AM — Gov’t downgrades growth forecast for FY2021-2022.
Plus: Lots and lots of startup news

Good morning, wonderful people, and welcome to hump day, where the big stories of the morning include a flurry of fundraising announcements and a huge day of diplomacy, with the latter seeing France promise to stand by us on food security amid disruption in the global wheat market. We have coverage of all of that and more in this morning’s news well, below.

PSA #1- The CBE has announced Ramadan working hours for banks. Bank employees will work from 9am-2pm, while customers will have access to services from 9:30am-1:30pm throughout the holy month, the bank announced (pdf).

PSA #2- The mercury is still going to spike on the first day of Ramadan. Look for the weather to gradually get warmer over the coming days, with a high today of 28°C in the capital city, rising to 38°C or so on Saturday, the first day of Ramadan. The daytime high will hover in the mid-to-high 30s all next week.

FROM THE DEPT. OF GOOD NEWS- The number of people employed in the public sector continued to fall in 2021: Official data out yesterday showed that the number of public sector workers fell 9% to 695.3k last year. Workers in the sector have fallen consistently over the past five years, and are down more than 15% since 2017, according to a statement (pdf) from state statistics agency Capmas.

HAPPENING TODAY-

It’s the big game tonight: Egypt face Senegal for the crunch second leg that will decide who will qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The Pharaohs take a slender 1-0 lead to Dakar, and will be looking to bag a crucial away goal to put them in control of the fixture. Kick off is at 7pm.

Cyprus Energy Minister Natasa Pilidou is in town this week heading a delegation of Cypriot companies to discuss business ties with ministers and Egyptian firms. The delegation stays until 31 March.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES-

The “Great Resignation”? It’s more like “The Great Search for My Better Job.” It’s a myth that today’s youts are dropping out of the workforce in search of some pseudo-Marxist, universal-basic-income ideal. Instead, argues Atlantic columnist Derek Thompson, “the Great Resignation isn’t so much about people hating work as it is about them switching to a job they want more.” The numbers he marshals are US-centric, but we think the theme holds here in Egypt among folks like us privileged to work in “knowledge-based” jobs. People who work in the service industry or manufacturing in Omm El Donia simply don’t have the economic freedom to indulge in The Big Quit.

Hey, Gen X, want to feel old? It’s been 30 years since Basic Instinct was released, and the NYT thinks the Sharon Stone / Michael Douglas [redacted] thriller is “a time capsule that can still offend.”

Also for Gen X: Useful thoughts from the New York Times on how to protect your knees so they don’t hurt as much as those of your boomer parents. Millennials may also want to take note, ‘cause y’all are starting to get old (here and here). The good news: Tennis, running and other “impact” sports are actually good for your knees, provided you do it right. And meniscus “repair”? It’s probably bunk for most people.

Investment bankers on Spacs are trimming their fees as more and more investors pull out of blank-check transactions, the Financial Times suggests, saying that “average redemptions hit 90% in February” as investors fled Spacs on the back of “heightened regulatory scrutiny, a string of scandals and poorly performing Spac mergers.”

Oman is going to allow full foreign ownership of listed companies, Bloomberg reports.

HAPPENING THIS WEEK-

All individual taxpayers have until this Thursday, 31 March, to submit their 2021 tax returns to the Tax Authority. The deadline for companies with January-December fiscal years is 30 April.

Afreximbank and the Angolan Embassy in Egypt are hosting (pdf) an Angola-Egypt investment roundtable on Wednesday at the Hilton Cairo Heliopolis Hotel. Click here to RSVP and join the discussion.

MARKET WATCH-

Oil prices fell back yesterday after China announced that Shanghai would be placed into full lockdown, according to Bloomberg. The price of Brent fell nearly 7% yesterday, closing the session at USD 112.50 a barrel, amid concerns that tightening covid restrictions in China would put a dampener on demand.

Oil is continuing to slide this morning: Brent was down 1.1% when we hit ‘send’ this morning. Oil prices have climbed almost 40% this year, putting fiscal pressure on Egypt which is a net oil importer.

Asian markets are mainly in the green during early trading this morning. Shares in Europe and the US are on course to follow them later today, according to stock futures.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Companies have a little less than two weeks to file their first quarterly ESG compliance report: Listed firms and non-bank financial services companies need to submit their first quarterly ESG report by 10 April, the FRA said (pdf) on Sunday. The regulator is making it mandatory for corporates to publicly disclose their performance on key environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics each year when they submit their annual financial statements, starting 2023.

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: Red sea coral reefs are one of our most biologically diverse and stunning natural resources — not to mention one of the most lucrative for our tourism industry. But climate change, unregulated development, and recreational overuse means that our reefs could disappear entirely by the end of this century. In this week’s Going Green, we take a look at the state of Egypt’s coral, and what can be done to stop it going the way of the dinosaurs.

Surprise: The economy won’t grow as much as expected this year due to Russia’s war in Ukraine: The government has lowered its growth outlook for FY 2021-2022 to 5.7% from 6.4% due to the economic impact of the war in Ukraine, Planning Minister Hala El Said told Bloomberg Asharq yesterday (watch, runtime 1:15).

The government had upped its GDP projection just days before the war broke out: The Planning Ministry hiked its full-year projection to 6.2-6.5% last month on the back of strong 2Q figures that beat expectations.

The war changed everything: “The repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and its effects on inflation and growth globally have reflected on us, so we now expect our growth rate to witness a bit of slowdown, to record 5.7%.by the end of the year,” said El Said.

Next year’s growth forecast has been downgraded, too: The government now sees the economy growing at a 5.5% clip in FY 2022-2023 in its newly-revised draft budget, down from the 5.7% figure that was forecast before the conflict. Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly has directed the Finance Ministry to restructure the draft budget and cut back on spending as rising food and energy prices increase pressure on state finances.

The government’s privatization plans have been scaled back: The government aims to offer shares in four or five companies this year, according to El Said. The companies are in the energy, financial, and ins. sectors, she said. The government had originally aimed to sell shares in as many as 10 firms in 2022, but the deteriorating global market conditions caused by the conflict have forced it to rethink its plans.

Continuing the 2021 revival? The government’s privatization drive made a successful comeback late last year with the IPO of state fintech player e-Finance and a secondary offering of Abu Qir Fertilizers. Until e-Finance went live on the EGX in October, the privatization program had only seen one secondary sale since launching at the beginning of 2018.

Who are the candidates? These are some of the state companies that we know have plans to sell shares on the EGX: Heliopolis Housing | Misr Life | Banque du Caire | Mopco. The state also plans to offer to strategic investors stakes in military-owned companies including bottled-water maker Safi and filling station operator Wataniya.

Jordanian digital healthcare platform Altibbi has raised USD 44 mn in a series B funding round and will use the funding in part to expand in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The round was led by India and GCC-focused investment firm Foundation Holdings, Hikma Ventures and existing investors Global Ventures and Dash Ventures, according to a company press release (pdf). Altibbi said the transaction was “the largest single financing round for a regional digital health company,” adding that the round was heavily oversubscribed.

About the company: Altibbi is a digital healthcare company that provides 24/7 medical advice and telehealth consultations. Since launching in 2011, the Dubai-headquartered firm has expanded to seven countries in the region and has handled 4.5 mn remote medical consultations. It now has more than 1.5k doctors on its platform.

See this as part of the heating-up of competition in the regional healthcare industry: Altibbi will use the funding to expand its footprint in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. It plans to launch online pharmacy and diagnostics collection services, creating what it says would be the MENA region’s first fully integrated emmawatson-fans.com offering. The firm also wants to up its spend on machine learning to enhance its AI-based diagnostic, referral and prescription services.

The company got involved in Egypt’s covid relief efforts: Altibbi ran covid hotlines through a PPP with the Supreme Council of Universities during the pandemic, and last year launched a dial-a-doc service in Egypt aimed at users who do not have access to a smartphone or an internet connection. It’s also providing medical consultations without charge to plasma donors in partnership with the Health Ministry’s national blood plasma project.

MEANWHILE- Egyptian healthtech startup Otida has raised USD 340k in a pre-seed round led by Texas-based VC Lofty, Flat6Labs, Afropreneurs, Jedar Capital, OQAL, UI Investments and others, according to a company press release (pdf). The startup operates an app that provides medical, dietary and fitness advice to diabetics. The firm is set to use the funding to “productize Otida’s operations and expand distribution to reach more patients,” with the aim of expanding its user base to 5k this year.

Cairo-based fantasy football startup Eksab has closed a USD 3 mn seed round led by Africa-focused VC firm 4DX Ventures, with participation from Darwazah Capital, Golden Palm Investments, P1 Ventures, and other angel investors, the company announced in a press release (pdf).

About the company: Eksab is Egypt’s only licensed fantasy football platform. It allows users to build teams and compete by making predictions about real football games. Since launching in 2018, the company has acquired more than 700k registered users in Egypt and its paying user base has increased around 60% month-on-month.

Where’s the money going? Eksab will use the funds to grow its user base across the Middle East and Africa, develop its product, and hire new engineers and designers.

Expansion plans: The startup is working to acquire licenses to operate in three additional countries by the middle of 2022, the statement, without providing further details. Eksab is also close to entering a partnership with one of the largest clubs in the Middle East and Africa, founder and CEO Aly Mahmoud told Techcrunch.

Eksab’s biggest round so far: The company previously raised a six-figure seed investment round in 2019, followed by a USD 500k round in 2020.

ALSO FROM PLANET STARTUP-

Egypt’s Rabbit hopping off to Saudi Arabia: Ultra-fast grocery delivery startup Rabbit has received a license to operate in Saudi Arabia, in the company’s first expansion outside of Egypt, the company said in a statement (pdf) this morning. Rabbit plans to invest over USD 60 mn in the next two years to tap into Saudi, the largest e-commerce market in the region, the statement said. The license was awarded yesterday by Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al Falih in a ceremony at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress 2022 in Riyadh.

Rabbit raised USD 11 mn in a pre-seed VC funding round in November — reportedly the largest-ever pre-seed round in the Middle East and Africa. The company, which guarantees delivery in 20 minutes or less, is currently operating across Cairo, Sheikh Zayed and New Cairo, and is targeting six-figure order volumes each month.

France is lending us EUR 777 mn for the Metro Line 1 revamp: We yesterday signed a loan agreement with the French government for EUR 776.9 mn to fund the 55 new trains for Cairo Metro Line 1 being supplied by French manufacturer Alstom, according to a cabinet statement.

The terms: The 40-year development loan includes a 15-year grace period, with the funds to be paid back at a 0.0092% interest rate, the statement read. The state will pay nearly EGP 1.2 bn (EUR 58.8 mn) for the trains upfront.

The trains: Some 13% of the components used to build the trains will be sourced from Egypt via the Arab Organization for Industrialization’s SEMAF railway factory, the statement read. Alstom will also carry out maintenance work and supply spare parts for eight years as part of the contract, which was approved by ministers late last year. The trains are part of a larger facelift planned for Cairo’s oldest underground line, which has been backed with hundreds of mns of EUR from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and other European lenders.

AND- We’re doing more business with Alstom. The National Authority for Tunnels signed an MoU with an Alstom-led French consortium to work on systems, tracks, and the manufacture and supply of “mobile units” for the new Metro Line 6, according to a separate statement. The master contract for the EGP 62.4 bn line, which will run from Al Khusus city to Tora El-Balad, was awarded to US infrastructure giant Bechtel in 2020. Alstom is also currently working on the manufacture of monorail trains for Egypt’s first monorail project.

REMINDER- France is already giving Egypt EUR 2 bn in credit facilities for the sixth metro line.

A major day of diplomacy: France will “stand by Egypt” and make sure we get the wheat we need if the Ukraine war drags on, French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said yesterday during a visit to Cairo, Reuters reports. The two countries will talk regarding price, with shipping costs an important factor, Le Maire said.

Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly told Le Maire that Egypt is counting on France to supply it with wheat, according to a separate statement. Egypt has been searching for alternative suppliers after the war prevented Russia and Ukraine from exporting grains. The two countries provided some 80% of Egypt’s imported wheat prior to the crisis.

EV manufacturing, infrastructure, AI, communications, waste recycling and green hydrogen production are all sectors here of interest to French investors, Lemaire told President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, saying France is looking to increase investments in Egyptian national projects.

MEANWHILE- Shoukry joins Arab, Israeli and US diplomats at key summit + meets Qatari, Greek FMs in Cairo. Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry joined his Emirati, Israeli, Moroccan, Bahraini and American counterparts at a major summit in Israel yesterday, which the diplomats used to discuss the implications of a nuclear agreement with Iran and a revival of peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine.

Regional leaders will meet again: On the second and final day of the gathering, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid announced that the summit would be held again and invited other states in the region to participate. “This new architecture, the shared capabilities we are building, intimidates and deters our common enemies — first and foremost Iran and its proxies — they certainly have something to fear,” he said at a presser following the meetings.

Arab states pressed Israel on Palestine: The meeting highlighted the “importance of maintaining the credibility and viability of the two-state solution,” Shoukry said at the presser, describing the situation in Palestine as “important” (watch, runtime: 5:07). US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that normalization agreements between Israel and Arab states are ”not a substitute for progress between Palestinians and Israelis.”

AND- Shoukry held talks with Qatar + Greek FMs after returning from Israel yesterday:

• Ties between Cairo and Doha continue to warm: The relationship between Egypt and Qatar has returned to normal, Shoukry and Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammad bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said during talks in Cairo yesterday. Al Thani, who was visiting Cairo for the second time since the countries normalized ties in January last year, said that the relationship has “passed the difficult stage” and that Doha is looking forward to “consolidating the bilateral cooperation.”
• Greece, Egypt talk energy + “international issues”: Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias was also in Cairo yesterday, holding talks with Shoukry which focused on energy ties and “a number of regional and international issues,” the Foreign Ministry said. The meeting came as Cypriot Energy Minister Natasa Pilidou arrived in Egypt for a four-day visit. Cyprus is a key energy partner for Egypt and Greece, and is collaborating on a number of gas and electricity projects in the EastMed.

ALSO- President Abdel Fattah El Sisi discussed with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson the Ukrainian crisis and Egypt’s preparations to host COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh in November.

Is Russia ready to make compromises ahead of today’s peace talks? Moscow has relaxed some of its key demands ahead of a new round of peace talks that will begin today in Istanbul. Four people familiar with the plans tell the Financial Times that Russia will no longer insist on the denazification of the country and may even allow the country to join the European Union provided that it does not join Nato.

The two sides are discussing the possibility of a ceasefire as part of the agreement, according to the FT, a point that Ukrainian negotiators said yesterday would be their priority in the talks. The draft document doesn’t make any mention of three of Russia’s main demands: “denazification,” “demilitarization” and protection of the Russian language in Ukraine.

Ukraine willing to discuss neutrality, territory: Ukraine reiterated on Sunday that it was ready to discuss the country’s neutrality and the status of the territories seized by Russia back in 2014. Crucially, any agreement would have to be put to the Ukrainian people via a referendum, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Turkey will mediate the talks, which will be the first face-to-face negotiations between the two sides in two weeks. Ankara initially suggested that the talks would start Monday but the Kremlin said yesterday that they wouldn’t begin until at least Tuesday.

Europe rejects Russia gas ultimatum: G7 countries have rejected Russian demands that “unfriendly” countries purchase its gas in RUB rather than EUR, Reuters reports. “All G7 ministers have agreed that this is a unilateral and clear breach of existing contracts," German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck said at a presser yesterday.

But after 31 March, no RUB may mean no gas: Putin has ordered the government and central bank to prepare to switch to RUB payments by 31 March.

It puts Europe in a difficult position: By purchasing Russian gas with RUB European countries would help to prop up a currency their sanctions are aimed at undermining. Transacting in RUB would also force buyers to go through Russian banks, protecting some of its financial institutions from sanctions. Europe imports 40% of its gas from Russia.

EXODUS-

UAE takes step away from neutrality: Abu Dhabi sovereign fund Mubadala has pressed pause on its investments in Russia, Bloomberg quotes co-CEO Khaldoon Al Mubarak as saying. “Obviously, in this environment, we have to pause investment in this market in Russia,” he told an investment conference in Dubai. “Pause and wait to see how the situation settles.”

The move makes Mubadala the first fund in the Middle East to take public action against Russia since the start of the war, and marks the first time the UAE has shed its neutrality since the conflict began. The wealth fund currently has 50 investments in Russia worth over USD 3.6 bn in infrastructure, real estate, commodities, banking and technology, as well as a partnership in place with the state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund. A fund spokesperson said its Russian assets account for less than 1% of its USD 243 bn portfolio.

It’s dasvidaniya to Heineken and Carlsberg in Russia after the Dutch brewing giant yesterday announced its exit from the country, saying that the business “is no longer sustainable nor viable in the current environment.”

BUT- Russia’s political entanglements aren’t going to affect how OPEC+ does its business. That’s the key takeaway from oil cartel members Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which are resisting Western pressure to push Moscow out of the alliance.

Cashback services startup WaffarX has appointed Kevin Johnson (LinkedIn) as its chairman, according to a company statement (pdf). Johnson spent nine years at the helm of e-commerce firm Ebates, which was sold to Rakuten in 2014 for US 1 bn, and also served as CEO of online learning platform Udemy. Johnson has also made an undisclosed personal investment in WaffarX — his first in a startup outside the United States. The company says Johnson will “play a core role in accelerating WaffarX’s expansion, developing its platform and reach.”

Director Amr Ramses will helm next year’s Cairo International Film Festival, according to a statement (pdf) out yesterday quoting festival president and star actor Hussein Fahmy. Ramses worked as an assistant director under renowned filmmaker Youssef Chahine and made the internationally noted documentary Jews of Egypt and the feature film Cairo Time. He was artistic director of the Gouna Film Festival for five years. His series “Colors of the Sea,” starring Khaled El Nabawi and Aisha Ben Ahmed, is scheduled to air soon.

Coverage of our major day of diplomacy led our airwaves last night: Former Deputy Foreign Minister Mohamed Hegazy joined Al Hayah Al Youm’s Lobna El Assal last night to discuss the significance of yesterday’s diplomatic events, which included the Negev summit in Israel, French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire’s visit to Egypt, and a phone call between President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (we have more details in our Diplomacy section, above) (watch, runtime: 8:55).

Everything is getting pricier, but replacing outdated cars with natgas-powered vehicles still costs the same: Car owners looking to replace their older cars with new ones running on natural gas under the government’s natgas transition scheme will not pay more than the amount already announced, the Finance Ministry’s Automobile Financing Fund spokesperson Tarek Awad told Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi in a phone-in (watch, runtime: 9:06). This comes as car prices rise on the back of the EGP devaluation.

Almost 18k dual-fuel cars have been sold under the scheme, Awad said (watch, runtime: 1:01). The multi-year program, which launched last year, provides financial incentives to car owners to either trade in their old vehicles or convert their engines to run on natgas. The initiative aims to take 1.8 mn gas-fuelled cars off the road to be outfitted with dual-fuel engines over the course of a decade.

The Arab-Israeli sit-down in the Negev is getting the headline treatment in the foreign press this morning: The two-day gathering brought together the foreign ministers from Egypt, Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and the US in what foreign journos are hyping as a major realignment of regional alliances. “Unprecedented,” “groundbreaking,” and “historic” are all words being used to describe the two-day meeting this morning, which apparently will now become an annual forum. (Reuters | AP | ABC | NYT | Washington Post | Bloomberg | FT)

The foreign press is still on the Russia-Ukraine war’s impact on our economy: The Financial Times is the latest to examine the soaring cost of living ahead of Ramadan and the wider impact of the conflict in Ukraine. Hotel occupancy rates in Red Sea resorts have plunged to just 5% since the war began, a representative of one travel company tells the salmon-colored paper, an indication of how exposed Egyptian tourism is to Russia and Ukraine.

ALSO- Five recently-discovered ancient tombs are going on public display in Saqqara, and the Washington Post has some striking photos of the artifacts.

More than a quarter of a tn EGP now invested in CDs: More than EGP 260 bn has been poured into the 18% CDs launched by Banque Misr and the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) last Monday in the wake of the Central Bank of Egypt’s 100-bps rate hike. Savers have put EGP 180 bn into the certificates with the NBE and EGP 87 bn with Banque Misr, according to senior officials from the two banks.

Supermarket chain Seoudi will open two new stores at Marakez’s Mall of Arabia in Sixth of October and D5M in New Cairo in 2H2022. (Statement)