhile, the Senate’s new bylaws are in the final stretch before becoming the law of the land after the House general assembly approved the text of the bill yesterday, and is expected to give its final approval today, Youm7 reports. The bylaws, which received approval from the Constitutional Affairs Committee last week after receiving approval from the upper chamber of parliament last November, lay out the Senate’s mandate, which include voting on any future constitutional amendments and bills referred to it by the House of Representatives or the president, approving government policy, and ratifying international treaties.

What’s staying the same in the latest draft: The proposed amendments to the bylaws would do away with a clause allowing the prime minister to convene parliament’s lower chamber — and leave in place a controversial clause requiring senate members obtain approval from the senate president before traveling abroad.

What’s been changed in parliamentary discussion: A proposed clause allowing senators’ stipends to be tax-exempt has been scrapped by the House, after being included in the original bylaw amendments.

Brazil could become the top importer of Egyptian oranges in two or three years, Egypt’s commercial consul to Brazil Nashwa Bakr told the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce. Egypt began exporting oranges to Brazil for the first time last year after Brazilian authorities reached an agreement with Egypt Agricultural Export Authority to allow exports of Egyptian oranges under the Mercosur-Egypt Freetrade Agreement, which includes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Two Egyptian companies have shipped 24 containers of oranges to Brazil so far, says Bakr, with an additional shipment of 25 containers expected by the end of May. Egypt was crowned as the world’s top exporter of oranges in 2019, exporting around 1.68 mn tonnes that year.

ANFI agrees to DD on acquisition bid: Brokerage house Alexandria National Company for Financial Investments’ (ANFI) board said it will allow a group of investors to start due diligence as part of their bid to acquire 75-90% of the company, ANFI in a regulatory filing (pdf) yesterday. The would-be acquirers include Egyptian businessman Ahmed El Saba and Saudi Arabia’s Mostafa El Humeidan and have offered EGP 7.48 per share. Selling shareholders including Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) and El Kahera El Watania Investment also fielded offers of EGP 5.30-5.51 per share from Zeta Investments, Kayan Sustainable Development, and Zaldi Capital (pdf).

By our math, that sets a floor price for the transaction at c. EGP 29 mn if ANFI’s shareholders agree to sell 75% of the company’s shares at EGP 7.48.

Sherif El Ghamrawi (LinkedIn) has joined the Egyptian IVF-ET Center as chief executive officer as the family-owned business embarks on an ambitious growth and institutionalization program timed to coincide with rising investor interest in the healthcare industry. Sherif joined Egyptian IVF, the market leader in in-vitro fertilization, from Inktank, the investor relations firm, where he was most recently director of investor relations and business development director. He brings Egyptian IVF proven experience in healthcare from his time at IDH, a leading emerging markets consumer healthcare business he joined at the time of its IPO on the London Stock Exchange, that has grown from its base in Egypt to become the top player in Jordan, Sudan and Nigeria. Sherif also brings to the table investment, operations and turnaround experience from previous stints in private equity and consumer products in Canada, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Multilateral lender Africa Finance Corporation has appointed Sameh Shenouda (LinkedIn) as its new executive director and CIO, the pan-African bank said in a statement (pdf) yesterday. Shenouda has over 27 years of experience in investments and fundraising, and joins the lender from the Blackstone-owned energy developer Zarou where he served as CEO from 2018 to 2020. Shenouda also headed infrastructure at the UK’s development finance arm CDC Group during 2014-2018.

** Have you (or someone you know) been promoted? Taken on a new job? Let us know on editorial@enterprise.press.

The airwaves were abuzz last night over the release of a new movie about the 2015 kidnapping and murder of 21 Egyptian Copts in Libya at the hands of Daeshbags. The movie, El Serb, earned coverage from Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi (watch, runtime: 2:40), Al Hayah Al Youm's Lobna Assal (watch, runtime: 5:13), and Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa (watch, runtime: 9:39). You can watch the trailer here (runtime: 1:30).

Oh, how the tables have turned on Ali Abdel Aal: Former House Speaker Ali Abdel Aal is under fire for reportedly having a shoddy attendance record since joining the new class of MPs as a common representative, rather than the speaker. The hubbub began earlier this week when Rep. Mostafa Bakry sat down for an interview with Al Masry Al Youm (watch, runtime: 35:45) and discussed Abdel Aal’s repeated absence from parliament sessions, which has drawn the ire of other MPs — especially since Abdel Aal himself had repeatedly struggled with MPs’ attendance records when he was House speaker.

So, what’s going to be done about it? Any MP missing three sessions per week will miss out on a monetary bonus, Deputy Speaker Ahmed Saad Eldin told El Hekaya’s Amr Adib (watch, runtime: 2:54). Abdel Aal could resign as early as today, Al Masry Al Youm suggests.

More on the new NGOs Act: The Social Solidarity Ministry sat down with civil society groups to explain the details and regulations laid out in the new NGOs Act and its executive regulations, which were issued earlier this month, Minister Nevine El Kabbaj told Al Hayah Al Youm’s Lobna Assal (watch, runtime: 15:55).

It’s a quiet morning for Egypt in the international press, with the only major piece of note being conservative columnist’s Bret Stephens’ latest for the New York Times on what he calls “Mubarakism.” (Stephens himself is in the headlines and the blogosphere right now after his bosses spiked a column he wrote on the Gray Lady’s handling of the departure of a reporter over racist language.)

A two-storey residential building in Cairo partially collapsed Sunday night, leaving at least three people dead, the Associated Press reports.

Elsewhere: The 58-year-old terrorist Yasser Al-Sirri, sentenced to death in Egypt for a failed assassination of former prime minister Atef Sedky in the 1990s, is likely to remain in the UK as a refugee after a tribunal last week allowed him to seek asylum. (Daily Mail)

More on the state’s plan to overhaul spinning and weaving: The Public Enterprises Ministry’s bid to streamline state-owned spinning and weaving companies is targeting a significant increase in production, Minister Hisham Tawfik told cabinet in his latest review of the plan. The EGP 21 bn plan could see the yearly output of state ginning factories more than doubled to 4 mn qintars and spinning mills and textile plants more than quadrupled to 188k and 199k cubic meters. Under the ongoing plan, nine spinning and weaving companies will be merged into one mega-entity with seven ginning facilities under the ministry’s purview, and about 23 others consolidated into nine, Tawfik recently said.

The plan is part of efforts to boost the performance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). This involves reducing the number of SOEs and streamlining their financial performance. Public sector reform has been one of the key conditions of the latest loan Egypt received from the IMF under its USD 5.2 bn standby facility.

Other things we’re keeping an eye on this morning:

• Sharm El Sheikh International Airport has received its first direct flight from Estonia in more than a year, the local press reports, citing the addition of a weekly flight on this route until winter ends.
• Natural gas at Sinai plants: Some factories in South Sinai will start using compressed natural gas as an alternative to diesel fuel as part of the state’s drive to promote natgas as a source of energy. Those factories are located in a remote industrial zone in Abu Zenima and don’t have access to the national natgas grid.
• Al Ahly Sabbour and the UAE’s Eltizam Asset Management Group signed an agreement to create two companies — Tafawuq Egypt and Three60 Egypt — to manage four real estate projects worth EGP 2 bn.
• The Ghabbour Development Foundation is setting up two applied tech institutes in 15 May and 6th of October cities under an MoU signed with the Education Ministry.

IN DIPLOMACY:

Efforts to restart peace talks between Israel and Palestine were on the agenda for Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in a phone call with UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland, according to a ministry statement.

Egypt was re-elected as the rapporteur of the UN’s Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations yesterday, where Egypt called on the UN and African Union to work together more closely on peacekeeping activities, according to a cabinet statement.

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.

23 March (Tuesday): The second edition of the Egypt Retail Summit takes place at the Nile Ritz Carlton hotel.

25-27 March (Thursday-Saturday): The Real Gate real estate exhibition, Egyptian International Exhibition Center, Cairo.

31 March (Wednesday): Deadline to visit the moroor and get an RFID sticker affixed to your car’s windshield — or run afoul of the Traffic Police.

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.