TL;DR

PM to present government agenda to House on 27 February. (What We’re Tracking)

Saying transition to democracy complete, El Sisi returns legislative power to the House, lays out his agenda. (Speed Round)

Physicians march to protest police abuse, call for health minister’s resignation. March was one of largest protests of the Sisi era. (Speed Round)

CIB looking for EGP 8 bn to finance expansion, OTMT approves final offer to acquire CI Capital. (Speed Round)

GM due to resume assembly today, while CBE says it has injected USD 14 bn into banks in the past three months; FT sees devaluation as a matter of time only. (Speed Round)

Egypt “holds its notes” and buys 60,000 tons of wheat from Romania; GASC asks suppliers to extend offers to Sunday. (Speed Round)

Plans to IPO Misr Insurance tabled. (Speed Round)

El Sisi to visit Japan, South Korea in February + Saudi king in Cairo this April. (Diplomacy + Foreign Trade)

Fuel subsidy savings could reach EGP 3 bn in 2H FY2015-16. (Energy)

EGAS lowers volume of imported gas +  Oil Ministry to expand Ain Sokhna port. (Energy)

20 hotels in Sinai shuttered + Tourism Ministry to develop routes with frontier markets. (Tourism)

Tax Authority freezes accounts depositors that failed to pay 5% wealth surtax. (Egypt Politics + Economics)

By the Numbers

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

Egypt is set to experience some unseasonably warm weather today and most of this week, with highs in Cairo hitting 27°C on Sunday, rising to 30°C by midweek. Don’t get too excited, though: Our weather apps tell us the mercury will return to the low 20s next week.

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING THIS WEEK

The Egyptian Capital Market Association is due to meet this week to talk bailouts for brokerages taking a hit from low trading volumes. We’ll be on the lookout for an exact date and updates on the meeting.

The World Refining Association will hold the Egypt Downstream Summit & Exhibition on Monday and Tuesday under the auspices of Oil Minister Tarek El Molla. The focus will be on expanding the nation’s refining and petrochemicals export capacity.

The Egypt Energy Investment Summit runs 16-18 February (Tues-Thurs) at the Nile Ritz-Carlton, Cairo.

The president of Gabon is visiting Egypt from 17-19 (Weds-Fri) February ahead of the “Africa 2016: Business for Africa, Egypt and the World” conference taking place in Sharm El Sheikh on 20-21 February (Saturday and Sunday). Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan are set to meet for GERD talks on the sidelines of the conference, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry. Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry held discussions in Munich with Ethiopian counterpart Tedros Adhanom in preparation for the mini-summit, according to the statement.

ON THE HORIZON

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail will present his government’s agenda to parliament on 27 February, according to Legal Affairs Minister Magdy El Agaty. In a phone interview in “Hona El Assema,” Agaty said the value-added tax legislation has been submitted to the House of Representatives for review. Other legislation sent include the Construction of Churches Act, Al Mal reports.

The fifth Euromoney GCC Financial Forum takes place at the Four Seasons Manama in Bahrain on 23-24 February (a week from Tuesday). Press release here, conference website here.

Running in tandem is the Suez Canal Global Conference at the JW Marriott Hotel on 22-24 February.

N Gage’s Customs Debates 2016: The Impact of the 2016 Customs Reforms on Trade Facilitation will take place at the Four Seasons Nile Plaza in Cairo on 24 February.

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LAST NIGHT’S TALK SHOWS

Talk shows will be back tomorrow and forever after.

SPEED ROUND

Saying the transition to democracy is complete, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi officially handed over legislative authority to the House of Representatives in a speech to parliament on Saturday. The president discussed his government’s priorities and accomplishments and highlighted the state’s successes in the fight against terror. On the economy, the government’s primary goals are attracting foreign investment to grow GDP by both developing infrastructure and passing investor-friendly legislation. El Sisi also noted that work on the Daba’a nuclear power plant will begin within weeks. Creating jobs for young people by earmarking financing for SMEs, expanding social welfare programs, reducing inflation, and subsidizing hepatitis C treatments were key features of his social policy. On the diplomatic front, the president stressed the importance of Egypt’s multipolar approach and its emerging importance as a regional broker and a leader in the fight against terrorism. Watch El Sisi’s full speech here (run time: 33:24).

A general assembly of the Doctor’s Syndicate attended by as many as 10,000 physicians voted to provide medical services for free in public hospitals beginning 27 February and demanded that the alleged perpetrators of the assault on the Matariya Training Hospital’s staff be brought to trial, Al Ahram reports. The decision follows a demonstration in which thousands took to the streets in what the syndicate’s Chairman Hussein Khairy called a “historic” and “unprecedented” turnout (you can see a video here, run time 1:02). The march was among the largest protests of the Sisi era. Among the syndicate’s demands are the sacking of Health Minister Ahmed Rady, who the Syndicate said would be called for a disciplinary hearing in his capacity as a physician, not as a minister, for having allegedly failed to protect doctors, Al Borsa reports. The syndicate demanded that parliament issue legislation that penalises attacks against hospitals, including by security officials. A statement from the syndicate said members will strike on 20 February and called on doctors in private clinics to either close their doors or work at no charge on 19 March. The ongoing confrontation stems from an alleged assault on physicians at Matariya Teaching Hospital by member of the police service. Rady responded by assuring the syndicate that the nine officers accused of assaulting physicians have been suspended and are under investigation. In a report to the cabinet on the situation, Rady invited the syndicate to join in talks with members of the House of Representatives and the Interior Ministry to reach a solution on the crisis, Al Mal reports.

CIB’s board of directors approved a plan to issue ‘financial instruments’ worth up to EGP 8 bn to fund expansion, according to an EGX disclosure. The instruments could be denominated in EGP or foreign currency, the bank said, and the plan will be presented to the general assembly. Reuters notes correctly that CIB did not give specific details on its growth plan and did not specify the types of instruments that would be issued. You won’t be waiting long for news: The bank’s annual general meeting of shareholders is due to take place in early March.

Orascom Telecom and Media Technology approved a final offer to acquire 100% of CI Capital and will submit a binding offer, according to an EGX disclosure. “CI Capital is working on four initial public offerings this year in the construction, consumption and tourism sectors. It also plans to open a brokerage firm in the United Arab Emirates in the second quarter of this year,” Reuters notes.

GM is due to resume assembly today, and the FT is using the story as a way into a piece that argues “Pressure builds on Egypt to devalue pound.” The salmon-colored paper’s Heba Saleh quotes veteran analyst Angus Blair, wearing his hat as Pharos Holding’s new chief operating officer, as saying, “ The lack of foreign currency in the private sector in Egypt has begun to bite hard across a number of industries and is damaging the ability of some companies to produce goods easily, as seen in the General Motors case. It is likely that we shall hear of further similar cases before the government changes course.” After a recap of challenges in the auto, pharma and manufacturing sectors, the last word goes to EFG Hermes’ Simon Kitchen, who notes: “I think with devaluation, the question is when rather than if. The problems are symptoms of an overvalued Egyptian pound. I think the central bank has been trying to build up as much dollar liquidity as possible so it can devalue and supply the market.”

The CBE injected over USD 14 bn into local banks over the past three months to ease import activity and curb inflation on essential goods, a government statement said on Thursday, Reuters reports. “The central bank and Egyptian banks have embarked on an urgent plan to facilitate foreign trade in order to provide for production and for essential consumer goods for Egyptian citizens,” according to a central bank report cited in the statement said. “To this end the central bank has provided more than [USD 14 bn] over three months and this has had an immediate impact on foreign trade and industrial activity,” it went on to say.

Egypt bought 60,000 tons of wheat from Romania at USD 190.90 per ton after announcing a tender on Thursday night, according head of the General Authority for Supply Commodities Mamdouh Abdel Fattah. In a statement to Al Mal on Friday, Abdel Fattah also announced that there will be a tender to buy wheat with a delivery date of 10-20 March. Last week, a former advisor to the Supply Ministry recommended looking to Eastern Europe for wheat tenders after the debacle over French grain imports, which could lead some EU countries to suspend grain exports to Egypt. Industry news site AgriMoney.com notes that Egypt “is back in the market for buying, after being snubbed by merchants – but is paying a premium for the uncertainty surrounding controversial impurity specifications.” It quotes a UK-based trader as noting, “It looks like Egypt just had to hold its nose and buy something. Pulling a third tender would have been a big loss of face. The premium they are having to pay looks to have come down a little bit from last week, but not much.”

In a rare move, GASC asked suppliers on Saturday to extend the validity of their offers in its wheat tender until Sunday when it will continue talks and announce results, Reuters reports. Egypt received only four offers at its international tender to buy the grain on Saturday as suppliers are still hesitant to sell after concerns about limiting imports of wheat containing the ergot fungus. GASC’s Abdel Fattah tells Reuters that the extension was possible as global markets are closed on Sunday, meaning prices will not move. Abdel Fattah told Reuters on Friday that grain trader Bunge offered to send a replacement for a vessel of French wheat rejected due to the presence of ergot. Abdel Fattah said he was studying the offer. Bunge took legal action on Thursday to complete the delivery of the rejected cargo, and the Financial Times still has the story in its sights, quoting Bunge chief Soren Schroder as noting that with a 63k tonne shipment anchored off Damietta, “We expect to resolve this in an amicable way with our Egyptian customer in the very near future.”

Plans to IPO state-owned Misr Insurance have been put on hold, according to Investment Minister Ashraf Salman. The priority will be to first IPO four state-owned petroleum companies, he added. Salman had implied last month that Misr Insurance would be among the companies up for an IPO. He said restructuring state-owned companies would take some time, adding that he expects them to collectively make EGP 4 bn in profits before taxes. Speaking on the World Bank loans, Salman stated that procedures to receive the first tranche of the loan are going smoothly, although he didn’t mention a timeline for when that would be. Salman also discussed settling disputes with investors, saying talks with Saudi Arabia’s Sharbatly Group and the UAE’s Al Futtaim Group are progressing. Salman pointed to the USD 65 mn settlement with Italy’s Tecnimont over the Kima project as a success as it saved the government from a potential USD 400 mn ruling in arbitration.

Arabian Cement Company have written in to clarify that its newly established subsidiary Evolve will “build, own, and operate waste treatment plants and provide organic and alternative fuels to energy-intensive industries.” Company CEO Jose Maria Magrina notes that ACC is already “improving the community by collecting large quantities of industrial and municipal waste from other companies and municipalities that otherwise would have ended up polluting our country’s land and rivers.” Evolve will offer “integrated alternative fuel solutions not only to us but to other industries,” focusing on refuse-derived fuels through “the organized treatment and disposal waste.”

The African Development Bank (AfDB) began a six-day consultation mission to Egypt on Thursday, the bank said. AfDB sent an official delegation of seven executive directors to “enable them to have first-hand experience of the development impact of the AfDB’s interventions in Egypt, including assessing the needs and priorities of the Government.” 5k feddans were allocated to solar power plants in the Armant desert, Luxor governor Mohamed Badr told the delegation, reports Ahram Gate. The governorate has completed studying 16 new projects ahead of issuing them to investors, with a total investment value of EGP 11 bn, he adds.

MOVES- Madinet Nasr for Housing and Development announced the appointment of Mohamed Hazem Barakat as chairman, succeeding the late Ahmed Mohamed El Sayed.

Saudi Arabia is sending troops and fighter jets to Turkey’s Incirlik military base ahead of potential ground operations to fight Daesh in Syria, the Independent reports. Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu confirmed the deployment in a statement to the Yeni Şafak newspaper on Saturday. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told Christiane Amanpour yesterday that if the Syrian political process fails, President Bashar al-Assad will have to be removed “by force.” The news comes after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that major global powers — but few-to-none of the warring Syrian parties or terrorist factions on the ground — had agreed to a “cessation of hostilities” to allow aid delivery. Kerry said the cessation of hostilities would begin this coming Friday, but Russia is already saying the move is “more likely to fail than to succeed,” Reuters says in a detailed wrap-up of how quickly talks are going off the rails in view of the fluid situation on the ground.

The next front in the U.S. presidential race just opened, and it’s going to be dominated by posturing over the appointment of a replacement for conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died overnight at the age of 79. The Washington Post has a solid obituary. The New York Times looks at the politics of the appointment of a successor to Scalia and Politico hits the nail on the head when it notes: “President Barack Obama, suddenly given perhaps the greatest voter turnout tool ever, was facing the choice between setting off a nasty brawl with Congress by seizing the best chance in a generation to flip the ideological balance of the Supreme Court, or simply punting. Obama chose the fight.” Donald Trump, meanwhile, is still on stage debating Ted Cruz and screaming that Republicans in Congress must “delay, delay, delay” any Obama appointment. CNN’s liveblog of the debate is here.

THE MACRO PICTURE

Markets recovered over the weekend as European banks picked up momentum in the “best bank rally since ’12” and oil picked up the most in seven years, according to Bloomberg. Stocks sunk in Tokyo, with the Topix index posting its biggest weekly loss since 2008. The yen approached its highest since October 2014 amid speculation that Bank of Japan may step in to “arrest gains that threaten to undermine almost three years of monetary stimulus,” Bloomberg reports.

And while we’re on central banks, markets are giving the negative rates from Tokyo to Stockholm a big thumbs down, according to Bloomberg. “We’re here in an environment where central banks have to learn one message, and that is that negative interest rates are not desirable and they are not workable,” head of global foreign-exchange strategy at Morgan Stanley in London Hans Redeker said during a Bloomberg Television interview.

Europe’s economic recovery was still sluggish in the last three months of 2015, posting a growth of 0.3% for the second quarter in a row, Bloomberg and the FT (paywall) report. “Friday’s data revealed growing signs of frailty in weaker parts of the region, with Italy’s recovery dimming and Greece’s economy falling back into recession,” according to the FT. “It’s clear that there will be a downward revision for the growth and inflation outlook,” Bloomberg quotes head of macro research at ABN Amro Bank NV in Amsterdam Nick Kounis as saying.

And it wouldn’t be the start of a 2016 work week without a doom-and-gloom headline: “The Oil Industry Got Together and Agreed Things May Never Get Better” write Bloomberg. “Producers are bracing for a tough year. Prices will stay low for up to a decade as Chinese economic growth slows and the U.S. shale industry acts as a cap on any rally,” according to Vitol Group CEO Ian Taylor in the wake of meetings at the annual International Petroleum Week.

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EGYPT IN THE NEWS

Foreign headlines on Egypt were a bit of a mixed bag last night and into this morning, with most news outlets focused either squarely on new findings in the Giulio Regeni case, the anniversary of the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak (it was on Thursday, in case you missed it), or the Doctors’ Syndicate protests.

The New York Times reports that an eyewitness said Regeni was led away by two plain-clothed security officers on the night of his disappearance, with the officers walking him past four stores with security surveillance. Three security officials told the NYT that Regeni had in fact been taken into custody, while no efforts had been made by the police to obtain the security footage. On Saturday, Egypt’s forensics authority handed over to the prosecutor general its final autopsy report on Regeni, according to Reuters. And while the information is still not available to the public, Reuters talked to a senior source at the forensics authority who confirmed evidence of torture on the body. The Guardian reports that Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi “warned Egypt that the health of the relationship between the two countries rested on the quality of the investigation into Regeni’s killing.”

“Egypt’s current regime, led by Sisi, makes the Mubarak regime look benign,” Stephanie Thomas writes for Reuters in the opinion piece “Despite the failed revolution, Egypt’s iron-fisted ruler won’t last” that’s quite a thorough roundup of events since Mubarak’s ouster. In contrast: “Everything was fine under Mubarak. The economy was booming; there were tourists everywhere,” a source tells Sudarsan Raghavan of The Washington Post in a piece with a more human angle on the events since 11 February.

DIPLOMACY + FOREIGN TRADE

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman is visiting Egypt on 4 April, Saudi ambassador to Egypt Ahmad Kattan said. The official state visit comes as part of continued bilateral cooperation between the two countries, Kattan’s statement reads.

While we’re on Saudi, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi met with the Saudi Minister of State Essam bin Saeed on Thursday, according to an Ittihadiya statement. The pair discussed the importance of forging ahead with projects under the framework of the Egyptian-Saudi Coordination Council in the sectors of housing, agriculture, investment, education, and culture.

Also on Thursday, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi had a phone chat with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to discuss efforts to settle the Libyan crisis, “particularly with regard to the formation of a national unity government,” according to an Ittihadiya statement. El Sisi asserted that Egypt is fully behind the UN in this regard, aiming at “urging Libyan parties to form a national unity government as an important step toward achieving the country’s stability.” El Sisi also said efforts to counter terrorism require that the arms ban imposed on the Libyan national army be lifted.

Further across the pond, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi approved a reciprocal visa exemption agreement between Egypt and Colombia on Thursday. The agreement is a continuation of one that was signed between both countries in 2015, Ahram Online reports.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s visit to Japan this month will be followed by followed by a visit to South Korea, Al Ahram reports. The president hopes to increase Japanese and Korean investments in Egypt, bolstering Egypt’s exports to those markets in addition to discussing strengthening strategic ties.  As we noted last week, the Power Ministry is expected to sign MoUs and loans with the Japan during the visit.

ENERGY

Fuel subsidy savings could reach EGP 3 bn in 2H FY2015-16
Egypt could save up to EGP 3 bn in fuel subsidy as oil prices remain low, an Oil Ministry source tells Al Borsa. He says the ministry is working on taking advantage of the price drop and importing crude to make it available domestically. An agreement to import Libyan crude is yet to materialize, he adds. (Read in Arabic)

Italgen to discuss developing USD 370 mn wind farm in Gabal El Zeit
Italgen Chairman Giovanni Ferrario will lead a delegation that will discuss developing a USD 370 mn wind farm in Gabal El Zeit by the Red Sea on 16-7 February, according to Egypt’s Ambassador to Italy, Amr Helmy. Italgen will present technical studies and a project timeline to senior officials at the electricity and investment ministries, Al Mal reports. This is one of the first announcements of a major new Italian investment in Egypt since an Italian trade delegation cut its visit short after the body of Italian PhD student Giulio Regeni’s was discovered over a week ago. (Read in Arabic)

EGAS lowers volume of imported gas to 650 mn cubic feet per day -EGAS source
The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) decreased the volume of imported gas to about 650 mn cubic feet per day from 700 mn in January due to a “drop in gross domestic consumption of natural gas,” an unnamed senior official at EGAS tells Daily News Egypt. EGAS is set to import 80 LNG shipments worth USD 2.5 bn to USD 3 bn in 2016 to meet the needs of the industrial sector, according to the source. “Egypt will continue to import nearly the same amount of gas over the next year,” says the official. (Read)

Oil Ministry plans major expansions to Ain Sokhna port
The Oil Ministry is planning major expansions to the port of Ain Sokhna to turn it into an energy trading and exchange hub, says Oil Minister Tarek El Molla. The plan includes developing a 2 km USD 300 mn pier where Egypt’s third FSRU, which will supply gas to the new capital city’s power plant, can dock. SUMED will be the primary investor on the project, El Molla said. Another dock for accepting diesel imports is also being planned, while other plans include expanding diesel storage tanks and building new ones. (Read in Arabic)

INFRASTRUCTURE

Water Resources Ministry to develop river barrage regulating 17.3% of Egypt’s water
The government’s National Water Research Center has completed designs of the Dairut Barrage, which will regulate waterflow to 1.6 mn feddans covering Assiut, Beni Suef, Fayoum, Giza, and Minya, or 17.3% of Egypt’s water resources, Water Resources Minister Hussam Al Maghazy tells Al Mal. This infrastructure project will be part of a national strategy to overhaul and develop barrages on the Nile that control distribution to Egypt’s seven main irrigation canals. Funding for the project will come from Japan’s JICA Agency, Al Maghazy add. (Read in Arabic)

BASIC MATERIALS + COMMODITIES

Supply Ministry to link wholesale retailers electronically
The Supply Ministry plans to launch what it calls the “largest consumer complexes franchise project” under the name Gameyti in collaboration with the Social Fund for Development, Supply Minister Khaled Hanafy said during the Capital Markets and Financing Growth conference that started on Tuesday, Daily News Egypt writes. “The project includes supporting young people by granting loans, ranging between EGP 50,000 and EGP 100,000, so they can open commercial outlets.” The ministry also signed on with Microsoft Egypt to electronically link wholesale and retail outlets affiliated with it in a project that is expected to cost approximately EGP 150 mn, DNE quotes an unnamed official from the company as saying. (Read)

Saudi’s Panda seeks 16 land plots to build retail outlets
Saudi Arabia’s Panda, a leading supermarket chain in the kingdom now expanding into Egypt, is looking to buy as many as 16 plots of land on which to build retail outlets. The land plots are among 733 parcels surveyed by the the Domestic Trade Development Authority. (Read in Arabic)

HEALTH + EDUCATION

Education Ministry readying 1,000 parcels of land to build schools with private sector
The Education Ministry is readying 1,000 parcels of land that it will tender in April to build and manage schools in partnership with the private sector, Education Minister Hilal El Sherbiny tells Al Mal. The ministry is working with the ministries of planning, finance, local development and investment to work out the best way to tender the land. The move is part of the Education Ministry’s strategy to build schools with a combined capacity of up to 58,000 classrooms by 2018 in partnership with the private sector — a plan that was announced last December. The ministry is considering granting investors a 40-year concession to fund, build, and administer schools, with the ministry providing education-related assistance. The ministry is also considering allowing school franchises. El Sherbiny called on tax benefits for investors in the project.

REAL ESTATE + HOUSING

Palm Hills to complete three projects in 2016
Palm Hills Development plans to complete Casa Palm Hills, Palm Hills Katameya, and Palm Hills Katameya Extension this year, according to the company’s CEO Tarek Abdel Rahman. New projects in the company’s pipeline for this year include the 103-feddan Capital Gardens Compound in partnership with MNHD and a 500-feddan co-development with the New Urban Communities Authority, in which it will begin selling units in October. Palm Hills is also in talks to buy up to 300 feddans in the North Coast. (Read in Arabic)

TOURISM

Egyptian Tourism Federation launches three promotional campaigns in Latin America in May
The Egyptian Tourism Federation is sending three delegations to Brazil, Argentina, and Chile in May to promote tourism in Egypt, according to federation head Elhamy El Zayat. The campaigns will be organized in cooperation with the Chambers of Hotels and Tourism Establishments and will be joined by Zahi Hawass to promote antiquities tourism, he adds. (Read in Arabic)

Tourism, civil aviation ministries sign agreement with private sector to develop routes to frontier markets
The Tourism Ministry signed protocols with the Civil Aviation Ministry, the Egyptian Federation for Private Aviation, and a number of private sector tourism companies to develop flight routes to untapped markets in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and North Africa. Private sector companies will conduct marketing studies in the hopes of launching flights in two of the three regions by this coming June. The move is meant to decrease Egypt’s reliance on Western Europe for tourism and travel revenues in light of the travel bans imposed on Egypt from the region. (Read in Arabic)

20 hotels in South Sinai, Red Sea shut down
Twenty hotels in the Red Sea and South Sinai have officially shut down, says the head of the Tourism Ministry’s Hotels & Resorts Observation Department, Abdel Fattah El Assy. Eight hotels in Sharm El Sheikh and St. Catherine have filed notices to close down, while 12 hotels in the Red Sea governorate have filed similar notices. Tourism Minister Hisham Zaazou had estimated earlier this month that the tourism sector had incurred losses of up to EGP 6 bn over the three months since the Metrojet crash. The move comes despite measures by the CBE to aid the faltering industry, including postponing loan payments three years. (Read in Arabic)

TELECOMS + ICT

ICT Ministry to increase cybersecurity spending to EGP 900 mn over three years
The ICT Ministry is increasing its cyber security budget to EGP 900 mn from EGP 330 mn over the next three years, an official at the ministry tells Al Borsa. The ministry aims to support the Computer Emergency Response Team, which provides cyber security support to the government, banking and IT sectors. (Read in Arabic)

AUTOMOTIVE + TRANSPORTATION

GB Auto, Bajaj start producing tuk-tuk, motorcycle parts in Egypt in March / April
GB Auto and India’s Bajaj Auto Company will begin manufacturing tuk-tuk and motorcycle components in Egypt in March or April, GB Auto’s CIO Menatalla Sadek tells Daily News Egypt. The company is still waiting for the the government’s “unified automotive manufacturing law” to determine vehicles’ mandatory local component proportion. GB Auto’s CEO said in November of last year that its two- and three-wheeler factory announced in January would have a capacity of 120k each of tuk-tuks and motorcycles per year.

BANKING + FINANCE

CBE holds compliance meeting with banks over monthly USD deposits
Central Bank of Egypt Deputy Governor Gamal Negm met with the heads of banking sectors’ compliance departments to discuss the fine print of the CBE raising the deposit caps to USD 250k from USD 50,000. Negm reiterated that the deposit cap increase only applies to importers of essential goods. Depositors whose imports come to less than USD 250k can not use the remaining balance toward deposits for the following month, says Negm. Depositors’ USD-denominated checks will be considered cash, and banks are to return the difference to clients should they exceed the deposit cap. (Read in Arabic)

Wealth management not picking up in Egypt, Al Mal says
Wealth management is not picking up in Egyptian banks, Al Mal reports. The main reasons behind the lack of growth are the absence of diversified investment instruments, the lack of qualified and trained investment professionals in the sector, and banks’ limited wealth management initiatives to improve banking services and offers, which leave retail investors domestically unsure about having wealth managers oversee their funds. Bankers are also blaming the economic uncertainty since 2011 and the restrictions on transferring funds abroad. (Read in Arabic)

NBE targeting EGP 50 bn in SME financing by 2020
NBE aims to grow its SME portfolio to EGP 50 bn in the next four years as part of a five-year plan to grow all its portfolios, an official tells Al Borsa. NBE financed 45k projects in the first half of the current fiscal year, with facilities of up to EGP 19 bn, compared to EGP 3.4 bn in 2010, the official added, a cumulative growth of around 500% in five years. NBE is on the verge of launching 12 new financial projects tailored toward SMEs. (Read in Arabic)

OTHER BUSINESS NEWS OF NOTE

Public sector to apply amended accounting standards “gradually”
Public-sector companies will apply the amended accounting standards gradually in the upcoming period, Investment Minister Ashraf Salman says, according to Amwal Al Ghad. The private sector has had to adopt the new standards since January, he notes. Salman adds that the most recent amendments to the Egyptian Accounting Standards have improved Egypt’s ranking on anti-corruption scales. (Read in Arabic)

LEGISLATION + POLICY

The Trade and Industry Ministry is drawing up new legislation that would regulate the issuance of licenses and the allocation of land, according to Trade and Industry Minister Tarek Kabil, Daily News Egypt reports. The ministry plans to establish new commercial representation offices in Tanzania, Uganda, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, and Ghana to facilitate Egyptian exports to Africa, Kabil also said in a speech to the Egyptian Business Council. The minister tried to assuage fears that increased tariffs on imports would affect end prices, saying “every product that may see a price increase has a high-quality equivalent on the domestic market, and that the higher tariffs do not necessarily correlate with a price increase.” Kabil also said the Russian industrial zone would be financed through a joint Egyptian-Emirati-Russian fund. Companies in this industrial zone will focus on manufacturing of tractors, trucks, and petrochemicals.

Investors Protection Fund to be used to compensate EGX fraud victims
The Egyptian Investors Protection Fund must compensate victims of fraud on the EGX, according to a ruling by the Cairo Economic Court, which awarded one such victim over EGP 24 mn in damages from the fund. The court also ordered the brokerage firm that instigated the fraud and the banks that held the stocks to compensate the fund for the payment, Al Ahram reports. (Read in Arabic)

EGYPT POLITICS + ECONOMICS

Tax Authority freezes accounts of those who failed to pay 5% wealth surtax, but not banks’ assets
The Tax Authority denied media rumors that it froze the assets of Banque Misr and NBE for not paying the 5% wealth surtax, but said it has frozen the accounts of depositors who have failed to pay the tax, according to a statement by the Tax Authority head Abdel Moneim Mattar. He called the move a routine procedure and denounced rumors to the contrary as false. (Read in Arabic)

** Further reading in Egypt Economics + Politics: “The Red Sea region has a unique opportunity to develop into a global center of excellence in trade facilitation, strengthening economic ties throughout the region and building a new growth engine for the global economy,” CEO of King Abdullah Economic City Fahd Al Rasheed writes in Project Syndicate. He believes a coordinated initiative to facilitate trade within the Red Sea region would have a significant impact on future development, boosting regional GDP by 10% and trade by 35%

SPORTS

Three Egyptian taekwondo players qualified for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics. Seham El-Sawalhy will compete in the under-67kg division, Ghofran Zaki in the under-68kg division, and Hedaya Malak in the under-57kg division, Daily News Egypt reports.

ON YOUR WAY OUT

Textile exports stand to gain from an EGP devaluation, Patrick Werr suggests in The National. “The biggest problem remains that the strong pound is pricing Egyptian textiles out of the export market,” he writes. Chairman of the Ready Made Garments Export Council of Egypt Mohamed Kassem says a cheaper exchange rate is essential for the construction of a new textile city near Minya. He also says electricity and natural price increases have hampered the sector’s growth — an issue exacerbated by security concerns that made it harder to import many chemicals.

A train derailed in Beni Suef on Thursday, injuring at least 70 people, the Health Ministry announced. The train, which had departed from Aswan for Cairo, derailed after hitting a cement barrier following a break failure that caused it to overturn.