KEY THEMES
Three pieces of news are probably worth highlighting for today. First, on a macro level, Egypt’s net foreign reserves rose slightly, still hovering above the USD40bn mark, thanks to the recent special drawing rights (SDRs) allocation. This should help alleviate any future pressure on the Egyptian pound, if at all. Second, we have e-Finance, the state-owned e-payment platform, which is said to be considering going public next month. This would be through an IPO in the form of a capital increase and possibly a partial exit by some of the existing shareholders. Third, both Elsewedy Electric [SWDY] and Orascom Construction [ORAS], which have recently been the ultimate winners of many infrastructure projects in Egypt, are competing for yet another one, namely Abu Qir Metro, an EUR1.5bn project.
POSITIVE
FWRY, CICH, ORAS, SWDY: Talks of e-Finance’s imminent IPO may bring attention back to Fawry [FWRY] as well as the appointed investment banks associated with the offering, such as CI Capital Holding [CICH]. Also, we continue to prefer ORAS and SWDY on the booming infrastructure theme.