OUR ANALYST OF THE WEEK- Rehan Hamza, sector head of industrials at Arab African International Securities (LinkedIn).

My name is Rehan Hamza and I’m the sector head of industrials at Arab African International Securities (AAIS). I’ve been working in sell-side since I began my career 13 years ago. I started off at Okaz Investments, then moved to Argaam Plus and MubasherTrade until I began at AAIS. Amr Elalfy and Ibrahim Mansour have both had a massive impact on me and really took the time to teach me and help me grow.

I decided to be an equity analyst during my last year of university where I studied at the faculty of economics and political science. I was taking a course with Islam Ezzam, who’s the vice president of the Financial Regulatory Authority, and he was giving us a brief about financial analysis and the different career paths we can take and it just clicked for me that this is what I wanted to do.

The best part of my job is when calls materialize. I feel like I was able to put the pieces together, gain clarity, and predict something. It often comes down to seeing something other people overlook. It also feels like you’re having an impact when covering a stock and helping it reach its potential.

The worst part of the job is how hectic it is. Whatever event is happening, you need to cover it as soon as possible and present its impact on the stocks you’re covering. It’s quite challenging and definitely a 24/7 job that doesn’t stop on weekends or holidays. The last report I covered, I was in Gouna on holiday actually [laughs].

Work from home was both difficult and beneficial in my case. I liked the flexible hours and the ability to break away from work for periods during the day. There are also less office distractions such as meetings and calls, and that boosts my productivity. However, I’m the mother of two little monkeys (aka two little boys) and to them it was incomprehensible that I was working while I was with them at home. I think a hybrid system of working is the best way to go from here on out as some physical presence is necessary, but there are also a lot of ways to communicate and engage without being face-to-face.

My theory of investment is to look long term at fundamentally strong firms. In industrials it’s important to be patient and commit to riding out the cycles. We often tell our clients to wait a bit longer when things are looking down, pointing to a return on investment in the long run. It’s all about educated risk which involves doing your homework and knowing the right time to enter a stock.

The most important factor I look at when I recommend an investment is the management. A lot of the time firms make exciting plans but management fails to implement it in a timely manner if at all. When looking at management, you look at their track record of materializing their plans and how they responded if they didn’t. It’s also important to look at their outlook and their understanding of the market which is often evident in their reports and releases.

The commodities boom is definitely causing an upcycle trend for industrials, but I think the coming period will see a bit of stabilization as prices plateau or continue their upwards trend but at a slower rate. However, it put the sector in the limelight and more investors are considering it for long term investment strategies.

We’re confident that 2021 will be positive for Egypt, especially since last year the country achieved growth above expectations. On the capital markets front, there’s a bit more of a question mark as it’s very fragile and volatile at the moment, with every political event causing the stock market to move up and down.

I don’t have much time to watch anything thanks to the kids [laughs], but the last thing I watched was Emily in Paris. It was light and fun and I enjoyed it. One of my favourite series is Breaking Bad.

I really enjoy reading about psychology. I’m currently reading The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk. It has to do with how trauma affects the mind and how you think and react to future events.

In my downtime I spend a lot of quality time with my boys. Malek is nine and Mostafa is five and we enjoy playing games like Uno, Monopoly, or going bowling. Before covid, we also liked to go to the cinema a lot. As for me on my own, you can usually find me reading or playing Candy Crush.