Egypt sends power to Libya following widespread blackout

Good morning, friends. Today’s top stories tell one story in two directions: Egyptian companies are going abroad in force while regulators rewire the market at home to pull more of them onto the EGX.

Heading abroad: A Petrojet-Enppi consortium won a six-year route into Petroleum Development Oman’s USD 6 bn+ pipeline, while President El Sisi’s Tanzania visit yielded new shipping, port, and farm-reclamation proposals, as well as seven Egyptian investors signing up for plots in Elsewedy’s industrial city there.

Tidying up at home: FRA carved out an auditor-rotation exception to smoothen companies’ path to listing and set up a joint tax committee with the EGX and Tax Authority. Both clear friction to bring more names to market.

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Egypt powers up Libya

Egypt began feeding power into Libya’s grid through a cross-border interconnection after a sudden collapse that blacked out most of our western neighbor, according to a statement from the Libyan Electricity Ministry.

What triggered it: A sudden outage on the 400 kV line linking the two coastal cities Misrata and Khoms power stations sent some 350 MW — which is supposed to flow toward the western grid — into reverse. Generation units dropped offline in quick succession, stripping around 1.35 GW from the system and collapsing grid frequency entirely.

Enter Egypt: Libyan Electricity and Renewable Energy Minister Awad El Badri agreed with Egyptian officials to draw enough power to recharge the country’s main stations and bring its own generating units back online through the interconnection.

IN CONTEXT- Egypt and Libya resumed talks in January on a major expansion of the link — which was originally built in 1998 — aiming to lift it from about 150 MW to 2 GW.

Going with the rate

Emirates NBD Egypt is joining the three-year variable-rate CD push, rolling out a certificate yielding 19%, as lenders steer savers towards the floating rate products, according to a statement from the bank seen by EnterpriseAM. The statement didn’t specify the variable rate’s benchmark or spread, though these certificates are typically pegged to the CBE’s overnight deposit rate, currently at 19.00%. The bank is also offering a three-year fixed CD at 17.5% with monthly payouts or 15.5% paid annually. Subscriptions start at EGP 500k and rise in EGP 10k increments, with flexibility in redeeming the certificate after six months.

The rate-cut hedge: Banks are increasingly steering customers toward three-year variable-rate CDs that can reprice through an anticipated easing cycle rather than locking in today’s elevated funding costs. Competition stays sharp on fixed-rate products too: CIB raised its three-year Premium CD to 18% earlier this month, above the 17.75% offered by the state-owned National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr.

PSA-

WEATHER- It’s another hot day in Cairo, with the capital looking at a high of 38°C and a low of 26°C, according to our favorite weather app.

It’s not as hot in Alexandria, which is in for a high of 33°C and a low of 24°C.

The big story abroad

International dailies are calmer than usual today, with the latest updates in the regional war leading the news cycle.

The US military launched another round of airstrikes against Iranian targets yesterday, marking its ninth consecutive night of strikes, the US Central Command said. The latest salvo follows the deaths of three US servicemembers this week in Jordan and Iraq.

Taiwan’s semiconductor giant TSMC is pouring another USD 100 bn into expanding its Arizona facilities, citing surging, multi-year demand for AI hardware. A major supplier of chipmaker Nvidia, TSMC reported record 2Q results last week and has not ruled out the possibility of issuing new bonds should market conditions prove favorable, its CFO Wendell Huang said.

Spain brought home its second-ever World Cup trophy after triumphing 1-0 over Argentina. The New Jersey showdown proved a stalemate until substitute Ferran ​Torres secured the winning goal in extra time.

Meanwhile at the box office, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey brought in USD 264 mn globally in its opening weekend — the director’s highest-grossing debut so far. The film — the first ever to be shot entirely on Imax cameras — flaunts an all-star cast and garnered widespread critical acclaim.

*** It’s Blackboard day: We have our weekly look at the business of education in Egypt, from pre-K through the highest reaches of higher ed.

In today’s issue: Year two of Egypt’s private-school fee crackdown looks like year one — the ministry sets a ceiling, and the schools set the prices before it lands.

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