Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates plan to renew their deposits with the Central Bank of Egypt that amount to more than USD10 billion and are due next year. 

The House approved amendments to the Income Tax Act that would raise the tax exemption threshold by 25% to EGP45k from EGP36k. It also approved a draft bill that will amend the 2022 law to raise the exceptional cost of living allowance to EGP600 for all state employees starting this month, double the EGP300 paid out previously, while also doubling an exceptional grant for pensioners to EGP600 from EGP300.

The ministry of planning is allocating EGP529.7 billion to support social protection during FY23/24 budget.

The ministry of finance hopes to collect USD1 billion by extending cars import scheme for Egyptians living abroad. 

Egypt and Jordan are currently conducting a technical and financial study to increase the electricity link between the two to 1.1 GW from 550 MW with a new subsea power cable.

Fitch and S&P are reviewing Egypt’s credit rating during the coming two weeks.

The Suez Canal Economic Zone and a number of Chinese companies have signed agreements to establish textile projects worth a combined USD101.3 million in investment in the West Qantara Industrial Zone.

Some 10-15 Chinese companies have shown interest in establishing a specialized industrial zone for chemicals with investments worth the equivalent of USD7.5-12 billion in CNY over the next three to four years.

Some Turkish companies have shown interest to expand manufacturing footprints in Egypt.

EGAL (FV: EGP53.58, OW) extended the deadline for submitting technical and financial offers for the rehabilitation of the company’s facilities for one month until 12 November 2023 due to the large works required in the tender, based on the request of many companies.  

The government has awarded contracts to construct two transformer stations to SWDY (FV: EGP22.87, OW) and a subsidiary of Kuwaiti conglomerate Al Kharafi Group, according to media reports. Under the contracts, SWDY will establish a station at New Alamein and Al Kharafi will construct one at Tenth of Ramadan City. 

AMOC will distribute a cash dividend worth EGP0.65/share over two installments. EGP0.45/share will be distributed on 8 November 2023, and the remaining EGP0.20/share will be distributed on 7 March 2024, for shareholders on record on 5 November 2023. This implies a dividend yield of 7.2%.

MHOT declared EGP10.00/share cash dividends (DY of 5.9%). Record date is 29 October 2023. Distribution date is 1 November 2023.

Weekly Commodities Update 

 |   | Last Price | WoW Change, %
| Brent, USD/bbl | 90.9 | 7.5%
| Diesel-HSFO Spread, USD/ton | 458 | 17.3%
| Egypt Urea, USD/ton | 440 | 0.0%
| Polyethylene, USD/ton | 1,070 | 0.0%
| Polypropylene, USD/ton | 968 | 0.0%
| Steel/Iron Ore Spreads, USD/ton | 353 | -2.0%
| LME Aluminum Cash Price, USD/ton | 2,172 | -1.5%
| Egyptian Retail Cement, EGP/ton | 1,965 | -0.3%
| Steam Coal FOB Newcastle Australia, USD/ton | 144 | 3.9%
| SMP, USD/MT | 2,558 | 6.6%
| Last price may vary week over week in some indices due to time difference