El Molla on the resurrected Aramco agreement; Wael Fakharany takes his case against Careem to int’l arbitration
Lamees Al Hadidi was finally back on the airwaves last night and took a moment to reassure everyone that Amr Adib is out of the hospital and on his way to a full recovery from his unspecified health crisis (watch, runtime: 2:56).
Al Hadidi spoke with Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla about the resumption of oil shipments from Saudi Arabia’s Aramco this weekend (we have more on that in the Speed Round), which he said cost Egypt an average USD 320-340 mn a month, or about 40% of the country’s monthly spending on petroleum products. El Molla also said that the return of Aramco’s fuel shipments will not affect Egypt’s agreement to import crude oil from Iraq (watch, runtime 9:47).
She then spoke to Careem’s former managing director Wael Fakharany, who had threatened to sue the company last week after he was fired unexpectedly. Fakahrany told Lamees that a non-disclosure agreement prevents him from sharing the exact details of what happened, but confirmed that he was going to pursue international arbitration because he had been sabotaged and then fired “without cause” (watch, runtime 10:22).
Meanwhile on Masaa DMC, host Eman El Hosary spoke to Union Capital CEO Hany Tawfik about his alliance with BPE Partners to establish a EGP 150 mn bailout fund for distressed factories. Tawifk said that the process would prioritize certain types of facilities, such as those where operations are suspended due to liquidity shortages, very labor-intensive, or facilities that don’t rely much on imports or export (watch, runtime 6:55).
El Hosary also hosted the new head of the Press Syndicate,Al Ahram managing editor Abdel Mohsen Salama, who was elected by a high margin of 67% on Friday, according to AMAY. He tells El Hosary that his first order of business will be to free jailed reporters and lobby for legislation that guarantees and protects the free flow of information (watch, runtime 3:07).
Yahduth fi Masr’s Sherif Amer was off last night.