Today is a big news day for Egyptian companies investing abroad, ladies and gentlemen, with Elsewedy Electric and Edita both announcing key updates to their African investments this week. Further afield, the Evergrande saga continues. But before we dive deeper into these…

THE BIG STORIES TODAY-

Did Big Tobacco get its way on the government’s controversial tobacco license tender? The Industrial Development Authority has reportedly relaunched this week its tender that would end Eastern Company’s monopoly and see a second tobacco manufacturer obtain a license, several local news outlets report, citing sources in the industry. What isn’t clear yet is whether the tender, which received backlash from major manufacturers when it was first introduced back in March, who argued that the new company would be given an effective monopoly on e-cigarettes and heated tobacco. Tobacco giant Philip Morris was the only company to take part in the bidding round for the new license.

BACK TO AFRICA- Elsewedy Electric inaugurated today its USD 35 mn electric cable plant in Tanzania, the company announced in a bourse statement (pdf). The plant is part of a 120k sqm complex that will also manufacture transformers, electric meters and synthetic plastics. The company is also working on a 4.8k sqm logistics facility, the company added.

Edita Food Industries has started operations at its new production facility in Morocco, the company announced in a statement (pdf) on Sunday. The EGP 200 mn plant — the company’s first greenfield investment outside of Egypt — currently has one production line that produces 2.7k tons of HoHos cakes every year. This will increase in the future with the addition of another two production lines, the company said.

^^We’ll have more details on these stories and more in tomorrow’s EnterpriseAM.

CLARIFICATION- Abu Dhabi’s Chimera Investments had acquired a stake in the Sawriris family-owned Gemini Global Development Egypt (which owns 100% of Ora Developers Egypt) and not Gemini Holdings as we noted this morning. The latter is a separate entity also owned by the Sawiris family. The investment was made to support the expansion of Ora Developers Egypt’s real estate operations, which include Zed El Sheikh Zayed, Zed East, Pyramid Hills and the newly launched SilverSands on the Egyptian North Coast, Ora said in a press release (pdf) out today.

HAPPENING NOW-

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry is in Senegal for a two-day visit to attend the Dakar International Forum on Peace and Security, which will focus on the African continent’s post-covid-19 future.

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

• November’s PMI results are in: Egypt’s non-oil business activity shrank “moderately” last month as supply chain bottlenecks and inflationary pressures continued to weigh on firms.
• The roadshow must go on: Fears of Omicron and rising market uncertainty will not force Abu Qir Fertilizers to abandon its plans to sell a secondary stake on the EGX this month.
• r/egxbets will probably never become a thing: Investors could face fines and jail time for sharing stock trading tips on social media under proposed amendments to the Capital Markets Act put forward by the Financial Regulatory Authority.

THE BIG STORIES ABROAD-

The Evergrande saga continues: The share price of the world’s most-imperiled real estate giant plunged 20% to a record low today as fears of an imminent debt default grew ahead of today’s repayment deadline. Evergrande — which has accumulated a staggering USD 300 bn in debts — failed to meet a USD 82.5 mn repayment last month, and must pay it before the 30-day grace period expires tonight. This comes on top of a USD 260 mn payment which creditors have demanded immediately. Over the weekend, the group announced (pdf) that “there is no guarantee” it will be able to pay its financial obligations and that it will start “actively engaging with offshore creditors” to start working on a restructuring plan.

Beijing tries to contain the crisis: The Chinese government is trying to reassure investors that the situation is under control, today injecting new liquidity into the banking system by lowering capital requirements in an effort to prevent an Evergrande default from evolving into a systemic crisis. (Reuters | FT | The Guardian | CNN | Bloomberg)

Your daily Omicron update: The rise of the Omicron variant in South Africa hasn’t yet translated into a wave of hospitalizations, which US medical chief Anthony Fauci said is “a bit encouraging regarding the severity” of the variant. South Africa is still expecting hospital admissions to climb in the coming days though, and is preparing the country’s hospitals in anticipation that the epidemic will intensify. (Bloomberg | CNBC | Reuters)

FOR TOMORROW-

Aldar / ADQ MTO subscription window wraps up tomorrow: SODIC shareholders have until the end of trading tomorrow to respond to the mandatory tender offer submitted by the UAE’s Aldar Properties and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ.

The two-day North Africa Trade Finance Summit starts tomorrow, bringing together business leaders, people from the financial industry, logistics experts and policymakers to discuss trade finance.

???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Global Forum for Higher Education and Scientific Research runs Wednesday through to Friday at the St. Regis Al Masa Convention Center.

The Cairo Woodshow kicks off on Thursday at the Cairo International Convention Center.

News triggers to keep your eye on:

• Foreign reserves: November’s foreign reserves figures will be released this week.
• Inflation: Inflation figures for November will be released this Thursday, 9 December. Data for inflation typically appears on the 10th of every month, but is moved up one day if that falls on a Friday.
• Interest rates: The Central Bank of Egypt’s Monetary Policy Committee will hold its final meeting for the year to review interest rates on Thursday, 16 December.

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

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- The mercury is going down to 20°C tomorrow during the day, falling to 11°C at night, our favorite weather app tells us.