OUR ANALYST OF THE WEEK- Aly Adel, vice president of research at Beltone Financial (LinkedIn).

My name is Aly Adel and I’ve wanted to be in this field since university days. I was part of a student activity, Stock Market Simulation, and was immediately sucked into the world of valuations and the capital markets. I then joined the CFA Institute Research Challenge, where me and my team ended up taking home the top local prize. In 2015, after graduation, I spent a month as an intern at Pharos and then I went on to do my military service. When I came back, I joined Beltone, and I’ve been there for five years now.

I now cover real estate, healthcare, and a few education stocks. I started off covering the local healthcare sector. I got to experience Ibnsina Pharma’s IPO, travelling to my first ever roadshow and meeting clients abroad. I then started increasing my coverage in healthcare to include regional stocks and also added a few education names. Finally, in 2021 I got the chance to also cover Egypt’s real estate sector.

Real estate is quite different from what I’m used to, but I saw it as a challenge that I would definitely learn from. The sector is going through a very interesting time as the government is trying to make it more stable, while people’s purchasing power is recovering which leads to more sales.

The best part of my job is meeting companies’ CEOs and management teams. You get the chance to see how things operate as well as how these people think and plan for the future when it comes to inflation, demand, etc. You expand your mind and put yourself in the shoes of management, which helps in your coverage. However, when it comes to my family, they sometimes think that since I cover healthcare I can prescribe them meds [laughs], which definitely isn’t the case.

The worst part of my job is that you’re always on call. It can be late at night or during a vacation and an event happens that means you have to drop everything. On the other hand, we’re forced to stay up-to-date with the news all the time, so that’s a good thing.

The absence of roadshows definitely has an impact. My last roadshow was January 2020 and it’s a whole other experience to meet clients face to face and read their body language. Plus, it’s more fun than video calls.

I think roadshows will increase in 2022, compared to 2021. They’ve already come back a bit on a smaller scale, but next year the move will accelerate despite the Omicron variant. People have become more intelligent about lockdowns and how to mitigate new variants, plus fund managers are keen to see their investments on the ground.

My theory of investment is to always look at interesting stories with hidden value. It can sometimes be hard to spot, but some indicators are strong fundamentals and an active management that works to create new value.

Fundamentals are the most important factor I look at before recommending an investment. Sometimes the markets could drive a stock price up because they’re interested in that company at the moment, but without solid fundamentals, the growth won’t be sustainable.

I put a lot of emphasis on experienced management with good corporate governance. When they’re not a one-man-show, the chairman is focused, and they have good communication with investors and analysts, it really does help maintain the success of the company.

How the EGX30 will close at the end of the year still has a lot of question marks. The Omicron variant is causing a lot of uncertainty in the global market. I really do hope the EGX30 manages to be in the green [laughs], but there definitely is doubt.

I think 2022 will definitely be a better year than 2021, but it’s not necessarily the year of Egypt. I think that investors might flock more to blue chip stocks as the local stock market is extremely cheap at the moment. There’s a lot of room for growth and the story for next year is good, bolstered by a pipeline of IPOs and several decisions to better regulate the market, such as in margin trading. This could lead to less volatility in the market, especially in small caps. Meanwhile, the uncertainty from covid is lessening and investors now have a clearer short-to-medium-term perspective.

I’m currently watching The Good Doctor, and I’m excited to watch the new episodes of Money Heist. I agreed to watch them with my friends, which has postponed my viewing experience. I’m worried that I’ll open Facebook and get hit with spoilers [laughs].

I’m not much of a reader, to be honest. I’d rather get my information from documentaries. I love watching anything related to the planet, the animal kingdom, space discovery, or theoretical physics.

In my downtime, I love to listen to music, workout, and dive. I listen to all kinds of music — literally any genre. At one point, I tried to get into music production, but that didn’t work out for me. I also like staying active and I used to play crossfit, but now I go to the gym.

I started taking diving courses a couple of years ago and now I’m allowed to dive up to 30 meters. There’s no better feeling than being suspended and relaxed in the water with no outside distractions. It’s a completely different state of mind.

I stay organized through the reminders on my phone. I like to plan what my day will look like in advance, but I usually shy away from planning out my week. Things come up and the plans always end up changing. It’s important to me to give every aspect of my life the right weight, whether it’s work, being social, or working out.