It’s a relatively calm Monday afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, with no massive story here at home dominating the news cycle today.

THE BIG STORIES TODAY SO FAR-

#1- The retail component of Macro Group’s IPO closed today 102x oversubscribed, the EGX said in a bulletin at the end of today’s trading session. The company wrapped up its private placement to institutional investors, which was 1.8x oversubscribed, last Wednesday, and is expected to start trading shares “on or around” this Thursday under the stock ticker MCRO.CA.

#2- We’re not hedging against rising wheat prices (for now): Egypt isn’t looking at entering a contract to hedge against wheat prices, which are expected to cost us an additional EGP 12 bn this fiscal year alone, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait told Enterprise. The wheat hedging contracts are now priced too high considering the ongoing threat of conflict in Ukraine and Russia considering higher export tariffs on the grain.

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

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

• Redcon revives IPO plans: Redcon Construction is looking to make its EGX debut in 4Q2023 or 1Q2024, Vice Chairman Ahmed Abdallah told Enterprise. The company had been eyeing an IPO in 2019.
• Water treatment company Metito wants to build floating desalination plants in Egypt, Metito Africa Karim Madwar said. The Emirati company is currently in talks with the Housing Ministry and has submitted its proposal.
• You can now short, buy on margin and day trade these EGX stocks: The EGX has shuffled its list of securities eligible for same-day trading, margin trading and short selling as part of its twice-yearly rebalancing.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD- It’s another afternoon of Ukraine updates, as French President Emmanuel Macron heads to Moscow in a bid to defuse tensions between Russia and Ukraine that are increasingly threatening to spill over into open conflict. Macron’s shuttle diplomacy efforts are also taking center stage as part of France’s push to give itself a bigger diplomatic role on the global stage, with the president looking to recalibrate Russia’s political alignment away from being purely with China, the New York Times notes. Bloomberg and Reuters also have the story.

FOR TOMORROW-

TOMORROW is your last day to apply- Women can now apply to join Fortune Global Women's Mentoring Program which will take place from 8-28 May 2022. The program aims to bring emerging women leaders from around the world to the US to meet and learn from the Fortune Most Powerful Women community, which includes executive women mentors from companies such as Accenture, Johnson & Johnson, and Aetna. The deadline to apply for the program is 8 February. You can begin your application by signing up here via our friends at the US Embassy in Egypt.

???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Inflation figures are due out this Thursday, 10 February. Annual urban inflation rose to 5.9% in December from 5.6% in November. Prices are expected to continue to rise in the short term due to an unfavorable base effect along with a global increase in consumer prices — but look set to stay within the central bank’s target range of 7% (±2%) by 4Q2022. The Central Bank of Egypt expects price stability in the medium term, it said last week following its monetary policy committee meeting. The government’s fuel pricing committee’s decision to raise fuel prices over the weekend is expected to have only a limited impact on inflation, analysts said.

The Finance Ministry has begun holding a public consultations on the draft budget for next fiscal year with the next round due to take place on Thursday, 10 February at 5pm CLT, Al Mal quoted Finance Minister Mohamed Maait as saying. Eight groups representing a cross-section of society are set to weigh in on the FY2022-23 budget, while the ministry is also calling on business associations to participate in the dialogue. The draft bill will go to the House of Representatives for discussion and approval following the public consultations.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- It’s going to be another nice, sunny day tomorrow, with a high of 24°C and a low of 10°C, our favorite weather app tells us.