AM — Edita won’t acquire Egyptian Belgian Company’s assets after talks collapse

TL;DR

Edita won’t acquire Ole bakeries producer after talks collapse. (M&A Watch)
Seven energy firms get eight exploration blocks in oil + gas tender. (Energy)
Fashion startup Gahez raises USD 2 mn pre-seed round. (Startup Watch)
Fintech and unified budget laws up for final votes in the House today. (What We’re Tracking Today)
Employees are now paying 15% more towards social ins. (What We’re Tracking Today)
Rail fares could rise in the coming months. (Last Night’s Talk Shows)
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes found guilty of defrauding investors. (What We’re Tracking Today)
Delta still dominant covid strain in Egypt, despite omicron spread, gov’t says. (Covid Watch)
Egypt’s green economy: What’s to come in 2022? (Going Green)
US stocks open 2022 by hitting record highs but treasuries suffer worst opening day in 13 years. (Planet Finance)

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

Good morning, wonderful people, and welcome to the first Tuesday of what we expect will be a holiday-shortened week ahead of Coptic Christmas. We hope you’re making plans to enjoy the long weekend — you’ve got this and 27 January to which to look forward before a holiday drought that will stretch until near the end of Ramadan in April.

THANK YOU to all of you who participated in our 2022 Reader Poll. It closed at midnight. We’ll have the results for you all next week and will announce the names of eight readers who we’ll be inviting to breakfast with us once this whole omicron thing dies down a bit. A dozen other participants will be getting nice Enterprise mugs.

PSA #1 – Employees are now paying 15% more towards social ins.: Public and private sector workers are now contributing a minimum of EGP 1.4k and a maximum of EGP 9.4k from their gross salaries towards social ins. as of 1 January, up 15% from last year, according to a statement from the National Social Ins. Authority. The hike comes in line with a plan laid out in the 2019 Pension Act that will see minimum and maximum contributions increase by 15% annually until 2027.

The hike will see pensioners getting a bit more in their pockets each month, the statement said. Payouts to retirees and other beneficiaries rose on 1 January to a minimum of EGP 910 and a maximum of EGP 7.5k.

PSA #2- This Thursday, 6 January is off for banks and the public sector in observance of Coptic Christmas, which falls on Friday. We’re still waiting on confirmation from the EGX and the Manpower Ministry that the stock market will be closed and the private sector will be off on that day, but we’re optimistic: If banks are closed, the stock market cannot trade.

WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY-

It’s PMI day: Purchasing managers’ index figures for December for Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar will be released at 6:15am CLT today — you an find them all here when they’re out. Egypt’s non-oil business activity has remained in contraction territory for each of the past 12 months, as inflation and supply chain bottlenecks continued to weigh on private sector firms. Last month, output fell for the third consecutive month, as output price inflation rose at the second-fastest pace since mid-2018. Figures for the UAE will be released tomorrow.

Watch that inflation: Improvement in activity could remain muted over the next several months as inflation is expected to suppress output, according to purchasing managers surveyed in November’s report.

This is why next week’s inflation figure is crucial: Inflation figures for December will be released on Monday, 10 January. Annual urban inflation slowed for the second month running in November and dipped to its lowest since July as pressure on food prices continued to ease, but some analysts have flagged a potential acceleration in inflation figures. What’s to blame? Persistent global inflation, a potential scale-back of food subsidies, potential electricity price increases, and a rise in demand following higher employment rates.

On the legislative agenda today: The House of Representatives is back in session today and is scheduled to hold final votes on:

The fintech act: The bill would, if passed, govern the use of fintech by non-banking financial services providers, as well as put the Financial Regulatory Authority in charge of overseeing the fintech space in general.
Unified budget act: The legislation would require the government to be more transparent in how it plans public finances, forcing it to present an annual medium-term budgetary and fiscal strategy to the House and set spending limits for each ministry.

OPEC+ is meeting today to decide whether to go ahead with plans to add another 400k barrels per day to the market in February. The cartel agreed in December to continue ramping up oil production despite concerns that omicron could dent demand. It will likely stick to its planned monthly production increases at this week’s meeting, delegates told Bloomberg yesterday — especially after OPEC+ analysts lowered estimates for the first-quarter surplus at Monday’s preliminary meeting yesterday.

OPEC has appointed a new secretary-general: Kuwait’s Haitham Al Ghais has been chosen by OPEC members to replace incumbent Mohammad Barkindo of Nigeria as the organization’s secretary-general this summer, it announced yesterday following a separate meeting. Barkindo, who has held the position since 2016, will make way for Al Ghais at the end of July.

Two Egyptian delegations are separately heading to Gaza and Tel Aviv to push for a truce between the two sides, Al Arabiya reports, citing unnamed sources. Egypt is pushing the Israeli military to call off airstrikes and Palestinians to stop firing rockets. Tension between the two sides rose after Palestinian forces fired rockets into the Mediterranean Sea off the Israeli coast, prompting Israel to carry out airstrikes in Gaza.

THE BIG STORIES ABROAD- Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has been found guilty of defrauding investors. A US jury has found Holmes guilty on four of the 11 counts of conspiracy and wire fraud connected with her blood-testing Silicon Valley startup Theranos. The 37-year-old former CEO, who modeled herself on Apple’s Steve Jobs as she rose to fame, was acquitted on four counts of defrauding patients, while the jury did not deliver a verdict on three counts relating to individual investors. Prosecutors accused Holmes of misleading investors and patients over the accuracy of her firm’s blood-testing technology, which she claimed could perform dozens of tests using exceptionally small quantities of blood. Holmes will likely appeal the verdict, but if it stands, she faces up to 20 years in prison. The story is everywhere from the AP and Reuters to Bloomberg, the FT, WSJ, NYT and the Guardian.

Apple has become the first company ever to achieve a USD 3 tn market cap after yesterday hitting a record intraday high of USD 182.88 per share. The company’s stock ended the session up 2.5% at USD 182.01, giving the company a closing market cap of USD 2.99 tn. Apple became the first company to reach a USD 1 tn market cap in August 2018 and hit USD 2 tn in 2020. The story is everywhere in the business press from Reuters to the FT, Bloomberg and CNBC.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Key news triggers to keep your eye on:

Foreign reserves: December’s foreign reserves figures will be announced before the week is out.
Interest rates: Further afield, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) will hold its first policy meeting of 2022 on Thursday, 3 February.

The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations gets underway in Cameroon next Sunday, 9 January. The championship will run until Sunday, 6 February.

The World Youth Forum kicks off in Sharm El Sheikh next Monday, 10 January and runs until Thursday, 13 January.

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

*** It’s Going Green day — your weekly briefing of all things green in Egypt: Enterprise’s green economy vertical focuses each Tuesday on the business of renewable energy and sustainable practices in Egypt, everything from solar and wind energy through to water, waste management, sustainable building practices and how you can make your business greener, whatever the sector.

In today’s issue: The green economy will be a major focus for Egypt in 2022, with all eyes on COP27, coming up in Sharm El Sheikh in November. The big question: What should we expect from the climate summit itself and in the lead-up to the event? Officials say it’s a chance for Egypt and other EMs to secure large-scale climate financing and will be the springboard for new project launches — potentially in areas like carbon capture, desalination and green hydrogen. But COP27 will also put Egypt’s targets and strategies for emissions reduction and upping the use of renewables under the microscope. And some renewable energy players are hoping it will spur regulatory changes to bolster their industries, which are set to feel continued pressure from high imported material costs.

M&A WATCH

Edita won’t be acquiring assets of Ole bakeries manufacturer

Snackfoods giant Edita won’t acquire Egyptian Belgian Company’s assets after talks collapse: Edita Food Industries’ bid to acquire assets belonging to Egyptian Belgian Company has fallen through after the two companies were unable to agree on a valuation. The EGX-listed company had expected to finalize an agreement with the Ole baked products manufacturer this month but said in a regulatory filing (pdf) yesterday that negotiations had been suspended after failing to reach an agreement. A senior Edita official told us that talks collapsed because the two companies couldn’t agree on a valuation following due diligence.

Background: Edita submitted a non-binding letter of intent in November to acquire the company’s real estate assets (including land plots and buildings), as well as machinery, equipment, and production lines. A senior exec told us at the time that the company viewed the acquisition as a “major milestone” that would have added “significant” production capacity to its baked goods segment.

ALSO ON THE M&A FRONT-

Creed Healthcare discloses size of Cleo stake sale to MCI Capital: Creed Healthcare sold an 8.9% stake, or almost 142 mn shares, in Cleopatra Hospitals Group (CHG) to MCI Capital Healthcare Partners for EGP 709.8 mn (EGP 5 per share) last week, the company said in a bourse disclosure (pdf). The sale reduced Creed’s stake in CHG from 37.9% to 29%.

The transaction was part of MCI Capital’s acquisition of 23% of CHG: MCI Capital, a subsidiary of state-owned CI Capital, last week bought a 23% stake in CHG for a total EGP 1.8 bn. Creed, which owns its stake in CHG through its subsidiary Care Healthcare, had agreed to sell an 8-12% stake in the company to MCI at the EGP 5-per-share offer price during its voluntary tender offer. The confirmation of its 8.9% stake sale to MCI Capital means that other CHG shareholders collectively sold around a 14.1% stake.

Creed remains CHG’s single-largest shareholder with its remaining 29% stake, while MCI Capital’s total holding in CHG now stands at around 26.8% following the acquisition, according to information previously provided to Enterprise by a source with knowledge of the transaction. Creed used to own more than two-thirds of CHG but divested a 31.5% stake in 2019.

ENERGY

BP, Eni among 7 companies to land new oil + gas exploration blocks

Seven international energy companies have been awarded eight of the 24 oil and gas exploration blocks included in the government’s bid round held last year, the Oil Ministry said in a statement yesterday. BP, Eni, Apex International, Energean Egypt, United Energy, Ukraine’s INA Naftaplin, and Chile’s Enap Sipetrol all received blocks in the tender, which saw two blocks awarded in the Mediterranean, four in the Western Desert, and two in the Gulf of Suez. The firms will invest a combined minimum of USD 250 mn in the initial exploration phase and drill at least 33 exploration wells in the blocks, the ministry said.

What happened to the other 16 blocks? The ministry didn’t disclose the status of the other 16 concessions put up for auction in the bid round, which ran between mid-February and the end of July last year. Nine blocks in the Mediterranean, 12 in the Western Desert and three in the Gulf of Suez were all up for grabs.

Oil + gas contracts have been flowing in lately, with two other major agreements signed just last week. Italian energy firm Eni committed to invest a minimum USD 1 bn on exploration and extraction in the Gulf of Suez and Nile Delta regions, while the Oil Ministry also inked a new USD 3.5 bn, 20-year production agreement with Apache-Sinopec JV.

STARTUP WATCH

MOVES

LAST NIGHT’S TALK SHOWS

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EGYPT IN THE NEWS

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

COVID WATCH

Global weekly covid cases hit record high, delta is still the dominant strain in Egypt

Global weekly covid cases hit a record 10 mn as the surge in omicron infections smashed the previous record of 5.7 mn weekly cases, reported Bloomberg — and that’s without counting the rising number of people opting for at-home testing or not to test at all.

On the bright side: Weekly covid deaths continue to fall globally, adding weight to early evidence that omicron is less severe than other strains.

Many pundits are now suggesting we need to pay more attention to death and hospitalization rates with Omicron than we do to overall infection rates, given that omicron is generally less severe than illness caused by the delta variant — particularly in people who have already been vaccinated, boosted or previously infected.

The delta covid-19 variant remains the dominant strain in Egypt, despite the spread of omicron, head of the government’s covid committee, Hossam Hosni, said on Al Hadath Al Youm on Sunday (watch, runtime: 6:19). It is unclear how far omicron — a more transmissible though potentially less virulent variant of the virus — has penetrated Egypt, though Hosni said it is “rapidly spreading.”

The Health Ministry reported 723 new covid-19 infections yesterday, down from 801 the day before. Egypt has now disclosed a total of 387,882 confirmed cases of covid-19. The ministry also reported 20 new deaths, bringing the country’s total death toll to 21,817.

PLANET FINANCE

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US stocks got 2022 off to a good start yesterday, climbing to a new record high despite expectations of headwinds in the coming months as the Federal Reserve tapers stimulus and prepares to raise interest rates, says Bloomberg. The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% to an all-time high, while the Nasdaq closed 1.1% in the green and the Dow rose 0.7%.

Concerns over rising borrowing costs were felt in the treasury market: The US 10-year note had its worst start to a year since 2009, as a sell-off pushed the yield up 13 basis points to 1.64%. The greenback gained 0.7%.

Alpha Dhabi has bought an additional 17% stake in the UAE’s Aldar Properties in a USD 1.5 bn transaction, bringing its total stake to 29.8%, according to a statement (pdf). The acquisition makes the International Holding Company subsidiary one of the largest shareholders in Aldar — the new co-owners of Egyptian real estate giant SODIC alongside Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ.

Failing Evergrande kicks off 2022 with trading halt: The crumbling Chinese real estate giant’s shares were suspended from trading yesterday, before it confirmed that it had been ordered to tear down some under-construction buildings, Bloomberg reports.

EGX30	11,897	-0.1% (YTD: -0.4%)
USD (CBE)	Buy 15.66	Sell 15.76
USD at CIB	Buy 15.66	Sell 15.76
Interest rates CBE	8.25% deposit	9.25% lending
Tadawul	11,327	0.0% (YTD: +0.4%)
ADX	8,465	-0.3% (YTD: -0.3%)
DFM	3,191	-0.2% (YTD: -0.2%)
S&P 500	4,797	+0.6% (YTD: +0.6%)
FTSE 100	7,385	-0.3% (YTD: 0.0%)
Brent crude	USD 78.98	+1.5%
Natural gas (Nymex)	USD 3.83	+0.3%
Gold	USD 1,804.30	+0.2%
BTC	USD 46,071	-2.0% (as of midnight)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The EGX30 fell 0.1% yesterday on turnover of EGP 908 mn (29.8% below the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is down 0.4% YTD.

In the green: MM Group (+11.0%), Rameda (+2.5%) and Abu Qir Fertilizers (+2.2%).

In the red: Credit Agricole Egypt (-3.8%), Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals (-2.7%) and Aspire Capital (-2.4%).

It’s a mixed day in Asia this morning: Markets in China, Hong Kong and South Korea are down, while the Nikkei and the ASX are solidly in the green. Stock futures suggest that most European bourses will see early gains later this morning while US shares will fall.

AROUND THE WORLD

Egypt’s green economy: What’s to come in 2022? Since Egypt’s selection as host of COP27 in November, questions have abounded about what to expect from the climate summit itself, as well as the run-up to the global event. Experts say it could push the government to set new targets in areas like emissions reduction, while renewable energy players hope it might spur reforms that bolster their industries, which remain squeezed by high imported material costs. Meanwhile, the summit will likely prioritize offering Egypt and other emerging markets chances to secure large-scale climate financing, officials have signaled.

By virtue of being the summit hosts, our climate action will come under the spotlight: COP27 will probably see the government commit to new targets for fossil fuel reduction, renewables generation capacity and energy efficiency, Mohamed Mansour, the co-founder and CEO of renewable energy solutions provider Infinity, tells us. As the summit host, we’ll face big questions about updating our Nationally Determined Contributions (pdf), says Mahmoud Abouelnaga, an energy and environment analyst and solutions fellow at the US-based, independent Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. “I’d say we need to be more quantitative in our targets. Our indices are more descriptive — we talk about what we need to do, but not how much we need to do,” Abouelnaga notes.

Case in point: We still don’t know much about the Environment Ministry’s 2050 climate strategy, launched in early November.

The private sector will also feel the heat: Businesses in the region will come under pressure as Egypt hosts COP27 and the UAE hosts COP28, says Abouelnaga. While the Sisi administration has become more ambitious with its climate targets, and the UAE and Saudi Arabia are targeting net zero emissions by 2050 and 2060 respectively, “we haven’t seen similar announcements from businesses in the region, even though they try to compete with their peers on all other development indicators,” he adds. “I’m looking forward to seeing the pressure on these businesses and how they’ll react to it.”

Egypt will launch several climate-related initiatives at COP27, according to Oil Minister Tarek El Molla. These include joint initiatives between the Oil Ministry and Italian energy firm Eni on carbon capture, which, if similar to Eni’s HyNet North West project, could aim to capture and store 10 mn tons of industrial CO2 annually by 2030. Eni will provide support on technical and economic feasibility studies for the Egypt project. Representatives of Mitsubishi have also discussed working with the government on carbon capture projects.

New green hydrogen and desalination projects could be on the table: Last year’s directive from President Abdel Fattah El Sisi to establish Egypt’s green hydrogen strategy could yield an initial phase of green hydrogen projects possibly worth USD 3-4 bn. A developer consortium of Orascom Construction, Norway’s Scatec, Nassif Sawiris-backed Fertiglobe, and the Sovereign Fund of Egypt is building a 100 MW green hydrogen plant in Ain Sokhna, set to come online by 2024. We’ll hear updates on this project at COP27, Infinity’s Mansour tells Enterprise. The administration will also announce and award desalination projects to renewable energy companies, he adds.

And the summit will help continue pushing the drive for cleaner transport: All cars and buses in Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada will be converted to run on natural gas or swapped for EVs by the time COP27 kicks off, indicating the natgas transition scheme and push towards local EV assembly and charging infrastructure will remain priorities. “The fact that you have half the country covered with EV charging stations today is a big statement, and hopefully when COP27 comes around, we’ll have the whole country covered,” says Mansour. Infinity is building the infrastructure of EV charging stations across Egypt.

Some renewables players are hoping COP27 will spur regulatory changes: “As COP27 occurs, we hope Egypt fine-tunes its regulations to support home-grown renewables companies,” Cairo Solar Managing Director and Solar Energy Development Association (SEDA) spokesperson Hatem Tawfik tells us. The solar industry wants to increase to 5% recent quotas allowing each one of Egypt’s eight electricity distribution companies to only use solar energy for 1.5% of its entire supply, he adds. Companies working in waste-to-energy (WtE) want to see a gate fee introduced for treating waste, says Metwalli Elnoubi, founder of waste management firm EnviroTaqa.

A key regulatory change renewables players want to see is a rework of tariffs and fees: The solar industry wants to scrap a proposed merger fee of EGP 0.10-0.40/kWh on net-metered solar systems announced last year, for solar stations under 500 kWp, and decide what the merger fee will be for stations over 500 kWp, Tawfik says. WtE companies have said selling electricity at the current feed-in tariff (FiT) rate of EGP 1.4/Kwh simply isn’t profitable. And EV charging tariffs — set at 1.69 EGP/kWh for public charging stations and 1.89 EGP/kWh for charging stations within privately-owned establishments, with a fast-charging tariff set at 3.75 EGP/kWh for public and private establishments — aren’t particularly lucrative, both Mansour and Shams Abdel Ghaffar, managing director of Infinity EV, have told Enterprise.

These players are facing cost crunches from supply chain disruptions, expected to continue in 2022: Solar panel prices remain very high, and suppliers closely connected with Chinese manufacturers don’t expect them to decrease until at least June 2022, due to stagflation, says Tawfik. “I’d expect we might reach pre-covid prices by 2H 2023,” he adds. Supply chain disruptions are a major issue, EnviroTaqa’s Elnoubi agrees: “For wind, WtE, hydropower and other renewables, we’re dependent on imports. Supply chain disruptions will affect pricing in 2022.”

Perhaps more than anything, COP27 will spur a big push for large-scale green funding: COP27 is a chance to emphasize that emerging markets need financial support to meet climate commitments, and to bring innovative financing — like concessional lending, International Cooperation Minister Rania Al Mashat said recently.

Several Egypt-focused green funding prospects are already on the horizon: Egypt could be targeted in BlackRock’s new USD 673 mn climate-focused infrastructure fund. We could receive up to EUR 1 bn from the EU over the next six years, focused on water security. And Allianz Global Investors and the European Investment Bank are establishing a new EUR 500 mn emerging market climate-focused fund, though it’s unclear if Egypt is targeted.

Along with new ESG and sustainable development bonds: CIB became the first in Egypt to issue corporate green bonds last year, selling USD 100 mn of the climate-linked securities to the International Finance Corporation. However, CIB remains the only company to-date that has issued the bonds. Companies will soon be able to list ESG and sustainable development bonds on the EGX, and a fresh offering of corporate green bonds are coming, with unnamed private sector players planning to issue USD 120-200 mn-worth of the climate-friendly securities.

Your top climate stories for the week:

More action to cut emissions needed? Green energy advocates are calling on Egypt to look beyond solar power in efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
Was 2021 really the year of ESG? Shares of oil and gas companies outperformed ESG funds last year.

CALENDAR

Early 2022: Results to be announced for the second round of the state’s gold and precious metals auction.

1H2022: Target date for IDH to close its acquisition of 50% of Islamabad Diagnostic Center.

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

1H2022: e-Finance’s digital healthcare service platform, eHealth, will launch its services.

1H2022: The government will respond to private companies’ bids to build desalination plants.

1Q2022: Launch of the Egyptian Commodities Exchange.

1Q2022: Swvl acquisition of Viapool expected to close.

1Q2022: Waste collection startup Bekia plans to expand to the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

January: Tenth of Ramadan dry port tender to be launched.

1-15 January (Saturday-Saturday): Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZ) Joint Committee.

4 January (Tuesday): OPEC+ ministerial meeting.

6 January (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Coptic Christmas.

7 January (Friday): Coptic Christmas.

9 January – 6 February (Sunday-Sunday): 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, Cameroon.

10-13 January (Monday-Thursday): World Youth Forum, Sharm El Sheikh.

Second half of January: Egypt will host the Egyptian-Bahraini Joint Committee.

Second half of January: Regulations for installing EV charging stations will be published.

16 January (Sunday): SODIC shareholders will vote on the company’s new board of directors at an extraordinary general meeting.

17-19 January (Monday-Wednesday): World Future Energy Summit, Abu Dhabi.

20 January (Thursday): Kadmar Shipping’s new line transporting agricultural crops between Alexandria and Russia begins its operations.

23 January (Sunday): Deadline for Macro Pharma to IPO on the EGX.

25 January (Tuesday): 25 January revolution anniversary / Police Day.

27 January (Thursday): National holiday in observance of 25 January revolution anniversary / Police Day.

End of January: The Egyptian-Romanian business forum will take place with the aim of strengthening joint investment relations.

January-February 2022: Construction work on the Abu Qir metro upgrade will begin.

February: Hassan Allam Construction’s new construction firm established with Russia’s Titan-2 to handle construction work on the Dabaa nuclear power plant begins its operations.

February: Ghazl El Mahalla shares will begin trading on the EGX this month.

Mid-February: End of grace period to comply with new minimum wage for firms who sent in exemption requests.

3 February (Thursday): Central Bank of Egypt’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting.

4-20 February (Friday-Sunday): 2022 Winter Olympics, Beijing.

11 February (Friday): Deadline for Anghami SPAC merger.

11-13 February (Friday-Sunday) FIBA Intercontinental Cup, Cairo.

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

15 February (Tuesday): The Industrial Development Authority’s deadline for receiving offers from companies for licenses to manufacture steel products.

19 February (Saturday): Public universities begin the second term of the 2021-2022 academic year.

End of February: Lebanon to receive gas from Egypt via a pipeline crossing Jordan and Syria.

March: Rollout of the government financial management information system (GFMIS), a suite of electronic tools to automate the government’s financial management processes (pdf) that will replace the existing “closed” financial management system.

March: 4Q2021 earnings season.

March: Deadline for the World Health Organization’s intergovernmental negotiating body to meet to discuss binding treaty on future pandemic cooperation.

March: World Cup playoffs.

March: Target date for Saudi tech firm Brmaja to IPO on the EGX.

24 March (Thursday): Central Bank of Egypt’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting.

31 March (Thursday): Deadline for submitting tax returns for individual taxpayers.

31 March (Thursday): Supply Ministry expected to take final decision on bread subsidies by this date.

2 April (Saturday): First day of Ramadan (TBC).

3 April (Sunday): Bidding begins on the Industrial Development Authority’s license to manufacture tobacco products.

4 April (Monday): CDC Group will formally change its name to British International Investment.

22-24 April (Friday-Sunday): World Bank-IMF spring meeting, Washington D.C.

24 April (Sunday): Coptic Easter Sunday (holiday for Coptic Christians).

25 April (Monday): Sham El Nessim.

25 April (Monday): Sinai Liberation Day.

28 April (Thursday): National Holiday in observance of Sham El Nessim.

30 April (Saturday): Deadline for submitting corporate tax returns for companies whose financial year ends 31 December.

Late April – 15 May: 1Q2022 earnings season

May: Investment in Logistics Conference, Cairo, Egypt.

1 May (Sunday): Labor Day.

5 May (Thursday): National Holiday in observance of Labor Day.

2 May (Monday): Eid El Fitr (TBC).

19 May (Thursday): Central Bank of Egypt’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting.

15-18 June: St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), St. Petersburg.

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

23 June (Thursday): Central Bank of Egypt’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting.

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

30 June (Thursday): June 30 Revolution Day, national holiday.

End of 2Q2022: The Financial Regulatory Authority’s new Ins. Act should be approved.

End of 1H2022: Emirati industrial company M Glory Holding and the Military Production Ministry will begin the mass production of dual fuel pickup trucks that can run on natural gas.

2H2022: IEF-IGU Ministerial Gas Forum, Egypt. Date + location TBA.

July: A law governing ins. for seasonal contractors will come into effect.

8 July (Friday): Arafat Day.

9-13 July (Saturday-Wednesday): Eid Al Adha, national holiday.

30 July (Saturday): Islamic New Year.

Late July – 14 August: 2Q2022 earnings season.

18 August (Thursday): Central Bank of Egypt’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting.

September: Egypt will display its first naval exhibition with the title Naval Power.

22 September (Thursday): Central Bank of Egypt’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting.

6 October (Thursday): Armed Forces Day, national holiday.

8 October (Saturday): Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, national holiday.

18-20 October(Tuesday-Thursday): Mediterranean Offshore Conference, Alexandria, Egypt.

Late October – 14 November: 3Q2022 earnings season.

3 November (Thursday): Central Bank of Egypt’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting.

22 December (Thursday): Central Bank of Egypt’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting.

End of 2022: e-Aswaaq’s tourism platform will complete the roll out of its ticketing and online booking portal across Egypt.

**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 above between the actual holiday and its observance.