Good afternoon, wonderful people. It’s a reasonably busy Monday here in Omm El Donia, with a little bit of everything coming out of the news cycle. But first…

We wanted to thank our friends at CIRA Education (formerly just CIRA), who join us today as a pillar sponsor of EnterprisePM alongside Palm Hills Developments and Etisalat Misr. It is through their generous support that we are able to continue to provide your afternoon reads without charge.

CIRA Education’s CEO Mohamed El Kalla joined us in the podcast studio to discuss the company’s recent rebranding and its evolution into a multifaceted education platform, with services covering the entire value chain of education. You can listen our discussion is on our website (listen, runtime: 44:43) or on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Omny | and Google Podcasts. Or you can read edited excerpts of our conversation here.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

Auto sales fell 49.8% y-o-y in September 2022 to around 11.4k units sold as the market continued to struggle with import restrictions. Passenger car sales dropped nearly 58.9% y-o-y last month to just 6.8k vehicles, according to figures provided by the Automotive Information Council (AMIC).

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

There are three big stories vying for attention in the international business press: Picking up where we left off this morning, left-wing former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s victory in Brazil’s presidential elections is still on the front pages of the Financial Times and Reuters. Meanwhile, Eurozone inflation jumped to a fresh record high of 10.7% in October (CNBC) and a grain shipment sailed out of a Ukrainian port today despite Russia pulling out of the UN-brokered agreement that allowed Ukraine to resume grain exports (Bloomberg | Reuters).

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

• MoneyFellows closes bumper series B round: Egyptian fintech startup MoneyFellows has raised USD 31 mn in a series B funding round.
• House committee approves public-sector, pensioner bonuses: The House Manpower Committee approved yesterday disbursing a EGP 300 bonus in November to public-sector employees and pensioners.
• Coffee With Mohamed El Kalla, CEO of CIRA Education: Egypt’s largest listed private-sector education company, CIRA (Cairo for Investment and Real Estate Development) has officially rebranded itself as CIRA Education.

???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

We’re starting a new month- The key news triggers as we slide towards November:

• PMI: We’ll know how Egypt’s private sector fared in October on Wednesday when S&P Global releases the purchasing managers’ index. A 22-month contraction in private sector activity didn’t show signs of abating in September as high inflation continued to weigh on demand and output.
• Foreign reserves figures for October will be released next week.
• Inflation: Capmas and the central bank will release October’s inflation figures on Thursday, 10 November.

The Sovereign Fund of Egypt (SFE) will begin the roadshow for its pre-IPO fund at the end of November, Planning Minister Hala El Said told Bloomberg Asharq yesterday (watch, runtime: 2:10). The fund plans to market several state companies — including the military-owned firms Safi and Wataniya — to strategic investors ahead of IPOing them on the EGX at a later date. Several Arab sovereign wealth funds have expressed interest in purchasing stakes in the companies, the minister said.

The Nebu Expo for Gold and Jewelry will be held on 10-12 December, bringing together 50 local companies and 35 international exhibitors from Italy, Turkey, India and the UAE, Supply Minister Ali El Moselhy said.

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

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- We’re in store for another sunny day in the capital city, with a daytime high of 26°C and a nighttime low of 18°C.