Yes, we know, it’s anecdotal evidence and all, but we can’t help but smile this morning as we note:

• a steel company committing USD 250 mn to new lines;
• a PE outfit saying it has bought 75% of a 100+ year-old heritage brand (and that it plans to invest even more in it);
• a VC outfit buying into an online grocery player;
• an investment bank looking to expand outside Egypt.

It’s (almost) enough to make us non-cynical about the notion that a US-based tech giant with 15k employees might consider investing USD 1 bn in Omm El Donia. We have the details in Speed Round, below. We’ve long been yammering on about foreign investors being unlikely to come into Egypt in droves until domestic investors light the way. It’s starting to feel more and more as if we’re on the leading edge of a wave of domestic investment.

We stopped in on the World Bank yesterday as part of the media delegation accompanying AmCham’s 2017 Doorknock mission to Washington, DC. The annual pilgrimage sees leading figures in the Egyptian business community engage directly with policymakers and lawmakers to make the case for closer ties between the two nations. At the World Bank, Vice President for MENA Hafez Ghanem noted that he’ll be visiting Egypt with a WB delegation at the end of next week for meetings with government officials. Ghanem also said that the third USD 1 bn tranche of the USD 3 bn World Bank loan is expected to be disbursed around December. Final dates will be confirmed in September. Ghanem also spoke favourably of the Ismail government’s drive to create jobs and strengthen the social safety net, which he noted are in line with the World Bank’s priorities.