Cleopatra Hospitals, Orascom Construction make it official: We’re in an earnings recovery

TL;DR

Swvl to invest up to USD 300 mn globally over next three years. (Investment Watch)
Egyptian investor threatens Ethiopia with arbitration suit for Tigray damages. (Dispute Watch)
Pfizer, Moderna shots arriving in Egypt over the coming week or so. (Covid Watch)
Cleopatra Hospitals Group’s net earnings surge more than 6x in second quarter. (Earnings Watch)
Orascom Construction net income almost tripled y-o-y in 2Q2021. (Earnings Watch)
Fraudsters arrested + First phase of public university enrollment concludes. (Last Night’s Talk Shows)
POLL- How ready are Egypt’s universities to comply with the gov’t’s vaccine directive? (Blackboard)
Planet Finance — EMs cannot weather another taper tantrum storm, says IMF.

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

Good morning, wonderful people, and happy Monday to you all. With the mercury no longer routinely testing 40°C and the last weekend of summer coming up, we can already feel the pace of news accelerating as we head into fall.

THE BIG STORY here at home this morning: We’re officially in an earnings recovery, with EGX stalwarts Cleopatra Hospitals and Orascom Construction reporting blockbuster earnings yesterday. We have chapter and verse in this morning’s Earnings Watch, below.

Tomorrow is the last day of August. Here are the key new triggers coming up during the first half of September:

PMI: August’s PMI figures for Egypt, KSA and the UAE will land on Sunday, 5 September.
Foreign reserves: The central bank will release foreign reserves figures for August sometime next week.
Inflation: Inflation data for August will drop either next week.
Interest rates: The Central Bank of Egypt will meet to review interest rates on Thursday, 16 September.

WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY- Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry is in Algeria for a ministerial-level meeting of Libya’s neighbors. Shoukry and colleagues will chew over prospects for a political settlement between Tripoli’s unity government and eastern Libyan leader Khalifa Haftar, according to a statement yesterday.

TWO BIG STORIES INTERNATIONALLY are vying for your attention this morning.

FIRST- Afghanistan has been pushed down the front page of most global media outfits after a once-in-a-generation hurricane named “Ida” slammed into New Orleans, leaving the entire city without power. The state of Louisiana is being battered by sea swells, heavy rains and flooding 16 years after Hurricane Katrina pummeled the area. The story leads front pages everywhere from the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg to the New York Times and Reuters.

SECOND- Tomorrow is the US deadline to pull its troops out of Kabul, and the news from Afghanistan is that the United States preemptively launched a drone strike against a vehicle the Daeshbags planned to use in another attack against Kabul Airport. The news comes as the Taliban say foreigners + Afghans with visas will be able to safely leave the country even after US troops leave tomorrow. The US said in a joint statement with Canada, its European allies and dozens of other countries Sunday that the Taliban will allow safe passage out of Afghanistan to all foreign nationals and Afghan citizens with travel documents from another country. The story leads the front page of the Financial Times and gets prominent play from Reuters.

The business story the scandal-mongers among us are following: Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is going with the “Svengali” defense, alleging that her ex-boyfriend (and co-accused) Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani made her do it. Recently unsealed documents suggest Holmes is going pin her defense on a claim that Balwani used [redacted] and emotional abuse to get her to do his bidding. The story is getting lots of ink from Reuters and the Wall Street Journal. John Carreyrou, who broke the Theranos story at the Journal back in 2015 and literally wrote the book on it, predicted in his new podcast on the case that this is the road Holmes and her lawyers would likely go down. Look for the case to be back in the headlines tomorrow when Holmes’ trial begins.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

OPEC+ is meeting on Wednesday, and oil producers are widely expected to proceed with plans to undo oil production cuts as oil prices recover, according to a Bloomberg survey.

Egypt hosts Digi Sign Africa this week: The three-day advertising and digital printing exhibition gets underway at the Cairo International Convention Centre on Wednesday, 1 September.

Cypriot prez visiting this week: President Nicos Anastasiades arrives in Cairo on Saturday, 4 September for a joint Egypt-Cyprus summit.

South Korea’s Defense Minister will be in town this week. The two-day visit by Suh Wook is the first of its kind to Egypt by a Korean defense minister. Suh’s meetings will include a sit-down with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi before the Korean minister moves on to Oman, the Korea Times reports. The expectation is that Suh’s visit will help lay the groundwork for a visit to Egypt by Korea’s president in early 2022.

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

*** 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: Last week, we saw international K-12 schools working hard to comply with the government directive that all staff and students aged 18+ be vaccinated ahead of the new academic year. Today, we take our question to private universities, and look at how ready they are to bring fully-vaccinated staff and students back on campus.

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INVESTMENT WATCH

Swvl to invest up to USD 300 mn globally over next three years

Mass transport startup Swvl is planning to invest USD 250-300 mn over the next three years to expand its global footprint, the company’s CFO Youssef Salem told Al Mal. The big ticket spending will come after the company completes its IPO on the Nasdaq, and will be used to help it enter new markets, he said, confirming the news to us.

Expansion plans: Swvl plans to start operating in four countries in Latin America and Southeast Asia including Brazil, Mexico and Malaysia before the end of the year, Al Mal quotes Salem as having said. It will then look to use these countries to launch into other regional markets including Colombia, Peru and Argentina. Nigeria and South Africa, which are longer-term targets for investment.

Swvl might have just got itself a base in Europe after agreeing to acquire the Barcelona-based startup Shotl earlier this month. A takeover would more than double Swvl’s geographic footprint to include another 22 cities across 10 countries.

Nasdaq listing coming next quarter: Swvl said last month it would go public on the Nasdaq in 4Q2021 through a merger with blank-check firm Queen’s Gambit Growth Capital. The agreement values the company at around USD 1.5 bn, and the listing will raise the company’s capital to USD 550 mn from USD 100+ mn today. Swvl is also mulling an IPO on the EGX in 2022-2023 and expects to become profitable for the first time in 2024, CFO Youssef Salem previously told Reuters.

Advisors: Barclay’s is on board to advise on the listing along with other international financial advisors, Salem said.

Background: Queen’s Gambit Growth Capital reportedly raised some USD 300 mn for the merger from a group of unnamed investors earlier this year and brought on an additional USD 45 mn in investment through the underwriters’ overallotment option. An additional USD 100 mn private investment in public equity (PIPE) was raised by Agility, Luxor Capital Group LP and Zain Group.

DISPUTE WATCH

Egyptian investor threatens Ethiopia with arbitration suit for Tigray damages

An Egyptian businessman is threatening to file an international arbitration case against the Ethiopian government for alleged damages incurred as a result of the current conflict in Tigray, according to a statement (pdf) he released yesterday. Alaa El Sakty tells us that he is seeking USD 40 mn in damages after two of his companies Trafo Tech (pdf) and Cynosure (pdf) suffered losses due to the fighting, and says he will take the case to the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) if Addis Ababa doesn’t pay up.

Caught in the crossfire: Trafo and Cynosure are both based in the Egyptian industrial zone in the Tigrayan capital Mekelle, which has been hit hard by almost 10 months of fighting between local rebels and government forces. The companies say they have suffered huge losses after being forced to shutter operations months ago, and are demanding that the government pay compensation for the loss of revenues.

The legal case: The companies’ legal representative, Ezzat Youssef, claims that by failing to protect the factories, Ethiopia is in breach of a 2006 investment treaty signed between the two countries that guarantees protection to investors. Under the agreement, Egypt and Ethiopia agreed to provide “adequate protection and security” to investors from each others’ countries.

No dice? Sakty, who also heads the industrial zone and serves as the vice chair of the Investors’ Union, said that he’s hoping to settle the matter amicably with the government but will resort to the ICSID if they can’t come to an agreement. Youssef has given Ethiopia six months to resolve the dispute before filing a case with the Washington-based arbitration center.

EARNINGS WATCH

The Great 2021 Egyptian Earnings Recovery continues

Cleopatra sees another quarter of rapid growth: Cleopatra Hospitals Group (CHG) saw net earnings surge more than 6x to EGP 94.1 mn in 2Q2021, up from EGP 14 mn last year, according to the company’s latest earnings release (pdf). Bottom line growth was underpinned by a solid increase in revenues, which almost doubled to EGP 643.6 mn from EGP 340.2 mn in 2Q2020.

Top-line growth came on the back of a 72% y-o-y hike in case numbers, as well as “improving utilization rates, an increasingly optimised service mix, and the effective ramp up of the group’s newer revenue verticals,” the company said. Patients served and consolidated revenue both managed to edge up 2% on an already strong first quarter, despite the usual slowdown due to the Ramadan and Eid holidays. As in 1Q2021, CHG saw revenue from its established hospitals bolstered by its newer covid-19 services, outpatient pharmacy and diagnostics centers, and polyclinics, where revenues more than tripled y-o-y in the second quarter.

A covid rebound, and then some: Though the extent of the rebound is magnified by the large fall in income suffered during lockdown in 2Q2020, the second-quarter profits this year are well above the EGP 42.6 mn reported in the pre-covid era in 2Q2019, while revenues are almost 60% higher than in 2019.

Looking ahead: CHG is hoping to consolidate its first-half success into longer-term growth. The group wants to cement itself as the market leader in online and digitally-enhanced healthcare services under its digital transformation strategy, “a key area of focus for the Group and one which we are confident will be a main driver of sustainable growth,” CEO Ahmed Ezzeldin said. The firm is also planning for a post-covid future at its two designated coronavirus hospitals, Queens and El Katib. Otherwise, the focus will be on revenue diversification, quality enhancement, integration and expansion.

Whatever happened to the Alex Medical acquisition? A few months back, CHG was excited about its potential acquisition of Alexandria Medical Services, writing in its 1Q earnings release that the acquisition would see CHG “expand its geographic footprint into Egypt’s second-largest city while meeting the rising demand for high-quality healthcare in Alexandria.” After a protracted bidding war, Ezeldin says only that “we continue to assess potential opportunities to expand our geographic presence across our traditional Greater Cairo market and beyond.”

Orascom Construction net income almost tripled y-o-y in 2Q2021 as the company bounced back from a tough second quarter last year, according to its latest earnings release (pdf). The company reported a USD 26.5 mn profit for the April-June period this year, up from USD 9.5 mn last year, while revenues were up 9.8% to reach USD 868.4 mn

The covid recovery isn’t complete yet: Profits haven’t yet rebounded to their 2Q2019 levels, when the company earned USD 31.3 mn. Net income fell almost 70% during the second quarter last year as the covid lockdown and global disruption hit the company’s operations.

New awards increased 57% y-o-y in 2Q2021 to hit USD 1.1 bn, of which USD 350 mn stemmed from projects in Egypt and USD 790 mn were through US subsidiaries. New projects were led by a pickup in US business, particularly in the building of data centers, while new Egyptian business was concentrated in the water and industrial sectors. Consolidated backlog excluding the group’s 50% share in BESIX increased 8.8% y-o-y to USD 5.9 bn. Including BESIX, pro forma backlog increased 6% y-o-y to USD 8.4 bn as of end-June.

Income from subsidiaries, building materials, facilities management and infrastructure assets performed well for a second quarter, accounting for 22% of all first-half net income. “We are focused on growing this part of our business, which should continue to benefit from sustained demand for building materials coupled with our efforts to pursue new investments that provide us with recurring income,” said OC CEO Osama Bishai.

OC also generated positive operating cashflow in the second quarter, though not enough to compensate for the first quarter. “That said, we are on the right trajectory and are working diligently to conclude the year on a positive note,” Bishai said.

COVID WATCH

Several mn Pfizer shots are expected to land here at home by next week, pending the receival of shipping documents, an unnamed senior health official told Masrawy, without specifying the size of the shipment. Health Minister Hala Zayed had previously said that a 2.5 mn dose shipment of Pfizer was expected to arrive earlier this month.

And our first shipment of Moderna vaccines is also due to arrive in the first week of September, the source added, without specifying the number of doses. Zayed said earlier in August that some 5.2 mn doses of Pfizer and Moderna are set to arrive next month.

Egypt is moving forward with plans to vaccinate public sector employees by the start October, with the Greater Cairo Water Company (GCWC) getting started with the inoculation of 11k workers in the state-owned firm, GCWC head Moustafa El Shimy tells Masrawy.

The Health Ministry reported 255 new covid-19 infections yesterday, up from 251 the day before. Egypt has now disclosed a total of 287,899 confirmed cases of covid-19. The ministry also reported 7 new deaths, bringing the country’s total death toll to 16,721.

Israel is now offering booster shots to those aged 12 and older, broadening a booster campaign launched a month ago that had initially targeted just the elderly, Reuters reports. Only those who received a second vaccine dose at least five months earlier are eligible for the shot — a wait-time that is shorter than the eight-month interval in effect in the US, which is also considering cutting wait time for a booster to five months.

LAST NIGHT’S TALK SHOWS

The big business-relevant story on the airwaves last night was the arrest of a criminal gang charged with bilking some EGP 2mn from citizens in a bank fraud scam that made headlines last week. Fraudsters had falsely posed as bank staff and tricked clients into divulging sensitive information over the phone, including PINs and passwords, under the pretense that the information would be used to transfer a sum the clients had won in a randomised lottery. The fraudsters then used the accounts to purchase online gaming tokens, which they then resold, pocketing the sums in their digital wallets.

The nation’s banks have this month been calling on clients to not disclose any banking sign-in details with anyone, with state-owned Banque Misr saying last week that 13 incidents of fraud had been detected. Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 5:50) and Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 4:24) are among those who had coverage.

Also in the limelight on last night’s talk shows: The first batch of incoming first year university students learned yesterday whether they would get their desired undergraduate majors. And it looks like it will be easier to get into the faculties of their choice, with the cutoff for admission to medical school (a perennial indicator of grade inflation in Thanaweya Amma) falling to 92% this year. It’s the first time in decades that the grade cut-off for admission to a number of “prestige” faculties has declined and comes as pass rate for thanaweya amma fell to 74% in the school year just ended from nearly 82% a year ago. Masaa DMC (watch, runtime: 22:25) and Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 13:13) also had coverage. The second phase of admissions is still ongoing and high-school graduates can apply online here.

MEANWHILE- At least 11 people died, and 50 others went missing after a boat carrying young Egyptian and African men that had been trying to reach Europe capsized this week in the Mediterranean off of the Libyan coast. Families of some of the Egyptian men still unaccounted for — who mostly hail from the Talbana village in Dakahlia — were reportedly contacted by the kidnappers and asked to pay ransom for their release. Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 10:44), Masaa DMC (watch, runtime: 15:42) and Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 14:11) all took note of the tragic accident.

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EGYPT IN THE NEWS

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PLANET FINANCE

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EMs cannot withstand another taper tantrum, says IMF: Emerging Markets whose balance sheets are stretched due to covid-19 could see significant damage to their economies in the event that the US Federal reserve instigates a repeat of the 2013 so-called Taper tantrum IMF’s chief economist Gita Gopinath told the Financial Times. While already grappling with the havoc wrought by covid, EMs are not in the best shape to dodge “a tantrum of financial markets originating from the major central banks,” Gopinath said. Inflationary pressures pose an additional risk, and the US may be pressured to tighten policy even sooner if high inflation persists, Gopinath says.

What’s a “taper tantrum,” you ask? In 2013, an announcement by the Fed that it would roll back its large bond-buying program (rolled out during the “Global Financial Crisis” of 2007-2008) sooner than expected triggered an exodus of capital from emerging markets. The fear was that the move would push down US bond prices and drive yields higher. This triggered an exodus from EMs for fear of what rising rates in the US and a stronger greenback would mean for emerging economies. Statements by Fed head Jerome Powell at the Jackson Hole summit last week signalling that the Fed could begin rolling back its program as early as this year have put EMs on the alert.

The Fed’s tapering news is likely to add an additional burden to EMs, which have already been aggressively tightening in response to rising inflation. Russia, Mexico and Chile have all raised interest rates this year, while Brazil this month went ahead with a 100-bps rate hike — its biggest since 2003. That could ultimately put more pressure on Egypt to keep rates high as the country looks to maintain the competitiveness of the USD-EGP carry trade.

And some EM currencies are already losing steam as central banks change gear: Speculation concerning when central banks may reel in the pace of monetary-policy tightening have seen Brazilian and Russian currencies, which were among 1H2021s biggest gainers, sinking almost 4.5% since July, outstripping losses recorded by any other major currency tracked by Bloomberg.

A new covid-19 outbreak in Malaysia could prolong the global chip shortage: The major center for chip testing and packaging has been hit with a fresh wave of infections that has forced the implementation of strict lockdowns, hampering production at factories and jeopardizing plans for the rebound of global semiconductor supply chains, the Wall Street Journal reports. The delays have intensified pressures on automakers, who had already been forced to cut down production due to the ongoing chip shortage, which is now expected to continue into 2022.

EGX30	11113.74	-0.11% (YTD: +2.48%)
USD (CBE)	Buy 15.65	Sell 15.75
USD at CIB	Buy 15.65	Sell 15.75
Interest rates CBE	8.25% deposit	9.25% lending
Tadawul	11,180.19	+0.5% (YTD: +28.66%)
ADX	7,652.15	+0.4% (YTD: +51.67%)
DFM	2,901.21	+0.04% (YTD: +16.42%)
S&P 500	4,509.37	+0.9% (YTD: +20.06%)
FTSE 100	7,148.01	+0.3% (YTD: +10.64%)
Brent crude	USD 72.70	+2.3%
Natural gas (Nymex)	USD 4.39	+4.2%
Gold	USD 1,819.50	+1.4%
BTC	USD 48,826.13	-0.31% (as of midnight)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The EGX30 fell 0.1% at yesterday’s close on turnover of EGP 1.65 bn (12% above the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is up 2.5% YTD.

In the green: Heliopolis Housing (+4.9%), Raya Holding (+4.1%) and Cleopatra Hospitals (+3.7%).

In the red: Speed Medical (-5.1%), Pioneers Holding (-3.3%) and GB Auto (-1.9%).

It’s looking fairly bright out there this morning, ladies and gentlemen, with most Asian benchmarks largely in the green and futures suggesting the trading week will got off to a nice, green start at the opening bell in Europe and North America.

AROUND THE WORLD

SURVEY- How ready are Egypt’s universities to comply with the gov’t’s vaccine directive? The covid-19 vaccine rollout seems to be gathering pace at Egypt’s private universities, following the recent government directive that vaccines will be mandatory for all 18+ year-old students, educators and staff at Egyptian schools and universities. Several international K-12 schools saw the Health Ministry roll out mass vaccination programs on their campuses last week, where eligible unvaccinated staff could register and receive their vaccinations at no cost, we reported. Now, the same process is taking place at private universities, for staff and students aged 18+, sources tell Enterprise.

All private and public universities in the country are eligible for on-campus mass vaccination programs rolled out by the Health Ministry, as long as the staff and students being vaccinated are registered on the government portal, Higher Education Ministry spokesman Adel Abdel Ghaffar tells Enterprise.

Educational institutions have been pushing for this for a while. But since the government decree, it’s been gathering steam: Private universities are telling a similar story to private K-12 schools, who said last week they’d seen an acceleration of the Health Ministry’s on-campus mass vaccination program. The Knowledge Hub Universities (TKH) had been in contact with the Health Ministry since the beginning of the summer to try to arrange mass vaccination of everyone who regularly came on campus — namely students, staff and faculty members, President Mahmoud Allam tells Enterprise. The process has recently gathered momentum, he says.

AUC managed to start mass vaccinations with the Health Ministry in June: AUC decided early in the summer that campus access in the new academic year would be restricted to those who could provide proof of vaccination or a medical exemption form, Vice-President of Management and Operation Shereen Shaker tells Enterprise.

It’s since offered three mass vaccination rounds for staff and students — with the third taking place last week. The first saw shuttle buses run from AUC to a Health Ministry vaccine clinic in Nasr City, while the second and third have been on campus, Shaker adds. “There was a vaccine shortage in the middle of the summer. Had we not started early, we would have been in a much more difficult situation. But we were also very rigorous and had good connections with the Health Ministry.”

Now, universities throughout the country are seeing on-campus mass vaccination: TKH’s mass vaccination started last Tuesday, with hundreds of people showing up to be vaccinated, says Allam. GUC was scheduled to hold an on-campus mass vaccination program for students yesterday, according to an email shared with Enterprise. The university previously held a mass vaccination program targeting staff members. A date has been set for on-campus mass vaccination at Sohag’s Al Nahda University, President Hossam al Malahi tells Enterprise. And Future University has already seen one round of mass vaccinations, with another expected, President Obada Sarhan tells Enterprise. BUE has started rolling out mass vaccinations for staff, with further drives planned for remaining staff members, and for students, Chief Communications Officer Rasha Mabrouk tells Enterprise.

They’re all trying to get as close to a 100% vaccination rate as possible: Universities have asked for vaccines in large quantities to vaccinate all students and staff, they say. Al Nahda University has requested 8k vaccine doses, Future University 9k doses, and the Egyptian-Chinese University 7k doses, say representatives. AUC is hoping to have at least 90-95% of all its staff and students vaccinated when the academic year begins, says Shaker. “We’re fairly confident that we’ll hit that bracket.”

The drive includes new students starting this academic year: TKH’s new intake of students for this academic year are eligible to be vaccinated on campus, as long as they’ve registered, and many of them are taking the chance to do this, says Allam. Students joining Al Nahda in the new academic year need to either provide evidence of vaccination, or set a date for getting vaccinated on campus, says al Malahi.

The official policy from universities: no vaccine, no entry to campus. Future University, the Egyptian-Chinese University and Al Nahda University won’t allow any unvaccinated employees or students on campus starting 1 October, say representatives. AUC’s official position is that vaccine-hesitant staff or students won’t be allowed to enter its campus, Shaker tells Enterprise,

though an earlier statement had indicated that this could be very tough to enforce completely.

Though this doesn’t necessarily apply to medically-exempt staff or students, or under 18s: Anyone with an autoimmune disease, women trying to get pregnant, and people who’ve had covid within the last three months are exempt from AUC’s vaccination policy, but they must produce a doctor’s report attesting to their status, says Shaker.

Medically-exempt staff and students, and students under 18, will have to take the weekly antigen tests at their own expense to access campus, she adds. BUE is also asking unvaccinated staff and students to have regular PCR tests to contain covid-19 spread as much as possible, says Mabrouk. Official guidance is still pending from the Health Ministry for how universities should make provision for medically ineligible staff or students. “We’re in ongoing talks with the ministry on how to handle these cases,” says Allam.

Will universities have discretion over visitor policies? The ministry doesn’t seem to have issued a specific directive when it comes to campus visitors, as several private universities we spoke to were working to finalize their policies. AUC is actively limiting visitors, who need to have a “business critical” reason for coming on campus, says Shaker. “We’re not even allowing alumni on campus,” she adds. TKH is still discussing its visitor policy at the board level, says Allam. “It’s a tough question. If we have students and their parents coming to take a tour of the campus, we can’t really tell them not to enter.”

Your top education stories for the week:

Restrictions for unjabbed students: Students could possibly see themselves banned from campus if they remain unjabbed by the start of the academic year, anti covid-19 committee member, Mohamed El Nady said.
University admissions announced: The Higher Education minister announced the minimum requirements for admission into different university programs, as well as the results of the first stage of university allocations.
Emirati-Egyptian digital education platform: Ministers from the two countries are in discussions over plans to launch a “digital school” platform to serve over 1 mn disadvantaged children unable to complete their education.
Crackdown on illegal academic publishing: Authorities have seized some 165k educational books published without a license.

CALENDAR

24 August-5 September (Tuesday-Sunday): Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

September: Delegation of Russian companies to visit Russian Industrial Zone.

1-3 September (Wednesday-Friday): Digi Sign Africa, Cairo International Convention Centre, Cairo, Egypt.

3-5 September (Friday-Sunday): The World Karate Federation will hold the third competition of the 2021 Karate 1-Premier League in Cairo.

4 September (Saturday): The first Egypt-Cyprus Intergovernmental Summit is taking place in Cairo.

5 September (Sunday): The updated date for EGX listed companies to institute the new mechanism for calculating closing share prices. The deadline was previously 2 September.

5-7 September (Sunday-Tuesday): The Arab Security Conference, The Nile Ritz-Carlton, Cairo, Egypt.

7-8 September (Tuesday-Wednesday): Euromoney Conferences will host the GlobalCapital Sustainable and Responsible Capital Markets Forum 2021, featuring Vice Minister of Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk.

8-9 September (Wednesday-Thursday): Egypt-International Cooperation Forum (ICF), Cairo

7-9 September (Tuesday-Thursday): Egy Health Expo, Al Manara International Conference, Cairo, Egypt.

9 September (Thursday): DevOpsDays Cairo 2021 is being organized by ITIDA and the Software Engineering Competence Center in cooperation with DXC Technology, IBM Egypt and Orange Labs.

11-12 September (Saturday-Sunday): International Conferences on Economics and Social Sciences, Cairo

12 September (Sunday): International schools begin 2021-2022 academic year

12-15 September (Sunday-Wednesday): Sahara Expo: the 33rd International Agricultural Exhibition for Africa and the Middle East.

13-21 September (Monday-Tuesday): 76th session of the general assembly, New York

15 September (Wednesday): The CFO Leadership & Strategy Summit is taking place in Egypt.

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

18 September (Saturday): Expiration of United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh/ISIL

21-22 September (Tuesday-Wednesday): The Federal Reserve meets to review interest rates.

22-25 September (Wednesday-Saturday): Cityscape Egypt, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

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

30 September-8 October (Thursday-Friday): The Cairo International Fair, Cairo International Conference Center, Cairo, Egypt.

30 September: Closing of 2021’s first oil and gas tender in the Gulf of Suez, Western Desert, and the Mediterranean.

October: New legislative session begins — must be held by the first Thursday of October.

October: Romanian President Klaus Iohannis could visit Egypt in mid this month to discuss ways to boost tourism cooperation between the two countries.

1 October (Friday): Businesses importing goods at seaports will need to file shipping documents and cargo data digitally to the Advance Cargo Information (ACI) system.

1 October (Friday): Expo 2020 Dubai opens.

1 October (Friday): State-owned companies and government service bodies selling goods and services to customers that have not yet signed 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.

6 October (Wednesday): Armed Forces Day.

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

9 October (Saturday): Public schools begin 2021-2022 academic year

11-17 October (Monday-Sunday): IMF + World Bank Annual Meetings.

12-14 October (Tuesday-Thursday): Mediterranean Offshore Conference, Alexandria, Egypt.

18 October (Monday): Prophet’s Birthday.

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

24-28 October (Sunday-Thursday) Cairo Water Week, Cairo, Egypt.

27-28 October (Wednesday-Thursday) Intelligent Cities Exhibition & Conference, Royal Maxim Palace Kempinski, Cairo, Egypt.

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

30 October – 4 November (Saturday-Thursday): The first edition of Race The Legends, Egypt.

November: The French-Egyptian Business Forum is set to take place in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.

November: Egypt will host another round of talks to reach a potential Egyptian-Eurasian trade agreement, which can significantly contribute to increasing the volume of Egyptian exports to the Russia-led bloc that includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

1-3 November (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt Energy exhibition on power and renewable energy, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

2-3 November (Tuesday-Wednesday): The Federal Reserve meets to review interest rates.

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

16-17 November (Tuesday-Wednesday): Africa fintech summit, Cairo.

26 November-5 December (Friday-Sunday): The 43rd Cairo International Film Festival.

29 November-2 December (Monday-Thursday): Egypt Defense Expo.

7-8 December (Tuesday-Wednesday): North Africa Trade Finance Summit.

12-14 December (Sunday-Tuesday): Food Africa Cairo trade exhibition, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

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

14-19 December (Tuesday-Sunday): The Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater.

14-15 December (Tuesday-Wednesday): The Federal Reserve meets to review interest rates.

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

14-16 February 2022 (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt Petroleum Show, Egypt International Exhibition Center, New Cairo, Egypt.

1H2022: The World Economic Forum annual meeting, location TBD.

22-24 April 2022: World Bank-IMF spring meeting, Washington D.C.

May 2022: Investment in Logistics Conference, Cairo, Egypt

16 June 2022 (Thursday): End of 2021-2022 academic year for public schools

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.