TL;DR

Management change at EFG Hermes as investment bank prepares to launch new products, expand to new geographies. (Speed Round)

Barclays is set to announce this week that it’s pulling out of Africa. (Speed Round)

CI, Beltone will aim to “create a regional financial conglomerate.” (Speed Round)

Juhayna’s Safwan Thabet, footballer Abou-Treika face investigation on allegations they funded a terror group. (What We’re Tracking Today, Last Night’s Talk Shows)

Coffee with Magued Sherif, chief executive officer of SODIC. (Coffee With…)

CBE creates new mortgage tier targeting those earning less than EGP 1,400 a month; mortgage growth limited by housing stock, banker says. (Speed Round)

VAT seems likely to be set at 10%, according to a figure on the Egypt 2030 website. (Speed Round)

KSA ups petroleum product support for Egypt to 700k tons per annum, a nearly 30% increase. (Speed Round)

GASC makes biggest wheat buy in over a year. (Speed Round)

Financial Times on the case for emerging markets: The bear pendulum has probably swung too far. (The Macro Picture)

Schneider Electric struggling to fund USD, using export proceeds to cover part of its needs. (Energy)

By the Numbers

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

It’s Enterprise, the Inside Baseball Edition: There’s management change at EFG Hermes as the region’s leading investment bank prepares to grow beyond its current geography and launch new products in the coming period. We have the leaked memo that lays it all out. Barclays is set to announce this week that it’s pulling out of Africa, the FT reports. OTMT has finally made clear what’s been obvious all along: Beltone and CI Capital will be merged “to create a regional financial conglomerate.” And the M&A spree continues as Pioneers submits an offer to acquire the nearly 67% of Universal-Unipack that it doesn’t already own. Details on all of the foregoing in today’s Speed Round.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi is set to visit Japan today on the second leg of his Asian tour (the first was to Kazakhstan on Friday, more in Diplomacy + Foreign Trade). El Sisi is expected to meet Emperor Akihito and Prime Minister Shinzō Abe as well as members of the Japanese business community, according to an Ittihadiya statement. El Sisi will sign 16 agreements during a business forum organized by the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Japan External Trade Organization; more than 300 business leaders are expected to attend, according to a statement by the Egyptian-Japanese Business Council, Al Masry Al Youm reports.

Juhayna’s Safwan Thabet and footballer Mohamed Abou-Treika will face investigation on allegations they funded a terror group after the  committee tasked with investigating and appropriating the assets of the Muslim Brotherhood referred the two to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the secretary-general of the committee, Yasser Abul-Fotouh, tells Ahram Online.

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING THIS WEEK

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi is expected to be in South Korea on 3 March to meet with President Park Geun-hye, the prime minister and the speaker of parliament. The president is also expected to sign a declaration on the promotion of relations to the level of Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation between the two countries, according to an Ittihadiya statement. We’re told that El Sisi will be met in China by an Egyptian business delegation headed by GB Auto’s Raouf Ghabbour. Qalaa’s Ahmed Heikal is also expected to attend, among others.

The Emirates NBD / Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index for Egypt, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia are set to be released on Thursday, 3 March.

The EBRD is holding a discussion on the Rise of Women Journalists in the Arab World at the EBRD Auditorium in London on Tuesday, 1 March.

ON THE HORIZON

The government plans to present its program to parliament next week after bylaws are issued on Wednesday and permanent committees are formed early next week, MPs tell DNE.

The 12th Annual EFG Hermes One on One 2016 runs next week from 7-9 March (Monday-Wednesday) atAtlantis, The Palm in Dubai.

COFFEE WITH…

Four months into his tenure as the new chief executive officer of SODIC, Magued Sherif (official bio) is fully readjusted to life in Egypt, saying that “life in the suburbs has its charms.” The early-rising exercise addict (he’s out of bed at 5am for a morning run and gets in a workout or squash game after work) says he’s eyeing expansion to new locations in Egypt and, eventually, the wider MENA region, confident the company has the team and the playbook it needs to replicate its success beyond the confines of the capital city.

In the first of our new monthly “Coffee with…” series, we sat down with Sherif for caffeinated beverages and a chat about the issues of the day. Tap here to read the full interview, highlights of which include:

The Takeaways

1. Land prices are becoming “unsustainable” and GAFI needs to look at putting more than its planned 5 mn feddans p.a. on the market to ease price pressure.
2. Changes to state real estate policy will favour developers with liquid balance sheets, proven track records.
3. Revenue-sharing co-development agreements with legacy developers will allow tier-1 developers to more rapidly rebuild land banks in key locations in the Greater Cairo Area.
4. A West Cairo airport would unlock significant value for developers and landowners alike.
5. Rent-to-own model is a market opportunity, but not for developers who are already providing quasi mortgage finance.
6. SODIC targets 25-30% of revenues from recurring sources, says it will make the stock more attractive to pension funds.

LAST NIGHT’S TALK SHOWS

What can only be described as the relentless, non-stop flood of lawsuits, arrests and verdicts ensnaring Egyptians from all walks of life kept Lamis El Hadidy on CBC Egypt exceptionally busy just trying to get to all of it.

El Hadidy began a 30-minute segment focusing on the latest arrests and referrals to trial by noting the efforts of various lawmakers to intervene on the behalf of several teenagers who have been sentenced to five years in prison for contempt of religion for their posting of a video that mocks Daesh beheadings — a story that once again sees Egypt taking daily fire from the international media. Rep. Emad Gad called in to say he would work to repeal Article 98(f) of the Penal Code, otherwise referred to as Egypt’s blasphemy law.

Next up, former governor of Giza Khaled Zakaria was sentenced in absentia to one year in prison and fined EGP 2K for failing to enforce a court order over some clothing store. El Hadidy asked that of all court judgments that routinely go unenforced, why was the former governor singled out? Before assuming his gubernatorial post, Zakaria has had a very distinguished career both at home and abroad (pdf), barring a small feud with the Egypt’s medical community over a doctor putting his hands in his pockets while speaking to Zakaria (long story). El Hadidy asked how the state can expect to attract people to public service if they are paralyzed by fear that they will be imprisoned for taking or not taking administrative action.

The next case on the docket — sorry, program — was news of the referral of football player Mohamed Abou Treika and Juhayna CEO Safwan Thabet to the prosecutor general over allegedly funding the Muslim Brotherhood. Thabet’s lawyer, Mohamed Hammouda, called in to the program, and El Hadidy began her segment with him by asking if the prosecutor’s office had sent Hammouda or his client any documentation or clarification of their charges against Thabet. Hammouda said that as of now, neither he nor his client have received any sort of communication from the prosecutor, and that further they were left to learn about the latest development in the charges by reading about in the press.

Hammouda vigorously denied the charges against Thabet and reiterated that the Juhayna chief has been a consistent believer and investor in Egypt, and has only increased his investments in Egypt over the past few years. El Hadidy asked Hammouda to comment on recent remarks made by Yasser Abul Fotouh, the head of the committee tasked with investigating, seizing and managing the assets of the Muslim Brotherhood. Abul Fotouh reportedly said, with regard to Thabet being referred to the prosecutor, that it was all simply a routine administrative matter. Hammouda strongly rejected the notion that was the case. (Watch in Arabic, running time: 5 minutes, relevant segment ends at the 27:28 mark)

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SPEED ROUND

EFG Hermes is reorganizing along two verticals as it prepares to expand its product range and geographic footprint, according to an internal memo written by group CEO Karim Awad and obtained by Enterprise. The memo to staff notes: “EFG-Hermes is currently in the first phase of implementing a major expansion plan that aims at expanding both our geographic presence as well as our product range.” As part of that drive, the group will effectively reorganize along two verticals: “(1) the Investment Bank, that will encompass our traditional businesses of brokerage, research, advisory, asset management and private equity and (2) EFG Hermes Finance, that will include all our non-banking finance businesses.” The memo also lists a number of personnel changes that will see proven veterans lead the next phases of growth across the firm:

• Head of investment banking Ahmed El Guindy will lead a Special Situations Group, which the memo refers to as “a new division that will look into expanding our businesses across a number of new jurisdictions and developing new businesses and products.” He will also be establishing a mid-market fund that will “invest in medium sized startups and established businesses that are in need of growth capital, primarily in Egypt.”
• The special situations group is a page out of the bulge bracket playbook — see Goldman Sachs’ Special Situations Group, for example. As we see it, the growing focus on the middle market began last year with the group’s launch of EFG Hermes Leasing and has continued with the acquisition of Tanmeyah.
• Mohamed Fahmi and Mostafa Gad will become co-heads of investment banking. As were Awad and El-Guindy before them, Fahmi and Gad are veterans of the department who joined EFG Hermes as analysts and rose through the ranks to become co-heads of IB as part of the promote-from-within strategy for which the firm is well-known.
• Petrochemicals analyst Ahmed Shams becomes head of research, replacing Wael Ziada, who steps down to become CEO of EFG Hermes Finance, as we noted last week, following the acquisition of microfinance player Tanmeyah.

At the time of the acquisition, Awad noted that Tanmeyah was “the first of a number of strategic moves that EFG Hermes intends to undertake during the coming 12 months and that will put in place the foundation for the firm’s growth over the coming five years.” Enterprise has also learned that implementation of Awad’s growth strategy will be spearheaded by both Head of Brokerage Mohamed Ebeid and El-Guindy in his new role. The two are seen as instrumental to the rapid rollout of the strategy.

Looks like it’s about to be official, folks: Barclays’s new chief executive is expected to announce on Tuesday that it is pulling out of Africa to focus on business in the US and UK, the FT (paywall) reports. “Talks over a deal to sell Barclays’ Egyptian and Zimbabwean operations to its South African subsidiary broke down last year, and the bank is now likely to also sell its operations in those two countries,” according to literally the last paragraph of the piece. We reported last week that the bank was considering selling its Egyptian unit after abandoning a plan to fold it into its Africa business.

And while we’re at it: Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding  (OTMT) asked its Beltone Financial subsidiary to complete the acquisition of CI Capital, according to an OTMT statement, Reuters reports. “This comes in line with OTMT’s strategy to combine CI Capital and Beltone to create a regional financial conglomerate,” OTMT said in a statement. “Accordingly, Beltone is expected to take all necessary procedures to successfully finalise the said transaction.”

Meanwhile, the M&A spree continues: Pioneers Holding told the EGX it submitted an offer to buy 66.81% of Universal-Unipack to bring its ownership stake up to 100% of the company. Pioneers has submitted an offer for 5.345 mn shares at an undisclosed price.

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The CBE amended the terms of its mortgage finance initiative in a drive that will also allow mortgage finance providers to operate separately from banks, according to an official directive. It also added a new tier for lending for individuals earning less than EGP 1,400 a month, who can now obtain a mortgage at 5% interest. The bank believes this will allow a larger segment of the population to benefit from the financing opportunity. The CBE also introduced an “above-average” tier to serve individuals earning more than EGP 15,000 a month or households making more than EGP 20,000 a month. The above-average tier allows borrowers to buy houses valued at up to EGP 950,000 at an interest rate of 10.5%. A banking source had told Al Shorouk that the initiative had seen limited success so far due to the limited number of housing units on offer.

The government has set the value-added tax at a flat rate of 10%, according to the country’s sustainable development strategy for 2030 website, which was launched on Wednesday, Ahram Online reports. The bill will shortly be under review by the House of Representatives and will be among the biggest legislative headaches for the Ismail government. Egypt’s government hopes to raise tax revenues by around EGP 30 bn upon its implementation. The 10% VAT is suggested by a graph on this page showing a 10% VAT applying through 2030.

Saudi Arabia has agreed to a USD 23 bn aid package for Egypt, pledging to provide financing for 700k tons of petroleum product per annum over a five-year period at an interest rate of 2%. That’s up from a previous pledge of 500k tons of product per year, a “high-level government official” told Al Masry Al Youm. Under the terms of the agreement, payments may be deferred for a one-year grace period. Al Mal had reported on Thursday that the agreement would charge a 3% interest rate, 2% higher than the previous three-month agreement with Aramco, citing official sources. The MoU does not include a total price due to unstable oil prices, the sources add, being instead tied to Egypt’s demand for petroleum products, which is estimated at around USD 300-400 mn per month, Investment Minister Ashraf Salman tells Al Mal. The news came as International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr said the fifth meeting of the Egyptian-Saudi Coordination Council will be held on 10 March in Riyadh. The meeting, originally scheduled for 10 February, will finalize the Saudi aid package to Egypt, Al Borsa reports.

Fuel subsidy costs fell 42% in the first half of FY2015-16 to EGP 26 bn, an Oil Ministry source said, according to Amwal Al Ghad.

The new Sukuk bill will only govern sovereign issues and will not regulate Islamic bonds issued by the private sector, Assistant Finance Minister Samy Khalaf told Al Masry Al Youm. The act, he said, will not be a back-door to the sale of state-owned assets, he suggested; claims that it would do just that helped bog the measure down in debate when it was first advanced back in 2013. He added that the final amendments to the Sukuk Act have been submitted to the Finance Minister for approval ahead of sending the bill to Al Azhar for review. It would then require cabinet sign-off before being introduced to the House of Representatives for debate. The bill, however, will not be introduced until after the government presents its plan to the House, said Sherif Samy, head of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority.

Egypt has wheat reserves to last until mid-June, Supply Minister Khaled Hanafi said in a statement on Friday after Egypt bought 300k tons of wheat from France, Romania, Argentina, and Ukraine, Reuters reports. The purchase is reportedly the biggest in over a year, Bloomberg reports in a writeup about wheat being on the rise due to increased demand spurred by low prices. Relatedly, the rejection of a French wheat cargo and cancellation of tenders by Egypt has now helped send U.S. prices to five-year lows and could prompt livestock producers to use cheap wheat as animal feed, according to Reuters.

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail chaired a cabinet meeting on Thursday, a day later than usual. Among the decisions taken, per an emailed statement from the Council of Ministers:

• The North Sinai governorate will be a partner in establishing the National Company for Sinai Investments, a joint stock company with EGP 10 bn in authorized capital, and EGP 2 bn in issued capital. The company aims to develop the peninsula through land reclamation, agricultural and food industry, fish farms, construction materials, and tourism investment.
• Green light to a EUR 100 mn agreement with EBRD to buy 13 locomotives for the Second Metro line, including an eight-year maintenance period that covers spare parts, and a feasibility study on the Fifth Metro line.
• Approved negotiations with Japanese and South Korean companies to build power stations, including a 2,000 MW coal powered plant in Sidi Shebib, a two-phase 4,000 MW plant in Marsa Matruh, and a 2,000 MW plant west of Matruh

Health Minister Ahmed Rady is reportedly suing the Doctors Syndicate to overturn resolutions it passed during an extraordinary general assembly meeting on 12 February, calling their decisions “invalid” and “unlawful,” Mada Masr reports. The syndicate voted to call for Rady’s sacking as minister, demanded police officers implicated in the assault on physicians at the Mataria Teaching Hospital be referred to criminal court, and voted to conditionally refrain from working until security at medical facilities improves. The syndicate detailed the lawsuit in a statement released Thursday. The minister said the syndicate has no power to remove him and that the call to walk off the job is a violation of their oath as physicians.

Egypt Kuwait Holding (reported an attributable net income of USD 3.2 mn in 4Q2015, up 35% y-o-y. EKH swung to registering an attributable net income of USD 36.3 mn for the whole year, compared to the net loss of USD 95.4 mn in 2014, according to an emailed statement. The performance came despite 9M2015 challenges that included “persistently low oil prices and disruptions in natural gas delivery due to a shortage in available supplies,” said EKH Chairman Moataz Al-Alfi in the statement. EKH’s AlexFert “saw utilization rates at the plant improve significantly from c. 23% to a range of 90-95% once it began receiving its contracted natural gas allocations from the Egyptian government,” while import-substitution play Sprea outperformed. The statement notes EKH is “mitigating risk by booking an impairment to minimize accounting losses [from its oil concessions] going forward. We are not alone in doing this; most major players in the oil and gas industry have adopted a similar approach in their efforts to accurately reflect the prevailing realities of the oil industry.” Management has proposed a dividend of USD 1.25 per share.

Low oil prices driving cargo vessel traffic away from the Suez Canal
Low oil prices are driving cargo vessels to bypass the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal to avoid costly tariffs, according to a report by maritime trade analyst firm SeaIntel, which was picked up by CNBC. The report concludes that using the South Africa route would save on average USD 235k per voyage. SeaIntel’s report also states that the Suez Canal Authority charges USD 465k on average for bulk carriers and container vessels, whose traffic through the Canal fell 5.7% and 3.1% respectively. The report recommended that the Suez Canal would need to cut transit costs by 50% to change the economics of trade route selection. (Read)

The partners developing Israel’s Leviathan offshore natural gas field raised their annual production forecast on Thursday and said they expect to bring the project online by the end of 2019, Reuters reports. The group led by Texas-based Noble Energy and Israeli Delek Group presented a new development plan that calls for 21 bcm of gas production each year, up from 16 bcm, and lowered the estimated cost of the project to USD 5-6 bn from USD6-7 bn. “One exit point capable of handling up to 12 bcm a year will be for Israel, as well as bringing supplies to neighbouring markets in the Palestinian Authority, Jordan and Egypt. A second exit point to handle up to 12 bcm is solely for export.”

THE MACRO PICTURE

Egypt participated in the G20 summit in Shanghai on Friday for the first time. Finance Minister Hany Dimian and CBE Governor Tarek Amer attend the two-day gathering. The world’s top economies need to look beyond ultra-low interest rates and printing money to get the global economy back on its feet, instead renewing focus on structural reform, Reuters reports. However, it appears many are disappointed that there was no detailed stimulus plan on offer in Shanghai, with Bloomberg quoting chief economist at Daiwa Institute of Research in Tokyo Mitsumaru Kumagai as saying, “You can say they just achieved the bare minimum.” While talks touched on how Japan’s move to negative interest rates left currencies reeling, they also warned of the perils of the Brexit, the FT (paywall) writes.

The FT’s (paywall) Naomi Rovnik makes the case for emerging markets, writing that the bear pendulum has probably swung too far. Current valuations of emerging market equities “suggest a China meltdown, which is not happening”, says David Rees of research boutique Capital Economics. The company forecasts MSCI Emerging Markets will grow 25% by the end of 2017. “Consensus suggests that emerging markets have an expected return premium over developed markets of about 2 per cent a year, but with much higher risk,” adds independent personal finance expert Jason Butler.

The pace of interest-rate increases in the U.S. may be slower than previously anticipated, Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard said Friday at a panel discussion in New York, urging urged officials across the world to coordinate efforts to increase demand, Bloomberg reports.

EGYPT IN THE NEWS

Foreign coverage on Egypt over the weekend was dominated by the sentencing of four minors aged 15-16 to five years in prison each on charges of contempt of Islam. The Christian minors were charged with mocking Islamic prayer rituals and publishing a video that mimics Daesh beheadings, according to the BBC (which puts the number of accused at three instead of the four reported by other sources). The New York Times also has coverage, writing, “A prominent TV presenter, a poet and a novelist have received jail sentences in recent months for blasphemy or offending public morals, in cases that seem to be at odds with the image of Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who styles himself as a bulwark against extremism.”

CNN reports on the U.S. looking to lift human rights conditions on Egypt aid, writing that Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged in Congressional budget hearings this week that “there are disturbing arrests, there are disturbing sentences,” but defended the U.S. stance by pointing to Egypt’s strategic importance.

“When a colleague in Holland asked historian Pascale Ghazaleh this month whether to send a group of students to Egypt, her response was a resounding ‘No’,” writes Reuters in a feature about how the case of Italian student Giulio Regeni signals an assault on academic freedom in Egypt.

Also unsurprisingly making news are a host of reviews coming out about Gods of Egypt, whose entire budget we suspect was allotted to what must be gallons of self tanner for its almost-all-white cast (this may be a shock to many, but Egyptians were not and are not uniformly white despite how many Turkish ancestors everyone claims to have). The Wall Street Journal has a roundup of some of the reviews. Spoiler alert (but not really): it’s a dud, currently holding an 13% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

IMAGE OF THE DAY

Mobiinil’s rebranding to Orange continues. (View photo)

DIPLOMACY + FOREIGN TRADE

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi met with Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Prime Minister Karim Massimov over the weekend when they explored the possibility of establishing a number of joint agricultural projects, particularly grain projects, according to an Ittihadiya statement. El Sisi said he looks forward to an increase in the number of Kazakh tourists to Egypt and welcomed establishing direct flights from Astana to Sharm El Sheikh starting next March. The pair also discussed projects in the field of transport, trade, and nuclear energy, and El Sisi invited the Kazakhstan president to visit Egypt in 2017 to mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi met with South Africa’s Special Envoys to the Middle East Zola Skweyiya and Aziz Pahad on Thursday. The two handed the president a message from South African President Jacob Zuma on the deteriorating situation in the Palestinian territories, according to an Ittihadiya statement.

Foreign Ministry secures release of 13 Egyptian sailors detained in Yemen: The Foreign Ministry has secured the release of 13 Egyptian sailors that were detained in Yemen by Houthi forces at the Port of Hodeidah, the ministry said in a statement. The sailors boarded a World Food Program ship headed for Djibouti where they will be flown back to Egypt.

ENERGY

Schneider struggling to find USD, using export proceeds to cover part of its needs
Schneider Electric is facing a shortage of hard currency, but is resorting to using its export proceeds to pay for 50% of its imports, Al Shorouk says. The regional head of the company says Egypt continues to be an attractive market because of the favourable demographic dynamics. Schneider Electric said it is also partnering with the government in its plan to increase the reliance on renewable energy and is working on transforming Sharm El Sheikh into a “green city.” (Read in Arabic)

Oil Ministry sets three conditions for repricing natural gas from IOCs
The Oil Ministry has set three conditions to begin negotiations on repricing gas bought from IOCs in the coming period. The conditions include presenting a program that aims to boost reserves from concessions, conducting additional expansions other than ones already agreed upon or increasing production considerably, Al Mal reports. Shell requested an increase in the price of gas from its Western Desert concession, says EGPC head Mohamed El Masry. The government buys gas from Shell for USD 2.65 per 1 mn Btu, he adds, noting that negotiations with the company depend on the the work program shell will present. (Read in Arabic)

Subsea 7 wins BP, DEA contract
Oil services outfit Subsea 7 has been awarded a contract by BP and DEA worth over USD 750 mn to develop the Giza, Fayoum, and Raven subsea fields offshore Alexandria in the second phase of the West Nile Delta project, Reuters reports in a brief. The contract includes engineering, procurement, installation, and pre-commissioning of the subsea infrastructure from 12 wells, with 80 km of umbilicals and 220 km of pipelines. It also includes the installation of the export lines from the Idku terminal. 

Edison, Qalaa propose building a EUR 100 mn combined cycle station in Abu Qir
Edison and Qalaa Holdings are negotiating with the Electricity Ministry to build a 180 MW combined cycle power plant in Abu Qir with an investment value of EUR 100 mn, head of business development at Edison Tarek Shalaby tells Al Borsa. The project will be evenly owned by the two companies, with each arranging its own financing, adds Shalaby, noting that Edison has offered to provide the necessary gas for the project from its Abu Qir concession. The project can go into production within two years. (Read in Arabic)

Three Turkish companies to build USD 150 mn wind farm in Egypt
Three Turkish companies will build a USD 150 mn wind farm project in Gabal El Zeit, Polaris Parks Chairman Tunc Ozkan tells Al Shorouk without revealing the names of the two other companies. Construction of the wind farm will be completed by 2017, he adds, and will go into production by 2018 with an initial capacity of 400 kW. (Read in Arabic)

Eni to invest USD 2 bn in the Zohr field during 1Q2017
Eni plans to invest USD 2 bn in the Zohr field during the first quarter of 2017, an unnamed official tells Al Masry Al Youm. The source adds that the government had made every effort to accommodate Eni in its development of Zohr, including obtaining additional offshore space around the concession for an expansion. (Read in Arabic)

ENAP Sipetrol to invest USD 80 mn in 2016
ENAP Sipetrol, the international JV partner in Petroshahd, plans to invest USD 80 mn through to the end of the year in developing a gas field, said the company’s general manager Sayed Resq. The company also plans to complete its USD 22 mn 90 km pipeline in the Western Desert in June. (Read in Arabic)

INFRASTRUCTURE

187k feddan tendered for Airport City project
The Civil Aviation Ministry tendered 187k feddans around Cairo International Airport as part of the EGP 80 bn Airport City project on Friday, announced Civil Aviation Minister Hossam Kamal. The ministry set the end of March as the deadline for companies to submit technical and financial offers for projects at Airport City. The timeframe for each of these projects will be 40 years, Al Mal reports. (Read in Arabic)

Arab Contractors completes Nuweiba port renovations
The Arab Contractors has completed the EGP 310 mn development work at the Port of Nuweiba, the company announced. The work included building two passenger terminals, three waiting areas for trucks, service buildings and residential facilities for port employees. (Read in Arabic)

HEALTH + EDUCATION

Health Ministry forms committee to monitor performance of intensive care units at private centers
The Health Ministry is forming a committee to monitor the performance of intensive care units at private centers and ensuring they adhere to quality standards and infection prevention procedures, according to Health Ministry spokesperson Khaled Megahed. The committee will be led by the minister’s assistant for intensive care affairs Sherif Wadea. (Read in Arabic)

TOURISM

Tourism industry will advertise during Arsenal FC matches
Tourism sector officials are looking to place advertisements promoting Egypt as a tourist destination during Arsenal FC matches, the head of the Tourism Chamber of Commerce tells Al Shorouk. The cost of this could be around GBP 1.5 mn per season, he says. Al Ahram Beverages Company is reportedly bringing in a Barcelona FC player to Egypt and to conduct photoshoots at tourist attractions, according to Al Shorouk. (Read in Arabic)

Tourism Ministry requests World Bank funding for solar powered hotel initiative
The Tourism Ministry wrote to the International Cooperation Ministry to officially request World Bank funding for the solar energy for hotels initiative. The Tourism Ministry will bear the costs of installing the solar-powered heaters at the hotels under the initiative, says the assistant to the Tourism Minister Emad Hassan. (Read in Arabic)

TELECOMS + ICT

Telecom Egypt inks cooperation agreement with Ericsson to upgrade network
Telecom Egypt signed a cooperation agreement with Ericsson to upgrade its network, including strengthening its operational efficiency using the latest Ericsson solutions and programs, says TE CEO Osama Yassin. (Read in Arabic)

AUTOMOTIVE + TRANSPORTATION

Shortage in domestically assembled cars, say General Motors distributors
Several General Motors distributors have reported shortages in domestically assembled cars, including the Chevrolet Aveo and Lanos models, as well as trucks, Al Mal reports. This is caused by none other than shortages in USD, which in turn have made it impossible to import production requirements, one distributor says. (Read in Arabic)

BANKING + FINANCE

CBE issues new savings certificates at 3.5% interest aimed at expats
The CBE plans on issuing a new USD savings certificate in cooperation with the Immigration Ministry called “Belady” certificates at 3.5% interest aimed at expat Egyptians. These certificates will be offered through the National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, and Banque du Caire. The bonds will have one-, three-, and five-year terms, with the CBE considering issuing a seven-year term certificate. More details will be revealed at an expected announcement within the coming days. (Read in Arabic)

EGYPT POLITICS + ECONOMICS

First meeting of committee to improve Egypt’s ranking in World Bank’s Doing Business report
Investment Minister Ashraf Salman presided over the first cabinet-level committee aimed at improving Egypt’s rankings in the World Bank’s Doing Business report, according to Al Mal. The meeting hopes to target key metrics in need of improvement. (Read in Arabic)

REGIONAL

Saudi Arabia is set to pay USD 1.3 bn in consultancy commissions this year. At a 12% y-o-y increase, this is the fastest growth among the world’s largest advisory markets, Bloomberg reports, citing estimates from London-based Source Global Research. The consultants, including McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group, are helping Saudi Arabia implement its National Transformation Program, which will focus on ways to boost economic growth, create jobs, attract private investors, and hold ministries more accountable. “Because of the demographic pressure and the ticking clock on oil prices, Saudi Arabia’s change is being accelerated. A transition in the economic model that had been expected to take 10 or 20 years is now expected to happen in just 3 to 5 years,” said Jonathan Woetzel, director of the McKinsey Global Institute.

The European Parliament called on the EU to impose an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia, Reuters reports. “This is about Yemen. The human rights violations have reached a level that means Europe is obliged to act and to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia,” British center-left lawmaker Richard Howitt said. However, the vote is not legally binding to the EU, but lawmakers hope it will pressure EU governments to agree to an embargo.

NATIONAL SECURITY

Germany’s Interior Minister to visit Egypt, sign cooperation protocol
Germany’s embassy in Cairo is planning for a visit by the country’s Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière to Cairo, according to Ambassador Julius Georg Luy. De Maizière is expected to sign an anti-terrorism protocol with Egypt and another to enhance airport security. The exact date for the visit is yet to be set. (Read in Arabic)

Two protesters reportedly part of the Muslim Brotherhood were killed by security forces on Friday in Damietta, an official source at the Interior Ministry tells MENA agency, according to Ahram Online.

SPORTS

Gianni Infantino has succeeded Sepp Blatter as the new FIFA president, trouncing Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa 115 votes to 88. Blatter resigned in June after accusations of corruption surfaced in which Qatar’s bid to host the World Cup was embroiled. We kept up with the voting with the Guardian’s live coverage, mostly because it appeared to pain Nick Miller so much to have to cover.

ON YOUR WAY OUT

Ashraf Sharkawy is likely to become the next chairman of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority in March, sources within the ICT Ministry tell Amwal Al Ghad. The ministry is reportedly picking Sharkawy for his successful leadership of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority.

Hotline Bling: Long Live Egypt Fund’s executive director Mohamed Ashmawy says 460k text messages were received as part the president’s “Say good morning to Egypt” campaign, raising EGP 2.3 mn, according to Ahram Online. So far no statistics have come out about how many were legitimate donations and how many were trolls.

Saudi Arabia’s Embassy in Egypt announced that ambassador Ahmed Kattan is now on Twitter. You can find him @Ambkattan.

Heliopolis Housing said its board of directors proposed an EGP 1.35 dividend per share for the first half of FY 2015-16. The decision is subject to the approval of shareholders at the upcoming annual general meeting.