Today’s Top News & Analysis
A new minimum wage
Suez Canal February revenues
Egypt is looking to be a center for green hydrogen and renewable energy
Arab Contractors to sell a part of its subsidiaries
Palm Hills 2022: A new high
ESRS discloses its FX position
Egytrans to acquire NOSCO by H1 2023
Elsewedy Electric Infrastructure to raise EGP1.7bn in financing
Macro
A new minimum wage
President El-Sisi announced last Thursday a new minimum wage for all civil servants, where all employees will get at least a 17% increase or the equivalent of EGP1,000 increase at least to their wages, making the new minimum wage EGP3,500/month. Moreover, employees with an MSc and PhD will receive at least EGP6,000/month and EGP7,000/month respectively. Pensions also will increase by 15% starting from April, which should help 11mn pensioners. Personal income tax break threshold was raised from EGP24,000 to EGP30,000. (Enterprise)
Suez Canal February revenues up y/y
The chairman of Suez Canal Authority (SCA) announced that the canal recorded revenues of USD743mn (+36% y/y) in February 2023 from the passing of 1,959 ships (+14.3% y/y). (Al-Mal)
Egypt looking to be a center for green hydrogen and renewable energy
The president of the New & Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) has reported that the renewable energy projects currently under construction are worth over USD4bn with a total production capacity of 3,500 MW. This includes five wind energy projects and two solar energy projects with capacities of 2,800MW and 700MW respectively. He also added that the projects will be built and operated by private sector companies, both local and foreign. Moreover, Egypt is looking to be a main producer of green hydrogen in the region, with 23 MoU signed with international companies to produce green hydrogen and build other complementary industries. We see that Orascom Construction [ORAS], Elsewedy Electric [SWDY], and Egytrans [ETRS] will be beneficiaries of the aforementioned projects. (Economy Plus)
Arab Contractors to sell a part of its subsidiaries
Arab Contractors is looking to sell or list some of its subsidiaries to a strategic investor or in the upcoming IPO program through The Sovereign Fund of Egypt. (Economy Plus)
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Palm Hills Developments 2022: All-time high new sales
Palm Hills Developments’ [PHDC] 2022 net income came at EGP1.25bn (+52% y/y) on 76% y/y higher revenues of EGP13.6bn. GPM came at 33% compared to 34% the year before (-1pp y/y). New residential and commercial sales grew by 50% y/y to EGP26bn in 2022, highest in the PHDC's history, from selling 4,033 units during the year compared to 3,350 units the year before (+20% y/y). New sales can be broken down into:
West Cairo contributed 50% of new sales with EGP13.1bn in new sales by selling 2,039 units during the year
East Cairo contributed 28% of new sales with EGP7.3bn (+151% y/y) in new sales by selling 1,194 units during the year
North Coast and Alexandria contributed the remaining 22% of new sales with EGP5.6bn(-21% y/y) in new sales by selling 800 units during the year. (Company disclosure)
ESRS discloses its FX position
Ezz Steel Co. [ESRS] disclosed its preliminary consolidated net FX losses for both the holding company and its subsidiary Al Ezz Dekheila Steel Co. (EZDK) [IRAX].
Net FX losses recorded for Q4 2022:
• ESRS: EGP3bn.
• IRAX: EGP2.8bn.
Net FX losses recorded for the first 2 months within Q1 2023:
• ESRS: EGP5.3bn.
• IRAX: EGP4.8bn. (Company disclosure)
Egytrans to acquire NOSCO by H1 2023
Egytrans [ETRS] is reportedly looking to finish its acquisition of a majority stake in NOSCO by H1 2023, as per ETRS's CEO. Due diligence is currently underway, and the transaction value is to be determined upon completion of the due diligence process. (Enterprise)
Elsewedy Electric Infrastructure to raise EGP1.7bn in financing
Elsewedy Electric Infrastructure, a subsidiary of Elsewedy Electric [SWDY], is currently in negotiations with National Bank of Egypt (NBE) to acquire financing worth EGP1.7bn. The financing will be broken down into 3 parts, EGP1bn for letters of guarantee, EGP500mn of bank overdrafts, and the remaining EGP200mn for letters of credit. (Economy Plus)
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