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Tuesday, 7 March 2023

Last Night’s Talk Shows: Telecom Egypt sale, medicine prices and an interview with the GAFI CEO

A business-econ heavy night on the airwaves last night, with the potential sale of a stake in Telecom Egypt, consumer prices, and investment all being subjects of discussion.

First up: TE, which could see 10% of its shares sold to private investors, according to a Reuters report yesterday (more on this in the news well, above). Lamees El Hadidi invited on Azimut’s regional head of asset management, Ahmed Abou El Saad, who speculated that the government would likely sell shares via a private placement on the EGX (watch, runtime: 13:07).

Why the negative market reaction? El Saad blamed the surprise factor for TE’s shares falling 3.7% on the news. “The fact that this news came before TE moved forward with selling its stake in Vodafone Egypt to Qatar’s wealth fund was surprising,” he said. He described the potential Vodafone stake sale as a “game changer” that would allow the company to completely overhaul its operations. El Hekaya also covered the news (watch, runtime: 13:07).

One-on-one with GAFI: El Hadidi was also joined by GAFI head Hossam Heiba to discuss the government’s efforts to attract foreign direct investment (watch, runtime: 5:24 | 2:00).

Also on the airwaves last night:

  • Meds could get more expensive: Some 60-70 medicine manufacturers submitted requests to the Egyptian Drug Authority to hike prices against the backdrop of the EGP’s depreciation. (Kelma Akhira | watch, runtime: 8:23)
  • The Hoggpool scam got you paranoid? A former assistant interior minister shared some tips to help people stay clear of internet scams. (Al Hayah Al Youm | watch, runtime: 12:16)
  • In and out: Authorities released 30 more pretrial detainees who received pardons from the presidential pardon committee yesterday, a day after sentencing 14 people to jail on terrorism charges. (Al Hayah Al Youm | watch, runtime: 0:55) (Masaa DMC | watch, runtime: 4:15)

PSA for startups: Startups competition show El Forsa hosted by Kelma Akhira's Lamees El Hadidi is back for another season, El Hadidi said during Kelma Akhira (watch, runtime: 11:18). Some of the most prominent companies in our local startup scene are El Forsa alumni — Thndr, Swvl, and Mozare3.

Interested? Eligible startups have until 15 April to apply to be on the show. Applicants have to have businesses that are maximum three years old, have an actual product or service to offer, and are already established.

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