Good afternoon, wonderful people, and welcome to the last Enterprise issue of 2022. It’s been quite a year for The Enterprise Company, for Egypt, and for the whole world. We’re thankful for each and every one of you for reading us every morning and afternoon.

REMINDER- EnterpriseAM and EnterprisePM will be off tomorrow and Sunday, 1 January, before returning to our publishing schedule from Monday, 2 January. We wish you all a wonderful start to the new year.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

Egypt’s natural gas exports rose 14% y-o-y to reach 8 mn tons in 2022, bringing in USD 8.4 bn, according to an Oil Ministry statement. Revenues from our natgas exports rose 171% y-o-y on the back of elevated global prices, the statement notes.

ALSO- The Supply Ministry is set to announce today its indicative price list for some 10 strategic commodities, according to Akhbar El Yom. The ministry had set up a committee earlier this month to determine the “fair price” of several food items deemed to be strategic commodities, in a bid to regulate market pricing amid soaring inflation.

Kudos to our friends at BTECH, who ended the year on a strong note by receiving the Most Innovative Omni-Channel Consumer Electronics Retailer Award of the year from the UK’s Global Economics Magazine, according to a statement (pdf). The home and consumer electronics retailer launched an innovation hub earlier this year, in addition to rolling out several new financing products. We also sat down with BTECH CEO and Chairman Mahmoud Khattab to talk about the retailer’s growth story.

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**DID YOU MISS our annual year-in-review series? You can catch up on our customary year-end wrapup of the biggest stories of the year:

• Macroeconomics
• Debt
• M&A
• Capital markets
• Investments
• Energy
• Startups
• Foreign policy

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

We’re ending the year with yet another mixed bag of nuts in the international business press. Among the headlines this afternoon: Hospitals and funeral homes in China are “under intense pressure” as covid-19 continues to spread (Reuters); Saudi Aramco refining unit Luberef’s shares fell on their debut on the Saudi Tadawul (Bloomberg); and Wall Street bankers are expected to get thinner bonuses this year as revenues plummet (the Wall Street Journal).

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

• Oil Ministry kicks off fresh oil + gas tender: State-owned Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company has launched an international oil and gas tender for 12 exploration blocks in the Mediterranean and Nile Delta.
• The FRA is easing credit limits for homebuyers: The Financial Regulatory Authority has loosened income requirements for mortgage lenders in a move designed to boost lending and help people purchase homes amid rising house prices.
• TCI Sanmar to invest at least USD 160 mn in new loading terminal in Egypt: Indian industrial chemical manufacturer TCI Sanmar plans to invest an initial USD 160 mn to set up a loading terminal near Port Said to import ethylene.

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???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Companies have until Saturday to register with the Egyptian Tax Authority’s e-invoicing system after the Finance Ministry earlier this month gave companies an additional two weeks. Only 150k companies had signed up to the new system as of the end of November, well below a sought goal of 1 mn companies to register under the system.

REMEMBER- This deadline no longer applies to the self-employed: The Finance Ministry pushed the deadline for self-employed professionals — including doctors, pharmacists and lawyers — to 30 April 2023 after widespread opposition to the system.

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 last few days of the year and first day of 2023 are forecasted to be mainly sunny in the capital. Expect temperatures in Cairo to peak at 20-21°C during the day Thursday-Sunday, before falling to 10-11°C at night, our favorite weather app tells us. If you’re heading down to Gouna, temperatures are forecasted to hit 24-25°C during the mostly sunny few days, before falling to 13-14°C at night. And over in Alexandria, the mercury will hit 19-20°C before falling to 13-15°C on average in the evening.