OUR ANALYST OF THE WEEK- Nour Kamel, investment analyst for financial institutions at the International Finance Corporation (Linkedin).

My name is Nour Kamel and I think I’ve experienced the finance field from all its angles [laughs]. I graduated from AUC in 2010 with a major in economics and started my career as a credit analyst at QNB Al Ahli. I covered the food and beverages sector for two years and also completed the first two levels of the CFA while I was there. I was interested in equities and financial markets, so I moved to sell-side research, first at Beltone and then at CI Capital. I started by covering the FMCG sector but then shifted to financial institutions. During that time I finished my CFA and also got an MBA from Edinburgh Business School.

My next move was to development finance and I began at Germany’s Finance in Motion before moving to my current position at the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

I’m part of the investment team at IFC that covers financial institutions across MEA. We focus on private sector development and offer a wide range of investment products across the debt and equity stream to financial institutions. We also supplement our investments with advisory services. We identify gaps or room for development in the different markets we cover and then filter down the market to select the most suitable potential partners that align best with our development mandate. It also works the other way around, where banks approach us for financing for a certain purpose such as climate finance, MSME or gender finance.

A recent transaction we worked on was CIB’s USD 100 mn green bond issuance. We felt that the Egyptian bond market was stagnant and there was a gap we felt we could fill given our expertise in this area. We worked with the regulator to establish guidelines for the market and then replicated our experience with other countries in Egypt.

The best part of my job is that I feel like I’m making an impact. It’s definitely nice to be part of the development side. I like that it’s a constant learning experience. We get a lot of experience working in different countries and as part of a diversified and global team. Since our work is project based, we work with a new team or person on every transaction. We try to work with locals in every new country to manage culture barriers and make communication easier.

The most challenging part is that there is always a lot going on in the region [laughs]. You have to focus on so many markets and be hands on when keeping up with all the developments. However, working with countries that vary in development makes it easier to pinpoint the gaps in financial markets and what they need to improve, as you have several similar references.

When looking at a potential investment in Egypt, the factor I find most interesting is the firm’s management. You really get a feel for how they run their business and how they assess their clients. I determine that a management team is a good one by comparing what they do to best practices, but there’s also a personal judgement angle that comes with experience.

Other than management, we look at their business model in general, carry out an appraisal, and look at specific aspects such as credit lending. If you’re initially discussing one kind of facility, as the conversation flows you can later decide that another one makes more sense

The macro picture in Egypt has been positive this year, and I think it will continue that way these remaining months. There has been a lot of development and reform over the past few years, which helped us to go into covid on a strong footing. Going forward, we really need to build on what has been achieved so far, and I think the direction is generally positive going into 2022.

For the Egyptian finance sector, this particularly holds true. There’s a lot of talk about fintech, green finance, and SME finance. There’s a lot of movement in those areas, but access to finance is still a big issue despite all the improvement we’ve seen. As covid-19 becomes more manageable and we slowly move away from the peak, I think many financial institutions have adapted well and have found ways to stimulate a pick-up in business.

The biggest trend I see in the local sector is the transition to digital. This includes an interest in fintech and mobile banking. We do get approached to help banks on that end and it’s definitely something we do.

I think we’ve all adapted well to work from home and less travel on the job. Of course we prefer face to face meetings, but going virtual has been more efficient. In my case, I don’t miss the two-hour commute every day, and I like that there’s time to switch off during a shift. We’ll probably go back to travel soon, but it’s definitely going to be less frequent than before.

The last thing I watched was the new season of You. I found it quite interesting.

A book I go back to a lot is Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn. It’s about how to be mindful about the basic things you do on a daily basis. Whenever I pick it up, I feel like I learn something new.

In my downtime I do a lot of yoga. I got a certification for teaching yoga when I spent a month in Bali. Which also shows my love for traveling, although that was mostly pre-covid [laughs].

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MARKET ROUNDUP-

The EGX30 rose 0.8% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 810.5 mn (45.9% below the 90-day average). Regional investors were net buyers. The index is up 6.9% YTD.

In the green: CIB (+2.7%), EKH-EGP (+2.3%) and EKH-USD (+2.1%).

In the red: Raya Holding (-3.5%), AMOC (-3.4%) and Heliopolis Housing (-3.1%).