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Tuesday, 22 June 2021

Meet our analyst of the week: HC Securities’ Abdelrahman Wahba

OUR ANALYST OF THE WEEK- Abdelrahman Wahba, senior analyst at HC Securities (Linkedin).

My name is Abdelrahman Wahba and I’ve been at HC Securities for almost two years. I cover industrials on the EGX, including those in energy, basic materials, and petrochemicals. I graduated from the Faculty of Commerce at Ain Shams and started my career at MB Group, where I mostly did financial planning and budgeting functions. I then moved to MubasherTrade and Shuaa Capital as an analyst before moving to my current position. My first mentors were Amr El Alfy and Mai El Sayed.

The best part of my job is the continuous learning process and finding new ways to tackle challenges. The nature of the job allows me the chance to be published, and I really appreciate this sense of ownership of my work. It incentivizes me to do better and push myself further.

The worst part of my job is it can sometimes become a bit routine. Especially if there is some dummy work on the agenda that you’re forced to get through. I’m not a fan of doing the same tasks again and again.

The pandemic made my job more hectic at the beginning. It took some time to establish a work from home routine that worked, as well as put in place all the online infrastructure such as VPNs to access our server. We’ve had to come to terms with the new normal of replacing meetings with calls and applications such as Teams, but it all worked out in the end. What was even harder than the logistics aspect was needing to reevaluate all of the EGX and industrial stocks based on the changes to global commodity prices that had a large impact on the local market. The curfew at the beginning of the pandemic also caused a lot of disruption to the sector, especially in construction.

I think industrial stocks are partially recovered as of 2021, but more governmental regulations and initiatives could really help bring the sector back up to speed.

My theory of investment is to put myself in the investors’ shoes. I look at what makes sense for them and what they’d want to know and add it in my reports. I always try to search for what forward catalysts could affect the stock price and performance and whether there is any benefit for the investor.

Institutional investors are becoming increasingly selective when it comes to investing in Egypt. They focus on stocks with strong fundamentals, high transparency, and comprehensive disclosures. Meanwhile, retail investors look for higher liquidity stocks and take short-term stances as day traders. This makes them more likely to go for EGX70 stocks.

The factors I look at before recommending an investment are the fundamentals and the credibility of management. In our sector especially, it’s important to note all the macro and international factors that could relate back to our investment climate.

I think the worst has passed for Egypt — and 2021 could pose a recovery across all sectors. It has a lot to do with getting everyone vaccinated, the more the rollout progresses, the better the economy gets as uncertainty abates. It goes without saying that this year is already proving better when compared to 2020.

If I had to switch to cover another industry, I’d choose consumers. It has similar dynamics since it's affected by global commodity prices. Plus, I like that you can relate it to your daily activities.

I’m more of a numbers person. I think it's a more practical approach to making a decision. Everything in our work is dependent on being able to explain the rationale behind the numbers in front of us.

When I’m not working I like to watch TV or football. My favorite TV shows are Game of Thrones, Sherlock, and Casa de Papel and my favorite movies are The Big Short and the Dark Knight trilogy. I usually tune into football as well since I’m a big Barcelona, Liverpool, and Al Ahly fan.


The EGX30 rose 1.4% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.71 bn (26.1% above the 90-day average). Local investors were net sellers. The index is down 5.9% YTD.

In the green: TMG Holding (+8.5%), Palm Hills Development (+5.7%) and Cleopatra Hospital (+5.3%).

In the red: Ezz Steel (-1.7%), Oriental Weavers (-1.0%) and Orascom Financial Holding (-1.0%).

Enterprise is a daily publication of Enterprise Ventures LLC, an Egyptian limited liability company (commercial register 83594), and a subsidiary of Inktank Communications. Summaries are intended for guidance only and are provided on an as-is basis; kindly refer to the source article in its original language prior to undertaking any action. Neither Enterprise Ventures nor its staff assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, whether in the form of summaries or analysis. © 2022 Enterprise Ventures LLC.

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