Good afternoon, ladies and gents. It’s a slow start to the week, with barely any major news at home or abroad moving the needle.

THE BIG STORY TODAY-

SPAC rules are here: The Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) issued today the rules and regulations (pdf) for companies looking to establish blank-check firms (aka SPACs) to raise capital and merge with or acquire another company through an IPO, FRA head Mohamed Omran said in a statement (pdf). The rules include the timeline for companies to pull the trigger on SPAC mergers and list on the EGX, as well as requirements on shareholder structure and minimum capital. The regulator has also issued amendments (pdf) to listing and delisting rules on the bourse to make way for SPACs to hit the EGX. The regulations come a few weeks after the proposal spearheaded by EGX boss Mohamed Farid received the greenlight from the FRA.

^^ We’ll have the full breakdown of the rules in tomorrow’s edition of EnterpriseAM.

HAPPENING NOW-

The Senate gave its preliminary approval today to a draft law to increase protections for senior citizens, Youm7 reports. The upper house of parliament will continue tomorrow its discussion of the bill, which will provide social care and benefits to up to 1.7 mn senior citizens in Egypt.

LATER TONIGHT-

AUC and the Egyptian Private Equity Association (EPEA) will host a panel on developments and regulatory changes in the stock market at the Tahrir campus tonight at 6pm, according to a press release (pdf). EGX Chairman Mohamed Farid, Sovereign Fund of Egypt Chief investment Officer Abdalla ElEbiary and managing director and chief investment officer at Nile Capital Holding Basel Roshdy will all make appearances.

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• EFG, SFE finalize acquisition of Arab Investment Bank: EFG Hermes finalized on Thursday their acquisition of a 51% stake in the Arab Investment Bank (aiBank), transforming the leading financial services corporation in frontier emerging markets into a universal bank in Egypt. The Sovereign Fund of Egypt’s financial services sub-fund is also acquiring a 25% stake in the bank.
• Al Ahly could offer almost half the club in an IPO on the EGX by selling shares in the newly-formed Al Ahly Football Company, which will hold all of the club’s football-related assets by June 2022.
• Géant plans EGP 1 bn investment in Egypt: French hypermarket chain Géant is planning to invest EGP 1 bn to open 15 new supermarkets, hypermarkets, and express markets in Egypt over the next five years.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

SUDAN WATCH- Hamdok is coming back as PM: Abdalla Hamdok is returning to his position as Sudan’s prime minister after signing an agreement minutes ago with military chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan (watch, runtime: 23:16). Hamdok was ousted in a coup last month, which led to weeks of unrest that left scores of people dead. Hamdok will form an independent cabinet of technocrats and all political detainees will be released, under an agreement between the military and political parties, head of the centrist Umma Party Fadlallah Burma Nasir told Reuters earlier in the day. The coup had upended a two-year transition to civilian rule and drew strong international condemnation from the African Union, the UN and the EU, with donors like the US and the World Bank suspending aid to Sudan.

???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

The new administrative capital plays host to a Comesa summit starting on Tuesday, the same day the state’s SECC hosts a webinar on fintech in Egypt.

Startup festival RiseUp starts on Thursday and runs through Saturday, while the Cairo International Film Festival kicks off its weeklong run this coming Friday.

The Home Appliances and Table Show (HATS Egypt) starts tomorrow and wraps up on Wednesday. The event is organized by the Engineering Export Council of Egypt and brings together companies working in the home appliances sector.

ITIDA and the Software Engineering Competence Center are hosting a webinar on the future of fintech in Egypt on Tuesday, 23 November. The event will look at the current landscape and expected changes in light of new tech, regulations and market changes. You can register to attend here.

BOOK LAUNCH- Up and Doing, a memoir penned by Chairman of the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund James Harmon (Morning Routine), will be published this Tuesday, 23 November. The memoir recounts Harmon’s career as a banker and discusses “how markets can move the world forward by creating stable, growing economies and sound [transactions] that promote economic development.”

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

☔ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Another rainy day in store: There’s a 40% chance of showers tomorrow while the mercury will drop to 22°C during the day and a chilly 15°C at night, our favorite weather app tells us.

Don’t get too excited about winter finally coming: We’re starting to see forecasts that temperatures will rise to 28°C at the end of the week.