1. Today’s Trading Playbook
TABLE OF CONTENTS
KEY THEMES
Global markets at early Monday’s trading are a mixed bag, with equity futures in the U.S. and Europe showing a bit of a bounce back. Furthermore, the performance of Asian equities still did not pick up steam. Oil prices rebounded, with Brent oil prices regaining footing above USD71/bbl level after Saudi Arabia upped its crude prices. U.S. equities are expected to open in the green today after notable declines in Friday’s trading, with Omicron remaining a concern as the variant spread to about one-third of U.S. states. However, there were reports from South Africa that cases there only had mild symptoms.
Here at home, both EGX 30 and EGX 70 EWI ended yesterday up 0.7% and 2.4%, respectively. EGX70 EWI itself gained so far in December 3.8%, which again supports the notion of small caps thriving under uncertain circumstances.
Elsewhere, B Investments [BINV] announced establishing a specialized health care arm (i.e. B Healthcare Investments) with an authorized capital of EGP1bn. B Healthcare Investments signed transaction documents to acquire a 51% stake in The Egyptian IVF Center as its first investment in the specialized healthcare space. The transaction is still awaiting some regulatory approvals. BINV has long been one of our top picks, long before we even initiated coverage on the name. The company — in our opinion — is not your normal private equity firm; it does not flip investments year in, year out. It invests in businesses that are creating long-term value. In other words, investing in BINV is like investing in an exchange-traded fund (ETF) of privately-held companies (ex-Madinet Nasr Housing & Development [MNHD]) that otherwise one would not have had the chance to be exposed to. BINV is currently traded at 2021e P/E and P/B of 7.5x and 0.78x, respectively. We remind you that we have an Overweight rating on the name with a 12M PT of EGP16.7/share (+53%).
Now, on to the top news and analysis for the day.