Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the final workday of week 41 in this crazy year. We have an exceptionally busy issue for you this morning, so let’s jump right in:

IPO WATCH- An unnamed strategic investor is after 10% of the shares e-Finance is offering on the EGX and has formally made an offer to the lead manager, Al Borsa reported, citing sources it says are close to the matter. The state-owned company kicked off the subscription period for the retail offering of its IPO on Sunday and is pricing it EGP 13.98 per share, the top end of the EGP 12.50-13.98 range on which it had guided. The subscription period for the retail offering — which is due to wrap up next Sunday, 17 October — is already 4.5x oversubscribed, the sources said. e-Finance has already bumped up the size of the offering, apparently in response to significant demand from institutional investors.

Egypt’s banks will adopt the Tax Authority’s e-invoicing system, the Finance Ministry said in a statement yesterday. The system has been up and running since November 2020, when its first phase started, with 134 companies logging their invoices electronically to the Finance Ministry’s platform as part of the ministry’s efforts to clamp down on tax evasion and compel companies that have not registered with the Tax Authority to do so. We were previously told that all tax-paying companies would be enrolled in the system by April 2023.

PSA #1- We’re getting a long weekend next week. The prime minister’s office has confirmed the public sector officially off on Thursday, 21 October off in observance of Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday, which falls on Monday, 18 October. That means you can expect word from the EGX and the Central Bank of Egypt in the coming couple of days declaring that next Thursday is a holiday for Planet Finance, too.

PSA #2- Exporters using CargoX to ship goods into Egypt will now pay a flat fee of USD 150 to upload ACI shipping documents after the Egyptian government reached an agreement with the platform, which had been mulling raising the minimum fee to USD 400. CargoX is the sole blockchain document transfer gateway service provider for the newly-implemented Advance Cargo Information (ACI) system, which became mandatory for importers to use at the beginning of the month.

CONGRATS to our friends at Dawi Clinics, which has just opened its first branch in Suez. That makes it the fifth governorate and thirteenth branch for the fast-growing primary care company. Dawi’s CEO is Magda Habib (LinkedIn), who gave us our start in business back in the day.

HAPPENING TODAY-

Shoukry to hold talks with US Senator Menendez, UN Syria envoy: Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will sit down with Bob Menendez, the chairman of the powerful US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Geir Otto Pedersen, who are both in town today. Expect Egypt-US relations and regional political affairs to feature heavily on the agenda.

El Gouna Film Festival kicks off later today and will run until 22 October, despite a fire that broke out in a section of the Gouna Film Festival Plaza yesterday in which there were no fatalities. At least eight people were hospitalized to be treated for smoke inhalation. Only one section of the festival plaza was damaged, and that the event should proceed as planned, . festival organizers said. This edition of the event promises to bring together a selection of international narrative, documentary, and avante garde films. You can check out the full program here.

** CATCH UP QUICK with the top stories from yesterday’s edition of EnterprisePM:

• The benchmark EGX30 is back in the green for 2021 YTD after gaining 0.9% yesterday, marking the seventh consecutive session in which the benchmark index posted gains.
• US inflation accelerated in September to 5.4% as both supply and labour shortages continued to drive up prices.
• The green energy transition is gaining pace — but not enough to avert catastrophic warming, according to the International Energy Agency.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD- It’s a dog’s breakfast in the global business press. CNBC is leading with the US Fed’s latest meeting minutes, released yesterday, which say that the central bank could start tapering its stimulus program as early as next month. The Financial Times explains that China Evergrande’s meltdown is locking other Chinese developers out of the global debt market, and the Wall Street Journal is still leading with yesterday’s September inflation numbers in the US. Reuters, meanwhile, has more on US President Joe Biden’s bid to debottleneck part of the supply chain by having big retailers and logistics companies work 24/7 in ports to clear backlogs.

PSA #3- For Trekkies: William Shatner survived becoming the oldest person to ever reach the final frontier after Jeff Bezos shot him to to the edge of space on Blue Origin’s latest tourism flight.

MARKET WATCH-

US earnings season has kicked off with signs that banks may be immune to the storm: JPMorgan Chase brushed off talk of an earnings squeeze in the banking sector as it posted a bumper USD 11.7 bn bottom line, well exceeding analysts’ forecast of USD 9.4 bn, the FT reports. The strong start to 3Q earnings season in Amreeka suggests banks may have so far escaped the worst of the supply-chain disruption and price rises that have dented other sectors. “Underlying everything, we’re still seeing a strong consumer, strong businesses, a lot of capital, a lot of credit,” JP Morgan chief exec Jamie Dimon told reporters.

Expect to learn more today and tomorrow. Bank of America, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley are up today, while Goldman Sachs is due to release its financials tomorrow.

CLOSER TO HOME- Erdogan issued a decree overnight sacking three members of the central bank’s interest rate committee after meeting with captive bank governor Sahap Kavcioglu last night. “The changes rid the committee of members who disagreed with Erdogan’s calls to continue cutting interest rates,” Bloomberg notes, reminding us all that the nutter in Ankara has declared himself an “enemy” of interest rates. The news pushed the TRY to a a new record low overnight against the USD.

Also not helping: Currency exchange bureaus in Turkey will now be required to record their clients’ personal information. Erdogan’s Finance Ministry claims the rules, which previously only applied to amounts over USD 3k, are not a sign he’s meddling in the FX market.