"What Not to Miss" is a report highlighting the most important news that took place over a month within 4 main countries (Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar) covering economic, financial and political aspects that may shape your decisions.
Egypt Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Waly announced a new project '

Atenien Kefaya' (Only two kids) aims to fight the country overpopulation through raising awareness of better family planning strategies. The Atenein Kefaya project is targeting over one million women across 10 governorates, Giza, Beni Suef, Qena, Minya, Assiut, Sohag, Aswan, Fayoum and Luxor. The criteria for choosing these governorates focused on finding both the most fertile ones and the poorest. The project duration is two years, with a budget estimated at 100 MM EGP from the NGO Support Fund.

  • According to April survey data in the Emirates NBD, Egypt Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), there is a stabilization in business conditions in Egypt non-oil private sector, an increase from 49.2 mark in March to 50.1 mark in April. This reflected output stabilization and growth of total new orders. Egyptian non-oil private sector companies faced an increase in overall input costs during April. The increase was driven by higher purchasing prices even though the rate of overall input cost inflation decreased to the weakest since May 2015 and was below its average.
  • EFG Hermes announced an exclusive partnership with Global Education Management Systems (GEMS Education), one of the world's leading providers of private English-language education for students from kindergarten to 12th grade (K-12), to jointly establish a new platform focused on Egypt K-12 education sector. The new platform aims to establish a sizable portfolio of private national and international schools across key cities in Egypt over the next five years via mix of acquisitions, brownfield, and greenfield investments, which will be exclusively operated by GEMS Education.
  • Egypt net foreign reserves increased to 44.030 BN USD in April compared to 42.611 BN USD in March 2018, recording an increase of about 1.418 BN USD. This marks the highest level of foreign exchange reserves in the history of the Central Bank of Egypt. Egypt Central Bank Governor Tarek Amer announced that:
    • Foreign inflows had exceeded 120 BN USD since the pound was floated in November 2016.
    • The reserves are sufficient to cover over 10 months of imports of basic goods, which exceeds the global minimum of three months.
    • Egypt succeeded in raising Eurobonds worth 2 BN EUR, split into two tranches: eight-year notes with a yield of 4.75%, and twelve-year notes, with a yield of 5.625%
  • Telecom Egypt and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) have signed an agreement for a 200 MM USD short-term facility from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to finance working capital and investments in Telecom Egypt infrastructure which serves as a life-giving vessel for many African countries. ADIB is served as the financial adviser for the short-term facility and for that purpose the deal is managed by ADIB.
  • The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) is launching a legal tender for the Arab and international companies to implement the lines and transformers substation for the 250 and 300 MW electricity interconnection project with Sudan.  
  • 10 companies will be invited to participate in the legal tender and submit their bids, including ABB, General Electric, Siemens, State Grid, Schneider Electric, and El-Sewedy.
  • The entities being negotiated will include the International Finance Corporation ( IFC ), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development ( EBRD ), BNP Paribas and the African Development Bank and the Kuwait Fund for Economic Development.
  • Triple M Contracting Company aims to construct 10 solar power stations in Benban, Aswan as part of the feed-in tariff project. Hatem El-Romy, chairperson of the company contracted with a Chinese company, Shandong Hengwang Group, in order to:
  • Take part in the establishment of  three power plants with a capacity of  150 MW in Benban and to be the company's agent in the Middle East and Africa for the sale of piles drilling machines used in the construction of solar power stations.
  • Contract for the implementation of seven projects to participate in the establishment of the world's largest solar park in Aswan , and to maximize the value of local components and the localization of solar technology .

Saudi Arabia latest budget figures show progress in terms of growth in non-oil revenues, but its budget deficit reached 34.3 BN SAR (9.15 BN USD) in Q1-2018 which still threat its long-term health economy. It is worthy to mention that the revenues in Q1-2018 reached 166.3 BN SAR which increased by 15% compared to Q1-2017 and the total spending reached 200.6 BN SAR which increased by 18% due to growth in:

  1. Subsidies that have reached 3 BN SAR in Q1-2018 compared to 46 MM SAR in Q1-2017;
  2. Financial expenses increased by 229% in Q1-2018 reaching 4.1 BN SAR, mainly due to the increasing public payment debt;
  3. Social benefits expenses increased by 184%, almost 18.8 BN SAR was spent on social benefits.
  • Saudi Arabia consumer price index registered a 2.5% y-o-y increase in April 2018. The growth was attributed to nine main sectors topped by tobacco sector (54.1%), followed by the transportation sector (10.1%), while the restaurants and hotels, food and beverages, and health segments increased 7.2%, 5.6%, and 3.6%, respectively.
  • The General Authority of Zakat and Tax (GAZT) announced that entities and companies registered with the value added tax (VAT) scheme should file their tax declaration for the month of April by Thursday May 31 (corresponding to 15 Ramadan 1439H). The authority set the end of May as the deadline for companies and entities whose annual value of taxable goods and services exceed 40 MM SAR. While establishments with annual values of taxable goods and services at less than 40 MM SAR should file their tax declarations every three months.
  • Saudi Arabia finance ministry sold 3.95 BN SAR of domestic monthly sukuk by re-opening an issue originally made last month. It sold 3.35 BN SAR of five-year sukuk, 350 MM SAR of seven-year and 250 MM SAR of 10-year. Last month, the ministry sold 5 BN SAR of domestic sukuk.
  • Three female engineering students from Saudi Arabia King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah won the Procter & Gamble's Global CEO Challenge. Linah Hussain, Malak Mously, and Rawan Baik beat out over 3,500 prospective participants from across India, the Middle East and Africa, before going on to compete in the global competition against participants from across the world in Panama, where they were required to present business solutions for a real-life case study to P&G's CEO, David Taylor.
  • Saudi Arabia Almarai, the Gulf largest dairy company, plans to spend 10.6 BN SAR (2.8 BN USD) in capital investment under a five-year business plan aimed at boosting its efficiency and expanding its geographic footprint. The investment for the period from 2019 to 2023 will be financed through growing operating cash flow, bank funding, local and international sukuk programs, as well as the Saudi Industrial Development Fund and the Agricultural Development Fund
  • The Saudi British Bank (SABB) has been named as the "Best Supply Chain Finance Bank Middle East" for 2018. This recognition is based on enhancing SABB proposition through successful expansion of product suite to cover Islamic RF (riba-free) and roll-out of an internet based front-end to support RF solutions that helped clients in optimizing working capital. Since launch of this product 4 years back, SABB has emerged as the pre-eminent provider of Receivables & Supply Chain Finance solutions in the region.
  • Bab Rizq Jameel Recruitment has announced a new partnership with Bayt.com, the leading job site in the Middle East and North Africa, to help Saudi Arabian job seekers find employment opportunities by providing online recruitment services. More than 1.5 million Saudi Arabian job seekers are currently registered on Bayt.com.
    • Bab Rizq Jameel Recruitment has helped in creating 290,000 job opportunities for Saudi Arabian young men and women in more than 110 cities in Saudi Arabia.
    • In 2017, it has helped providing 51,449 jobs in the country, through programs across various business sectors.
  • The public cloudspending in Saudi Arabia is expected to reach 138.2 MM USD in 2018. Saudi Arabia will spend 11 BN USD on information technology in 2018. The government is focusing on driving cloud-led digital transformation.
    • Oracle is expanding its footprint in the Kingdom by introducing the latest cloud solutions; creating a robust support infrastructure; and implementing a series of programs aimed at driving digital skills among Saudi youth to prepare them for the digital economy in line with Saudi Vision 2030 by signing an MoU with the Misk Foundation.

UAE-based construction company Arabtec has secured a contract worth 157 MM AED (42.75 MM USD) to build two new phases of a project for Emaar Misr, the Egyptian arm of Dubai-based Emaar Properties. The Arabtec Construction subsidiary would build 128 new villas, plus supporting roadworks and infrastructure in the Uptown Cairo project. Phases three and four of the Levana complex in Village E make up around 61,000 square meters of land

  • The total contribution of travel and tourism to the nation's GDP was 154.1 BN AED, 11.3% of UAE's GDP in 2017 and is forecasted to increase by 4.9% in 2018.
  • The cost of construction in UAE is forecasted to increase by maximum 1.8% in the next 12 months, despite the upward trend in construction material costs. The first quarters of 2017 and 2018, the average cost of construction materials increased by 3.1%, while overall construction costs increased by around 1.8% to 2.3%. In addition, the materials registering the biggest cost increase include rebar, up 30%; diesel, up 22%; electrical cables, up 13-16%; transport, up 9% and timber, up 6 reaching 12%.
  • The Abu Dhabi Business Centre of the Department of Economic Development (DED) issued Q1-2018 report, stating that:
    • Abu Dhabi issued 2,935 licenses, an increase of 26% compared to 2,328 licenses in Q1-2017.
    • 43 new tourism licenses have been recorded, compared to 29 licenses in Q1-2017, which increased 48%.
    • Regarding professional licenses, 53 new licenses were recorded, compared to 17 in Q1-2017, an increase of 211%, while the agricultural, fish and livestock and industrial licenses recorded 7 and 4 licenses, respectively.
    • The total number of economic licenses that were renewed reached 7,750 licenses, compared to 7,385 licenses in Q1-2017, an increase of 4.9%.
  • INDEX Holding announced the opening of its new branch in Singapore, due to the Asian city's strategic location in the Asia-Pacific region and its strong economic and commercial ties with the United Arab Emirates.
  • Emirates NBD, a leading financial institution in the Middle East, has won global recognition for its retail banking leadership at the 33rd annual Retail Banker International, RBI, Global Awards.
    • It was also recognized for the Best Use of Online Banking, as well as enabling customers to chat face-to-face with a banking advisor and sign up for personal loans at any hour.
    • Suvo Sarkar, Senior Executive Vice President and Head Retail Banking and Wealth Management, Emirates NBD, was recognized as the 2018 RBI Retail Banker of the Year globally.

Qatar central bank is seeking more data from banks about USD-Riyal trades as it investigates suspected attempts to devalue its currency. Qatar keeps its currency begged at a fixed rate to the dollar like most of its Gulf neighbors. But after Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt accused it of backing terrorism and imposed an economic boycott on it last June, Qatar has seen the riyal trade several percent weaker than its pegged rate of 3.64 per dollar in offshore markets.

  • Commercial Bank and the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) have signed an MoU where the former will be the preferred bank for QFC firms. Through Commercial Bank, QFC firms will be able to benefit from a customized banking experience that allows them to focus on their business and growth plans.
    • Once a company submits its application to the QFC, a dedicated relationship manager is appointed to provide guidance on the registration process.
    • QFC firms enjoy competitive benefits, such as operating within a legal environment based on English common law, the right to trade in any currency, 100% foreign ownership, 100% repatriation of profits, 10% corporate tax on locally sourced profits, and an extensive double tax treaty agreement network with 60+ countries.
  • Careem, the region's leading ride app in the Middle East announced the introduction of lower pricing (20% cheaper) than before with rides starting at 10 QAR, for their customers in Doha and Al Wakrah. The move is in line with Careem ambition to have positive socio-economic impact through the creation of new job opportunities and by increasing mobility options for people to get around their cities.
  • Qatar Petroleum has invited a group of leading international companies to submit proposals to develop and operate a new world scale petrochemicals complex at Ras Laffan Industrial City. The Petrochemicals Complex will include:
    • An ethane cracker with a capacity of more than 1.6 million tons per annum (MTPA) of Ethylene, making it the largest ethane cracker in the Middle East, and one of the largest in the world.
    • A world-class derivative plant, which will consolidate Qatar position among the leading petrochemicals producers in the world markets.
  • Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) signed an agreement with Qatar's largest Fintech Company: QPAY International to launch the first Islamic point of sale (PoS) solution in Qatar. Under this agreement, QPAY, a Qatari based company offering a wide portfolio of electronic payment solutions, will be setting up MasterCard and Visa PoS acquiring network across Qatar to serve all QIB existing and new customers. QIB will be the first Islamic Bank that offers acquiring solutions to merchants in Qatar by providing them with innovative, secure, and highly efficient payment processing services. This partnership will focus on the Qatari SME market as well as the local corporates.
  • Milaha, a Qatar-based maritime transport and logistics conglomerate, became one of the first companies in the Middle East to deploy and integrate Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions in its back-office operations. The "Tam" system is initially capable of performing more than 70 transactions in less than 2 hours, which would have taken more than one day to finish. It also functions 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, while reducing error rate to 0%.
Cairo Office:
Z epter Office Building  S5-6 ,  Area 5, District 1, 5th Settlement,  New Cairo, Egypt.  P.O. Box:  1147
Dubai Office:
Office No. N 415, North Tower, Emirates Financial Towers, DIFC, P.O Box 506726, Dubai, UAE.
Tel:  +97142820301

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