New tax hikes and development fees got the green light from the House Planning and Budgeting Committee

The government made a number of amendments to the VAT, pending Parliament approval

The US Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee meets today and tomorrow, widely expected to announce it will taper its bond-buying program

EAST inked an agreement to jointly manufacture Davidoff Evolve cigarettes; Will be sold within the mid-price segment, at EGP 32 a pack; Initial production is 100 mn sticks

New entrants into cigarettes manufacturing cannot produce brands within EAST’s lowest tax bracket locally; Reducing toll-manufacturing revenues by 70% in FY25/26 brings down our FV to EGP13.50; EAST is trading at FY21/22 P/E of 5.8x and EV/EBITDA of 3.0x

Companies interested in bidding for a new steel manufacturing license from the Industrial Development Authority will get responses to their inquiries on the terms of the license today; Authority will open the door for bidding in February

HRHO closed  EGP550 mn securitized bond issuance

State-owned Cargas and Gastec inked two contracts worth EGP200 mn to finance the national program to convert cars to run on natural gas over the next three years 

Key Commodity Changes 

Brent futures are trading at USD74.40/bbl, Brent has averaged USD70.78/bbl YTD

Diesel-HSFO spreads were up 15% w/w and are at USD257/ton

Caustic soda prices dropped by 3% w/w so reach USD702/ton, above 3Q21 average of USD410/ton by 77.4%