Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It’s so far the kind of hump day where there isn’t a massive volume of news coming in on the home front, but what news there is, is significant.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

FRA eases regs on listing + IPO procedures: Companies will be able to temporarily list their shares on the EGX before seeking regulatory approval from the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), as part of new amendments to listing rules (pdf) announced by the regulator today. Under the amendments, companies will get a six-month grace period to meet regulatory requirements — including the minimum number of shares being listed and shareholders in the company — to complete the IPO of their shares. Listing regulations previously required companies to seek pre-approval from the FRA before listing their shares on the bourse and gave them a one-month window to begin trading after getting the FRA’s blessing.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

It’s all about Ukraine in the international press this afternoon, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last night that its forces have recaptured over 6k square kilometers of eastern and southern territory this month. Ukrainian forces have continued to push back Russian troops along the front line, but top US officials say it is too early to tell whether the successful counteroffensive can sway the near-term outlook on the battlefield. The story is on the front pages of the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and Bloomberg.

HAPPENING NOW-

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi is in Doha for his two-day visit to Qatar, where he is set to meet with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, according to an Ittihadiya statement. Expect investment to be the major item on the agenda, if a string of reports in the local media that Qatar's sovereign fund may buy shares in prominent Egyptian companies is anything to go by. The reports suggest the Qatar Investment Authority is looking to follow in the footsteps of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth funds, which have been snapping up shares in high-profile Egyptian companies. El Sisi’s trip to Doha comes after Thani’s visit to Cairo in June, which was his first visit since the two countries normalized relations in early 2021.

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

• The Madbouly government will within four weeks announce the names of the state-owned companies it will offer to foreign sovereign funds in the first of a series of strategic stake sales that it expects will bring in as much as USD 6 bn.
• MIR is coming: The Central Bank of Egypt is working to link Russia’s MIR payments system with Egypt’s homegrown Meeza card network.
• The year in agriculture so far has been mixed: A longer winter and milder spring caused difficulties for growers of olives and corn but brought unexpected upsides for wheat, cotton, and especially mangoes, which staged a recovery after a dire 2021 season

FOR TOMORROW-

Shareholders have until tomorrow to sell their shares to the consortium of investors led by Expedition Investments, which is bidding to take a 34% stake in the EGX-listed cheesemaker. Expedition sweetened the deal by upping its offer price by 10% last week.

Expedition has more than half of its targeted shares in Domty: Shareholders have reportedly agreed to sell almost 53 mn shares to the consortium, according to Al Borsa. This is roughly 55% of the 96.2 mn shares it is targeting.

???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

B Investments is going to have to make up its mind over TotalEnergies Egypt by Thursday: The private equity player has the right to preempt a bid by Abu Dhabi energy giant Adnoc to acquire a 50% stake in the company, which expires on Thursday.

AlDau Developments art subsidiary ADD Art is hosting its first Aldau International Art Festival in Hurghada from 22 September until 7 October, according to a statement (pdf). The festival will begin with a weeklong workshop with nearly 40 artists from several countries, including the US, UK, France, Jordan, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, and Congo “to engage in cross-cultural dialogue.” The workshop will be followed by an exhibition from 2-7 October to showcase the artworks from these artists at the AlDau Art Promenade in Hurghada, following a theme of “trade and cross-cultural exchange.”

PSA- Tech startups have just a little over two weeks to apply for Universities of Canada in Egypt-based incubator DMZ Cairo’s second eight-month incubation program, which begins in November. The incubator — which is backed by the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology and the National Technological Incubators Program — is accepting applications for the cycle until 29 September, according to a statement (pdf).

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Expect a daytime high of 35°C tomorrow before the temperature slides to 21°C at night, our favorite weather app tells us.