Showing

2

Results

What we’re tracking on 29 March 2021
Good afternoon, everyone, and if you’re all Ever Given out, then you’re just as confused as us.HAPPENING NOW- Heavy winds have apparently blown the Ever Given back to where it was, after having been partially refloated this morning. We have the latest updates in this afternoon’s Speed Round below.THE STORY IS STILL EVOLVING- With reports right during dispatch indicating that the ship is moving again.THE BIG NEWS STORY at home (that doesn’t require catching up on water density equations) has to be the EGX being ranked as the second most active market in the Arab World by volume after the Tadawol, with some USD 43.9 bn-worth of equities changing hands, according to the latest report by Arab Federation of Exchanges. The lack of IPOs, however, is really starting to show. You can catch the highlights from the report in this afternoon’s Go With The Flow.CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from this morning’s issue of EnterpriseAM: Covid Watch: Thousands more doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine will arrive in the coming days.IPO Watch: Macro Group Pharma has priced its shares at EGP 5.30-6.15 apiece ahead of debuting on the EGX next month.Politics Watch: MPs want greater oversight of the government's plans to upgrade the nation’s rail network following the train crash in Sohag on Friday that killed at least 19 people and injured 185 others. It’s day one of Abu Dhabi’s play for a new oil benchmark: Traders began buying and selling futures contracts for Murban crude in Abu Dhabi this morning, marking the first time an Arabian Gulf OPEC member has allowed its oil to be sold and shipped anywhere in the world, reports Bloomberg. On its first trading day, June contracts were switching hands at a price of USD 63.93 at 4pm UAE time with over 6.3k lots traded, Intercontinental Exchange said on Twitter.Abu Dhabi hopes that the futures will become the region’s main benchmark and open the local oil sector to financial traders. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) pledged to guarantee at least 1 mn barrels of daily exports to support trading on the platform ICE Futures Abu Dhabi. ADNOC CEO Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber will ring the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange today to mark the occasion alongside ICE chairman and CEO Jeff Sprecher.MANDATORY COVID STORY- A lab leak being the origin of covid-19 is “extremely unlikely,” according to a draft report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Chinese government obtained by the Associated Press. The study instead says that the spread of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is “likely to very likely” to be the cause, while direct transmission from bats is “likely.” Spread through cold-chain food products was “possible but not likely.” The report provides “little new insight” into the origins of the virus and “leaves many questions answered,” though it does offer details on the reasoning behind the team’s conclusions, the AP writes. The publishing of the report has been postponed several times, fuelling speculation that China has tried to influence its findings. The final report is expected to be released in full in the coming days. Get Enterprise daily The roundup of news and trends that move your markets and shape corporate agendas delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe here 🗓 CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-The Egyptian-Croatian Business Forum meets on Wednesday for the first timesince 2010. On the table: Giving a nudge to both trade and investment, a FEDCOC statement says. Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić-Radman and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry are expected to attend.The Arab Federation of Exchanges Annual Conference 2021 is taking place today and tomorrow. This year’s virtual conference will discuss ESGs for economic growth and capital markets as well as fintech and innovation.The HVAC-R Egypt Expo will run Thursday through Saturday at the Egypt International Exhibition Center in New Cairo. The fifth annual expo for heating, ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration, and energy and brings together more than 170 national and international operators with different suppliers.The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization will open on Saturday, 3 April in El Fustat. Local and international visitors alike will pay less for admission for the first two weeks to explore the museum’s central hall, according to a cabinet statement. Meanwhile, the Royal Mummies Hall will be ready for visitors starting 18 April.The Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group is set to take place from 5-11 April. This year’s virtual meetings will bring together central bankers, ministers of finance and development, private sector executives, representatives from civil society organizations and academics. The topics up for discussion include the world economic outlook, poverty eradication, economic development, aid effectiveness, and the global financial system. Some events will be open to the public and can be streamed live from the World Bank’s platform.The Spring Flowers Exhibit (Ma3rad El Zohoor) is currently taking place at Orman Botanical Garden in Giza. More than 200 exhibitors have set up shop to sell flowers, plants, agricultural products, and gardening equipment. The exhibit runs through 13 April.AUC Press’ Mad March book sale will wrap up by the end of the month. The sale is open to the general public every day from 10am–6pm CLT at AUC Tahrir Bookstore & Garden.🚙 FOR YOUR COMMUTE-Facebook and Google are planning two new subsea cables to connect North America to Indonesia, with the aim of increasing subsea capacity in the trans-pacific by 70%, sources at Facebook told Reuters. The size of the investment was not specified. The Echo cable is being built in partnership with Google and is set to be completed in 2023. The Bifrost cable will be completed in 2024 in partnership with Indonesian and Singaporean operators.Closer to home, Facebook and Telecom Egypt are building the 2Africa submarine cable project along with five other companies. The 2Africa project is part of the bigger Hybrid African Ring Path (Harp) subsea system. Harp will form two main arteries that will begin from a landing point in South Africa to points in three southern European countries, travelling along the eastern and western African coasts. TE is set to complete Harp in 2023. Pay attention oil execs: Shell wants to link its director’s incentive plan to climate performance more closely. The oil giant is proposing making its energy transition performance 20% of the director’s incentive plan, Reuters reports. The move, if approved at the 2021 AGM on May 18, would place the energy transition metric on equal footing as cashflow generation for the director’s remuneration. Shell had previously said it is linking the remuneration of 16,500 employees to carbon emission targets, as part of its plan to become net carbon neutral by 2050. Shell’s total carbon emission peaked in 2018 at 1.7 gigatonnes per annum.Fake meat gets some serious funding: In other ESG news, Plant-based meat manufacturer Livekindly Collective raised USD 335 mn to finance expansion in the US and China, Bloomberg reports. The funding round makes the Livekindly Collective one of the three highest funded plant-based food companies. The alternative protein industry is projected to swell up to a quarter of the global meat market by 2040, while alternative protein investments tripled to USD 3.1 bn last year from USD 1 bn in 2019.📺 ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-Egypt is playing against Comoros today at 6pm CLT in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers to determine who tops Group G. The Pharaohs ended its Thursday match against Kenya with a 1-1 draw. Afcon will take place in January and February next year in Cameroon.🍔 EAT THIS TONIGHT- Office favorite #2657 (we promise we do more than eat). Lucille’s is Enterprise and Inktank’s go-to restaurant when having an office-wide lunch, with employees always ready for their huge, juicy burger patties on a fluffy, sweet and slightly toasted bun. In fact, back in 2007 Time Magazine crowned Lucille’s as The World's Best Hamburger. We love their mushroom burger and western bbq bacon burger. Make sure to order an appetizer or two to go with your sandwich — you can’t go wrong with any of them. Lucille’s was opened in 1996 by American Lucille who put every penny into launching the restaurant in Maadi. Today, you can also find Lucille’s in New Cairo around the banks center.🎤 OUT AND ABOUT-(All times in CLT)The French Institute in Cairo is showing the 1963 film ‘Umm Al Aroussa’ by Atef Salem today as part of an ongoing series of monthly events titled Egyptian Society in Cinema. The film will be screened at the Downtown branch at 6pm.There’s another Paint and Sip Session tomorrow at 6pm at Ora Restobar in New Cairo, possibly Brush It’s last event before Ramadan heads in.Fabrica Musical Theatre Company is performing Broadway Bel Arabi this Thursday at The Zamalek Theater. Fabrica’s singers will perform translated scenes from Chicago, Fiddler on the Roof, Shrek, Into the Woods, Les Miserables, and more. The event will take place at 8pm and the dress code is ‘dress to impress’.Beloved Lebanese singer Majida El Roumi is singing at Qubba Palace this Friday in what will be the palace’s first concert to the public. El Roumi will be joined by the maestro Nader Abbassi and the Philharmony Union Orchestra. You can buy tickets for the event here.💡 UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-The challenges of a CEO include everything from unforgiving demand to loneliness to responsibility, something Adam Bryant and Kevin Sharer understood when writing The CEO Test: Master the Challenges That Make or Break All Leaders. The book is an authoritative, no-nonsense insider's guide to navigating leadership's hardships written through personal experience as well as interviews with over 600 CEOs. You can check out this review by Ladders, which writes “The CEO Test wins in getting across critical questions we need to ask ourselves not once but every day on the job.”🌤 TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Expect daytime highs of 24°C and nighttime lows of 11°C tomorrow, our favorite weather app tells us.

Monday, 29 March 2021

What we’re tracking on 28 March 2021
Good afternoon, and welcome to the weekend+ edition, as much of the news day consisted of updates to main headlines that dominated the weekend news cycle. THE BIG STORY at home this afternoon is the ongoing saga of the Ever Given, which remains stuck for a sixth day now. We have the latest updates in the Speed Round below. Subscription to the retail component of the Taaleem IPO has kicked off. We cover the announcement chapter and verse in the Speed Round below. CORRECTION: In this morning’s EnterpriseAM, we said that Taaleem had priced its IPO at EGP 6.20 per share. We were incorrect. A close reading of the disclosure from the Financial Regulatory Authority indicates that Taaleem could price its IPO at up to EGP 6.20 per share, not at EGP 6.20. The company had previously said it expected to price the transaction at EGP 5.48-6.02 per share, and a senior source with first hand knowledge of the transaction confirmed to us this afternoon that CI Capital will price the offering within this range. We have amended the story on our website. HAPPENING NOW- The House of Representatives has approved in principle legislation that would impose harsher penalties for FGM, reports Youm7. The tougher punishments for FGM moved through the House Legislative Committee last week and were approved in both circles. Also on the House’s itinerary for today is discussion on the long-held up Water Resources Act that will introduce stricter penalties for water waste, while addressing pollution, dwindling resources, and climate change issues. The central bank has put out another official warning of the fundamental dangers of crypto. Cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin are “extremely volatile” and risky investments that are neither based on tangible assets nor centrally regulated, making its holders susceptible to sudden losses in value, the CBE said in a statement (pdf) this afternoon. This comes as a reminder for people to abide by Article 206 of the recently-enacted Central Bank and Banking Act (pdf) — which prohibits issuing, trading and promoting crypto in Egypt without explicit licensing from the CBE’s board. THE BIG STORY ABROAD- Abu Dhabi will begin selling tomorrow futures contracts for its flagship Murban oil grade, potentially changing how Middle East oil is priced, according to the Emirates News Agency (WAM). Abu Dhabi hopes that the futures will become the region’s main benchmark as opposed to other grades (such as Brent crude), writes Bloomberg. The move is also hoped to open the local oil sector to financial traders. The futures platform will be run by USA-based Intercontinental Exchange Inc. and called ICE Futures Abu Dhabi. Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and 22 other banks and brokers will act as exchange members Equipping Port Fujairah for the pivotal shift: Once sold on an exchange, Murban will be sent by pipeline to Fujairah, and then shipped to global markets. State-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has earmarked around USD 900 mn to build 40 mn barrels of storage space in caverns beneath Fujairah’s mountains to ensure there’s plenty of Murban on hand to manage any future supply disruptions, Khaled Salmeen, the company’s head of marketing and trading, had previously said. The UAE says Murban futures won’t affect OPEC or its ability to stabilize oil prices, Adnoc’s Group Head of Trading Philippe Khoury was reported as saying. Get Enterprise daily The roundup of news and trends that move your markets and shape corporate agendas delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe here 🗓 CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR- The Egyptian-Croatian Business Forum meets this Wednesday, 31 March, for the first time since 2010. On the table: Giving a nudge to both trade and investment, a FEDCOC statement says. Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić-Radman and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry are expected to attend. The Arab Federation of Exchanges Annual Conference 2021 will kick off tomorrow and run until Tuesday. This year’s virtual conference will discuss ESGs for economic growth and capital markets as well as fintech and innovation. The Startup Festival is currently ongoing in Sharm El Sheikh and will run until tomorrow. The festival will gather investors, entrepreneurs and policymakers and more than 80 startups will participate in the exhibition, which will feature panel discussions and workshops. The HVAC-R Egypt Expo will take place from 1-3 April at the Egypt International Exhibition Center in New Cairo. The fifth annual expo for heating, ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration, and energy and brings together more than 170 national and international operators with different suppliers. The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization is set to open on Saturday, 3 April in El Fustat. Local and international visitors alike will pay less for admission for the first two weeks to explore the museum’s central hall, according to a cabinet statement. Meanwhile, the Royal Mummies Hall will be ready for visitors starting 18 April. The Spring Flowers Exhibit (Ma3rad El Zohoor) is currently taking place at Orman Botanical Garden in Giza. More than 200 exhibitors have set up shop to sell flowers, plants, agricultural products, and gardening equipment. The exhibit runs through 13 April. AUC Press’ Mad March book sale will wrap up by the end of the month. The sale is open to the general public every day from 10am–6pm CLT at AUC Tahrir Bookstore & Garden. 🚙 FOR YOUR COMMUTE- Spain held a concert with 5k fans as the country tested the revival of big events during the pandemic, reports Reuters. Saturday’s concert go-ers had to arrive early and have rapid covid-19 tests before being allowed to enter the venue. Those who tested positive were seen dancing and singing together in a packed concert with no social distancing, but with masks on. 📺 ON THE TUBE TONIGHT- (All times in CLT) Apple TV has released Calls, an avante-garde series that relies more on audio than visuals, with each episode featuring an eerie phone call conversation as a group of strangers simultaneously experience an apocalyptic event. The series pushes the limits of what visual storytelling can be through its risky choices and techniques. A quick crime docuseries for those of you into that: Under Suspicion: Uncovering the Wesphael Case on Netflix looks into the high-profile case of Belgian politician Bernard Wesphael, who was accused of murdering his wife in 2013. The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers are going strong with Ghana to play against São Tomé and Sudan against South Africa tonight at 6pm. CORRECTION- Egypt will be playing its Afcon match tomorrow at 6 pm against Comoros and not today as we incorrectly noted in EnterpriseAM. The FIFA World Cup European Qualifiers are also up and running with some matches to note including: Georgia to face off against Spain today at 6pm, Albania against England at 6pm, Romania against Germany at 8:45pm, and Bulgaria against Italy at 8:45pm. Kazakhstan is currently on the field against France as we dispatch this newsletter. A proud day for African contact sports: For anyone following mixed martial arts, Cameroonian bomber Francis Ngannou became the new UFC undisputed, heavy-weight champion of the world this morning after beating the defending champion Stipe Miocic in a second round knockout at UFC: 260. You can watch some of the highlights here (watch, runtime: 2:33). Your feel good moment for the day: The victory is even sweeter when you consider the challenges Ngannou had to face to get to where he is. Born to abject poverty, Ngannou (who spent most of his life not knowing what MMA even was) spent his childhood working to help support his family, before moving to France and living on the streets in an attempt to kickstart his boxing career. Hear him tell his life story to Mike Tyson in this episode of Hotboxin’ (watch, runtime: 1:25:04). 🥐EAT THIS TONIGHT- Deep dish pizza in all its glory: If you’ve tried Chicago-style deep dish pizza, you’ll know it's an experience that fills your belly and heart with joy. American restaurant Country Hills has brought us deep dish pizzas galore, as well as a menu filled with other soul food including burgers and mac and cheese. Of course, we recommend the deep dish pizza — go for their lone ranger (hot dogs and pepperoni) and their shrimp volcano — but if you want something less filling-for-days, try their thinner New York-style pizza. We loved their buffalo ranch crispy chicken pizza and texas chili fries pizza. You can find Country Hills at Mall of Egypt and City Stars as well as in Heliopolis, Alexandria, and Mansoura. 🎤 OUT AND ABOUT- Another Comedy Bunker is taking place at The Room Art Space in New Cairo tonight, with this event promising surprising new faces to take to the stage and perform their stand up comedy act. The event is set to start at 9pm. Ubuntu Gallery is showing the gallery Reimagined Memories which brings together several works focusing on the textile hangings of Cairo. From weddings, to moulids, to public events, Cairo is known for bringing out colorful and textural cloth hangings at big events to decorate the street and signify the type of event. The exhibit — curated by Seif El Rashidi — poses the question as to whether this form of expression has a future in the city. The Nile Art Gallery is hosting the exhibition Bayati by Hany Abdel Badee. 💡 UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT- The New York Times’ debut cookbook is out titled The New York Times Cooking No-Recipe Recipes. The cookbook hailing from the popular NYT Cooking website and app, features 100 vividly photographed no-recipe recipes to help readers improve their improvisational cooking skills and learn the basics of substituting ingredients and mentally calculating portions. Recipes include pizza without a crust, weeknight fried rice, roasted shrimp tacos, and oven s’mores. 🌤 TOMORROW’S WEATHER- More of the same tomorrow, with daytime highs of 23°C and nighttime lows of 10°C, our favorite weather app tells us. Expect the weather to stay in this range for the rest of the week.

Sunday, 28 March 2021