Category: HC News

In a recent report, HC Brokerage issued an update note about Orascom Development – Egypt (ORHD) in light of the coronavirus outbreak stating that they maintain their Overweight rating on the steep drop in share price

• In light of the coronavirus outbreak, the stock takes a hit due to its tourism sector exposure, despite impressive real estate operations 

• We cut hospitality occupancy rates to a 2020e–2021e average of c62% in Gouna, c36% in Taba Heights and c26% in Fayoum, and we account for a gradual recovery in 2H20e

• We reduce our TP by c33% and maintain our Overweight rating of Orascom Development on the steep drop in share price

Mariam Elsaadany, real estate analyst at HC Brokerage commented that: “Tourism exposure takes a toll on Orascom Development ’s operations and share performance: The company’s tourism exposure (c32% of 2019 revenues and c30% of 2019 EBITDA) has led to a steep decline in its share price (down c50% y-t-d vs only c26% for the EGX30) as investors perceive it to be amongst the most badly hit by the coronavirus and the restrictive measures taken to combat it. Across our coverage, ORHD is the company with the highest tourism exposure, which warrants a significant downward revision in 2020e earnings, in our view. Accordingly, we expect 2020e hospitality revenues and town management to drop by c56% y-o-y and c68% y-o-y, respectively. Despite the government’s announcement of the reopening of hotels and resorts on 15 May for domestic tourism, we are still conservative in our assumptions for 2020e, as hotels will only be permitted to operate at a maximum capacity of 25% for the remaining months of 2Q20 and at only at 50% by July, which justifies the downward revision in our 2020 estimates. For the real estate segment, we expect the sector to suffer further from weak presales due to the coronavirus outbreak, however we believe the risk of a steep increase in cancellations is low. We expect demand for the second homes segment to suffer the most, in our view, which affects the real estate operations of ORHD’s destinations, Gouna, Makadi and Fayoum. We perceive O West as a successful project as it captured EGP5.31bn in sales since its launch and up to 1Q20, however, we believe the company’s execution capacity on such a large scale project will be tested in 2020e. We believe O West can capture a decent market share because of the developer’s strong name and superior West Cairo location. Despite our general positive outlook for O West, we expect ORHD’s total real estate sales to drop c33% y-o-y in 2020e on the back of lower volumes. It is worth noting that construction work for O West had already begun in January 2020 and the measures taken to combat the coronavirus so far do not pose a risk to delay deliveries, which are set to begin in 2023e, according to management.”

“ We cut recurring income stream on the expected decline in tourist arrivals due to the coronavirus outbreak: We reduce hospitality occupancy rates, room revenue and margins across the company’s destinations portfolio. Our estimates for 2020e-2021e occupancy rates average c62% in Gouna (c82% in 2019), c36% in Taba Heights (c48% in 2019) and c27% in Fayoum (c29% in 2019) as we account for a gradual recovery in occupancy rates, following a steep drop in 1H20e, on the back of the government’s decision to promote local tourism. This reduces our total hospitality revenues by c56% y-o-y in 2020e, and increase it by c63% y-o-y in 2021e, mainly on base effect. We maintain room rates, in line with 1Q20 KPIs reported by management, while apply lower margins as we expect hospitality EBITDA margin to drop 8 pp y-o-y in 2020e to c25% and increase by 2 pp y-o-y in 2021e to c27%. It is worth noting that the company is optimistic that local tourism will partially replace foreign tourism starting 3Q20, according to management’s best case scenario, which would be an upside to our numbers. For real estate operations, we forecast a slowdown in 2020e sales with some EGP4.66bn in contracted sales, c33% lower y-o-y while we expect total 2020e–2026e contracted sales of EGP58.3.4bn, mostly attributable to O West. Our forecasts point to total collections of EGP84.0bn over 2020e–2034e (adjusted for ORHD’s share of O West collections) against CAPEX of EGP47.6bn (including NUCA’s in-kind stake of O West). We expect total 2020e–2023e revenues of EGP29.2bn against costs of EGP21.3bn, implying an average gross profit margin of c27%. We forecast the company’s 2020e net debt-to-equity (including land liabilities) to drop to 1.89x (liabilities mostly related to O West) from 2.38x in 2019. We expect the company’s cost efficiency efforts to reflect positively on its SG&A expenses, additionally, a drop in LIBOR rates and local interest rates should reduce financing expenses.” El Saadany added

The real estate analyst concluded her update on  Orascom Development stating that “We reduce our TP by c33% despite accounting for O West in our valuation and maintain our OW rating: We reduce our target price mainly on the back of lower hospitality and town management estimates. This comes despite including O West in our numbers since the project was launched in 2019, and lower risk free rates on the back of the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) decision to cut interest rate by 300 bps in March. Despite this, our WACC increased to an average of 14.3% from 14.0% previously, as the drop in interest rates was offset by a sharp increase in the stock beta to 1.38 from 0.87 previously, which also partly explains the c33% downward revision of our TP. Of our TP of EGP9.44/share, DCF contributes c43% (from c46% previously) and our land valuation contributes c57% (from c54% previously). Our DCF component includes EGP3.50/share from launched real estate projects (EGP3.72/share previously), EGP2.64/share from hospitality operations (EGP4.19/share previously), EGP0.47/share from town management operations (EGP1.12/share previously), while a net debt position of EGP1.89/share and minority interest of EGP0.60/share shave off a total of EGP2.50/share, which yielded a total DCF value of EGP4.12/share. Our TP of EGP9.44/share puts the company at a P/NAV of 0.61x, and implies a potential return of c175% over the 19 May closing price of EGP3.44/share. We therefore maintain our Overweight rating. We estimate the stock is trading at a 2020e P/NAV of 0.22x, slightly higher than the peer average of 0.20x. On our numbers, the market is assigning a negative value of EGP26/sqm to the company’s undeveloped land compared to our valuation of EGP264/sqm, which represents a c68% discount to market prices.”

• HC Securities & Investment advised Gulf Capital on the sale of Metamed, the largest diagnostic imaging company in the MENA region to a consortium of investors that includes Mediterrania Capital Partners, Cairo Scan for Radiology and Labs(S.A.E.), DEG, FMO, Proparco and EBRD.

 

 

• Media Coverage:

https://www.zawya.com/mena/en/markets/story/Gulf_Capital_sells_Metamed_to_Ray_Lab-SNG_175488369/

https://gulfnews.com/business/banking/gulf-capital-sells-metamed-to-ray-lab-and-a-consortium-of-global-investors-1.71709066

https://www.thenational.ae/business/gulf-capital-sells-metamed-to-a-consortium-of-international-investors-1.1025460

HC Securities & Investment expects that, with inflation remaining within the CBE target of 9% (+/- 3%) for 4Q20, the CBE to maintain rates unchanged in its upcoming meeting next Thursday.

Chief Economist at HC, Monette Doss said: “We believe that inflationary pressures are mainly driven by increasing prices of necessary goods, namely food items, due to relatively higher demand during the month of Ramadan and the panic demand following the imposition of curfew in Egypt; following the Covid-19 outbreak. Less working hours has also disrupted production activity possibly leading to relative supply shortages of some goods also posing inflationary pressures”.

“We estimate foreign portfolio outflows from the Egyptian government debt during March and April at USD16bn-USD17bn. Maintaining interest rates at current levels imply a positive real return of 1.1% on 12-month T-bills, given 12-month T-bills of 12.6%, 15% taxes on treasury income and our average inflation estimate of 9.6% over the coming 12 months.”, Doss added.

It is worth mentioning that, in its last meeting on 2 April, the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to keep rates unchanged after undertaking a 300bps rate cut on 16 March in an unscheduled meeting.  Egypt’s annual headline inflation accelerated to 5.9% y-o-y in April from 5.1% y-o-y in the previous month, with monthly inflation increasing 1.3% up from 0.6% increase in March, according to data published by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

In its latest reports, HC Brokerage shed the light on the steel industry in Egypt in light of the global condition stating that “Global steel market takes another hit; recovery unlikely before 2021”

• Global steel market takes another hit, braking its preliminary recovery from a bad 2019, with the local market dynamics providing a breather

• Ezz Steel could remain in the red for another couple of years and is likely to call on the CBE initiative for a new financing facility

• We cut our 2020–23e EBITDA estimates c22% and our TP c37% to EGP7.5/share and reiterate our Neutral rating

Mariam Ramadan, the Head of Industrials at HC commented that “The global steel market had recently emerged from a difficult 2019 (during which the industry wrestled with trade wars, weak economies and an ailing automotive sector), with prices and margins edging higher in the first couple of months, before the coronavirus outbreak and oil slump posed a risk to its nascent recovery. In the wake of the pandemic, plant closures have been the last line of defense for governments, and in many cases were only demand-driven, implying production downtimes have been outweighed by demand destruction, which sent finished steel prices lower (Turkey rebar 8% lower y-t-d), whereas iron ore prices bucked the trend on continued price-supportive supply issues in Brazil and Australia (only 4% lower y-t-d). The caveat is that recovery may not be V-shaped when the pandemic resolves, with the better half of economists and industry players seeing it lasting into 2021.”

“Egypt being Ezz Steel’s anchor market is a positive but government measures alone are insufficient: Egypt has so far been holding up relatively well, with the construction sector specifically enjoying business as usual, at least for existing projects, as the government bets on it to drive the economy at this time, and which is evident in current volumes (1Q20 local consumption slightly higher y-o-y). This, coupled with the cuts to energy prices and the extension of higher protective tariffs gave a breather to the sector locally, besides the accelerated easing cycle. Ezz Steel could also benefit from the EGP100bn CBE initiative as it talks over a new financing facility. The steel licenses offering was an anomaly on the government’s part, but we are not concerned as we believe it will be of no interest to investors at current economics, and will result in no addition to finished steel capacity, only backward integration if anything for a couple of rerollers. While the government seems more inclined to ease restrictions going forward than head into a full lockdown, we still opt to cut our total sales volume forecasts c18%, on average, as the private sector takes a back seat in the near/medium term and export markets remain muted (1Q20 exports down c35% y-o-y).” , Ramadan added.

The Head of Industrials at HC carried on “Reiterate Neutral: Along with a c5% cut to our EGP/USD estimates, this filters through to a c22% downward revision to our 2020—23e EBITDA forecasts, and we now expect the company to remain in the red a couple more years before turning around in 2023. We also now account for Ezz Steel’s stake in EZDK at 64%, with the ownership unlikely to be effected before 2H20 when the legal procedures complete. The transfer of EFS and ERM has nevertheless taken effect in 4Q19 against a credit balance on EZDK’s balance sheet. This translates to a c37% cut to our TP to EGP7.5/share, which puts the company on a 2021e EV/EBITDA multiple of 8.4x (trading at 8.8x), and implies a potential return of 3.0% on the 30 April closing price of EGP7.3/share, and we hence reiterate our Neutral rating. Our TP excludes the proportionate addition of some EGP1.6bn owed to ESR from EZDK post the latter’s capital increase, which translates to EGP1.1/share in today’s terms, that it is likely however to remain an open balance between the two against future DRI supplies for instance than be settled in cash. In our view, current valuation is not compelling, with the stock trading comfortably above its peers’ implied and historical 12M forward EV/EBITDA multiple.”

“It is worth mentioning that The Egyptian Parliament’s recent decision to impose a 10% development fee on finished steel imports is good news for the company as it raises the price ceiling for local rebar sales (though actual prices have lately been more linked to billet imports), but is more importantly positive for HRC sales volumes and/or prices, following the recent surge of imported material and the failure of producers to lobby for protective tariffs.”, Mariam Ramadan concluded.

What does the future of the Egyptian climate look like in a post Covid-19 society? One thing is for certain, global lockdowns have had a favorable impact on global warming as a whole. With less pollution in the skies, less commuter traffic and fewer human footprints abound, the world has had a chance to recuperate a bit. This positive impact certainly has a few implications for business operations in Egypt. Many researchers and economists are currently working in overdrive to determine how putting the pieces of our society back together will look. Those that make smart decisions now will be able to pivot in a sustainable direction that stays aligned with trending growth patterns of the future.

• Covid-19 Delivers Renewed Interest in  Sustainable Investment Opportunities

Viral social media photos depicting the staggering drop in air pollution serves as a stark reminder of what we can look forward to when global lockdown protocols are lifted. While Egypt and the world enjoys a significant drop in CO2 emissions, dark times are ahead of us if we don’t learn from the past. There has been a renewed interest among Egyptian business leaders and institutions to uncover sustainable solutions to help maintain progress rather than immediately reverting to pre Covid-19 CO2 levels. The general sentiment of the Egyptian political infrastructure is in favor of transforming the country into a regional hub of renewable energy innovation.

• The World Looks To Egypt For Innovative Solutions To A Global Problem

In the midst of a dark and depressing pandemic, there is a silver lining. The 2035 Integrated Sustainable Energy Strategy is a plan put forth to enhance the country’s renewable energy production by 42% before 2035. With such an ambitious goal, it’s clear that Egypt’s economic growth as a nation is directly linked to the energy sector. As Covid-19 sweeps through the globe, the Cairo 2035 Strategy has become more admirable than ever. To meet this objective, Egypt expects to leverage both local & foreign investment to bump up its manufacturing & industrial sectors to meet the new demand for energy services.

• Egyptian Lawmakers Learn From The Past

As we saw in the aftermath of the Global Financial Meltdown of 2008, CO2 emissions dropped by 1.4% and then skyrocketed by 5.9% only 2 years later. This indication is a vivid example of how after the Coronavirus pandemic has stabilized, any positive effects on climate change that the global lockdown has brought stand to be reversed. For this reason, the Egyptian government has enacted a short term goal to help speed along the Cairo 2035 Strategy. The government has set in motion the objective of reaching a 20% reliance on renewable energy sources by 2022. This plan helps kick start actionable results that manifest now rather than later.

• What Does This Mean For Local & Foreign Investors?

As the wheels of global finance spin, the opportunity to make sound investment choices present themselves. Covid-19 has delivered the Egyptian economy an opportunity to meet environmental commitments ahead of schedule and industry leaders don’t want to let that advantage slip away. Using the help of an investment banking team with a strong track record of success, you can benefit from the growth trends of the Egyptian economy. By working with a partner that maintains a diverse transaction portfolio, you can invest in entire markets and businesses that offer sustainable growth.

• The Investment Banking Team At HC Securities & Investments Understands The Power Of Diversity 

 The experience of HC Investment Banking goes beyond the energy sector. The team has a history of executing over 43 transactions worth more than 5.8bn across the pharmaceuticals sector, telecoms, and industrial sectors to name a few. As we discussed earlier, Egypt’s push to curb the effects of global warming with renewable energy is having a trickle-down effect on many other sectors of the economy. Now is the time for local and foreign investors to enter into a market that has shown a steady trend line of growth.

Whether you’re interested in executing Mergers & Acquisitions or capital market transactions, our reputation as a leader in the MENA region precedes us. The investment banking team at HC Investment Banking will help guide you through the complicated maze of industry regulations and insightful partnerships aimed at helping you collaborate with Egypt’s top-performing corporations. Don’t miss out on your opportunity to play a role in shaping the future. For more information on Egyptian investment opportunities, contact our investment banking team today.

 

 

• The price of the US Oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) May-20 contracts fell below zero. Which is mainly attributed to the perceived large gap between supply and demand during 2Q20.This large gap led oil firms to rent tankers to store the surplus supply which has forced the price of WTI into negative territory.

April demand is estimated to decline by 29m bbl per day y-o-y. While demand across 2Q20 is expected to decline by 23.1m bbl y-o-y. The drop in demand in April was met by an increase in supply  resulting from the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, which in turn pressured May and June futures.

Earlier in April, OPEC+ agreed to reduce output by 9.7m bbl per day for a couple of months and planned to ease this cuts by 2H20, given the high production rate of April, the effective cut expected to be c10.7m bbl. Furthermore, additional reductions are set to come from other countries including USA and Canada, making the oil supply plunge by c12m in May, according to The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts.

HC’s comment: “Overall, we see that this cut is not sufficient to match the current drop in demand given the current offline refineries capacities due to the sharp decline of fuel demand and the shutdown of industrials facilities. Therefore, we expect the current pressure on oil futures to persist during 2Q20, and if demand doesn’t recover oil producers will have to cut production again to avoid further collapse in oil futures.”

• Egypt’s external position to deteriorate post the coronavirus outbreak, while public banks fill in the funding gap through short-term external financing, in our view

• In light of the Egyptian government’s downward growth revision, we lower our FY19/20 estimates and keep future estimates until further clarity

• Despite government initiatives, the foreseen delay in private sector pickup will adversely affect budget deficit and public debt figures, in our view

HC Securities and Investment Research Department released its latest macro note, updating its forecasts dated February 2020 in wake of the Coronavirus outbreak.

First updates were about Egypt’s external position, where: “Current pressure on Egypt’s external position could be offset in the short-run through banking sector external credit, in our view: We update our FY19/20e external account figures in light of the coronavirus outbreak and its negative effect on tourism receipts, worker remittances and net foreign portfolio investments. Our underlying assumption, for now, is that the coronavirus could be contained by June. Factoring this in our balance of payment figures, we assume almost no tourism revenue during March, excluding the first week of the month, and we slash it by c60% y-o-y in 4Q19/20e. This would result in c16% y-o-y decline in tourism receipts to USD10.6bn in FY19/20e, c21% lower than our previous estimate of USD13.4bn.”

Economist and banking analyst at HC, Monette Doss said: “Current international oil prices could adversely impact Egypt’s oil trade balance given the country’s plan to become a net exporter of oil, as opposed to a net importer as it has been for the past 6 years. Adjusting Egypt’s oil trade balance for last week’s average Brent price of USD27/bbl, resulted in an oil trade deficit of USD0.96bn for FY19/20e, compared to our previous expectation of a breakeven. With most of Egypt’s foreign direct investments (FDIs) concentrated in the oil and gas sector, and despite newly awarded concessions, we believe that FDIs could decline by c7% y-o-y in 2H19/20e to USD3.8bn, c23% below our previous estimate of USD4.9bn. Prolonged lockdown periods and depressed international trade activity could result, however, in significant import savings that could also come around. That said, we believe the trade balance deficit could narrow to USD31.5bn in FY19/20e from our previous estimate of USD35.8bn.”

“As for worker remittances, we assume a c10% y-o-y drop in 2H19/20e, comparable to the average c8% drop that took place during FY08/09 due to the global financial crisis and the c13% drop in FY15/16 amid doubts over a weakening EGP. This would result in remittances inching up to USD25.1bn in FY19/20e, down c11% from our earlier estimate of EGP28.2bn, given that it grew by c15% in 1H19/20. The assumptions under this scenario would result in a current account deficit of USD10.5bn in FY19/20e, higher than our previous estimate of USD8.2bn.

We now stress test our numbers assuming USD6bn foreign portfolio outflows from the Egyptian treasuries market in 2H19/20e. In order to fill this funding gap, Egyptian banks could rely on external credit facilities, similar to what happened in 2H18 during massive portfolio outflows from emerging markets.” Added Doss.

 

As for the GDP Growth, the report demonstrated HC Research’s expectations as follows: “GDP growth could come in at 4.7% in FY19/20e significantly lower than our initial 5.9% estimate on low consumer and investor confidence, as well as sluggish tourism: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), together with the government, have undertaken a number of decisions to motivate private consumption and investment. The CBE has cut corridor rates by 300 bps in an unscheduled meeting on 16 March, higher than our expected 200 bps rate cut for 1H20. Along the same lines, it reduced the rate on initiatives offered to the industrial and tourism sectors, as well as beneficiaries of middle-income mortgage loans, to a declining 8% interest rate from a previous 10%.

Corporates, individuals and SMEs were also allowed a 6-month extension period for repaying their dues on lending, leasing and factoring facilities without paying any penalties. Limits on mobile payments and debit card transactions were also increased, while also allowing clients to transfer funds between banks free of charge, through mobile banking. Lastly, the CBE allocated EGP20bn to be invested in the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) to support stock market activity.

The government from its side, has allocated a stimulus package of EGP100bn to face the negative effects of the new coronavirus outbreak on the economy. Energy prices to the industrial sector were also reduced, where natural gas prices decreased to USD4.5/mmBtu, and electricity tariffs for medium, high and ultra-high voltage users were decreased by EGP0.10/KWh. The Ministry of Planning is also working on formulating an EGP30bn incentive package to stimulate the industrial sector and other sectors negatively affected by the current situation.

Other measures, that we believe are part of the EGP100bn incentive package, include increasing the monthly allowance allocated for women in rural areas to EGP900 from EGP350, adding 60,000 families to the government’s social welfare program, initiating a program to support seasonal workers and increasing public salaries and pension allowances.”

“We however, believe that prolonged lockdown periods and global uncertainty could outweigh these measures resulting in investments declining by c20% y-o-y in 2H19/20e which is confirmed by official investment estimates for FY19/20e at EGP960bn (implying total investments of EGP400bn in 2H19/20e). Moreover, despite corridor rate cuts, public banks maintained rates on their fixed certificates of deposit (CDs), while the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Banque Misr introduced 1-year 15% CDs. Possible flight of funds from private banks and possible arbitrage opportunities could be the main reason why Commercial International Bank (COMI EY, Overweight, TP EGP115/share) raised its interest rate on its 3-year CDs by 2.00%–2.50%. If all private banks follow suit by raising interest on deposits and loans, the positive effect of the 300 bps corridor rate cut will largely be eroded. Accounting for possible higher unemployment and lower disposable income, we believe consumption growth could come in at c1% in 2H19/20e, lower than our c2% estimate previously. Accordingly, we see the possibility of GDP growing 4.7% in FY19/20e, significantly lower than our 5.9% estimate.” As per the report.

Monette Doss carried on: “Inflation could accelerate reaching a peak of 11.45% y-o-y in December while CBE measures could result in stable currency: Prices of food items increased following the announcement of the coronavirus outbreak in Egypt and could possibly remain elevated due to possible supply shortages, which could outweigh the government’s effort to monitor prices of staple goods and provide such products at stable prices. Therefore, inflation could accelerate over the rest of the year increasing monthly by an average of c1%, reaching a peak of 11.5% y-o-y in December; while the Egyptian government estimated inflation to accelerate to 9.8%, if the coronavirus continues until the end of 2020. Applying the higher inflation figure into our real effective exchange rate (REER) model yields, a rate of EGP16.34/USD by December 2020, slightly higher than our earlier estimate of EGP16.26/USD. The CBE’s efforts to discourage dollarization through putting a ceiling on USD deposits at LIBOR+100 bps, down from LIBOR+150 bps previously, putting limits on cash withdrawals and banks, and offering attractive interest rates on local currency deposits, support our view of an expected moderate EGP depreciation. We also expect currency stability as public banks rely on external credit to fill in the gap caused by foreign portfolio outflows from the Egyptian treasuries market.”

 

Finally, Doss affirmed that: “Higher expenditure and lower than expected economic growth could weigh on the government budget, resulting in a wider deficit and higher debt: Full details of the government’s EGP100bn incentive package have not been revealed yet. The government, however, has announced that it will not be deducted from the state budget but will rather be paid from emergency reserves. We accordingly expect that our government expenditure figures will not change materially. An extended period of slow economic activity and lockdowns over 2H19/20 could however reflect negatively on government revenue, which could come in lower than our initial estimates by EGP116bn at EGP939bn for FY19/20e. We note that this total revenue figure is quite conservative, representing c16% of GDP lower than the c19% witnessed during the financial crisis in FY08/09 and post the 2011 revolution in FY10/11. This would take the FY19/20e budget deficit to EGP481bn representing 8.1% of GDP, wider than our initial estimate 6.7%. Under this scenario, government external debt could come in at 24.3% of GDP in FY19/20e slightly lower than our 24.5% earlier estimate, while domestic debt could increase to 84.0% of GDP higher than the 80.9% estimated previously, as the government relies on domestic sources to fill in its funding gap.”

 

• The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has decided to keep the benchmark overnight deposit and lending rates unchanged at at 9.25% and 10.25%, respectively, at its meeting on Thursday, according to a press release.

The CBE has also kept the rate of its main operation and the discount rate at 9.75%, it announced. Annual headline urban inflation declined to 5.3% in February from 7.2% in the previous month, supported by a favorable base effect as well as contained underlying inflationary pressures. Similarly, annual core inflation declined to 1.9% in February from 2.7% in the previous month, the lowest rate on record. GDP growth stabilized at 5.6% in 2H19, while unemployment reached 8.0% in 4Q19. Due to the coronavirus outbreak and the associated containment measures, the global economy and financial markets were considerably disrupted. This led the CBE to move preemptively and cut the interest rate by 300 bps in an unscheduled meeting on 16 March, aiming at supporting businesses and households in these exceptional times in order to avoid a prolonged economic slowdown and help speed the recovery once the outbreak is contained. Against this background, the MPC decided to keep policy rates unchanged which remains consistent with achieving the inflation target of 9% (±3%) in 4Q20 and price stability over the medium-term. (CBE)

HC’s Comment : The MPC decision came in line with HC’s expectations given their view of rising inflationary pressures over the rest of the year, the need to attract foreign portfolio investments to the Egyptian debt market, with rising 5-year USD CDS at 611 bps, and the elevated interest rates offered on long-term certificates of deposit (CDs) aiming at reducing dollarization and bank run, in HC’s view.

This content is just for general information.

• HC Securities & Investment assured that Egypt’s annual headline inflation decelerated to 5.3% y-o-y in February from 7.2% y-o-y in the previous month, with monthly inflation showing no increase compared to an increase of 0.7% m-o-m in January, according to data published by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

Economist and banking analyst at HC, Monette Doss said: “Despite the decline in the inflation figure in February we believe that inflationary pressures could resume over the coming months due to stocking up of staple and pharmaceutical products following the announcement of curfew in Egypt, relatively higher demand during the month of Ramadan and possible supply shortages resulting from prolonged periods of lockdown. We believe monthly inflation could average c1% m-o-m over the rest of 2020e to record an average of 6.4% over 1H20, backed by a favorable base effect, and to reach a peak of 11.45% y-o-y in December.

We accordingly expect the CBE to maintain rates unchanged in its upcoming meeting. “Local public banks maintained interest on their 3-year CDs at an elevated 12.0%-12.25% and introduced 1-year 15% CDs while the Commercial International Bank (COMI EY) increased interest on its 3-year CDs by 2.0%-2.5% to reach 12.0%-12.25%. Given the current level of uncertainty, we perceive these elevated rates as necessary to discourage dollarization and bank-runs, while however, they dilute the potential positive effect of the recent 300bps rate cut on private sector growth. A similar trend is observed in the T-bill auctions where 6-month T-bills decreased by 76bps only to 13.55% currently, from 14.31% prior to the March rate cut which reflects high risk levels, in our view. Egypt 5-year USD CDS increased to above 612bps currently, from 298bps in end of February and significantly higher than Turkey’s 5-year CDS of 469bps. Current, risk levels discourage further rate cuts in our view.” Monette Doss added

It is worth mentioning that, on 16 March, the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) held an unscheduled meeting where it cut interest rates by 300bps after keeping them unchanged in January and February.

• The Monetary Policy committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has decided to cut overnight deposit and lending rates by 300 bps to 9.25% and 10.25% respectively, at an unscheduled meeting yesterday, it announced in a press release. The CBE has also cut the rate of its main operation and the discount rate by 300 bps to 9.75%, according to the release. The MPC’s preemptive decision aims to support domestic economic activity given a challenging external environment, while the inflation outlook remains consistent with achieving the inflation target of 9% (±3%) in 4Q20, it added. (CBE)

HC’s comment: “The 300 bps interest rate cut announced by the CBE comes higher than our estimate of a 200 bps rate cut in 1H20, and comes after the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England have cut rates by 50 bps to 0.5% and 0.25%, respectively, and following an announcement by the Fed of another possible rate cut to 0%, in light of the coronavirus outbreak. We believe the lower interest rates will help stimulate local private investment and local consumption, which we see as the main economic drivers going forward. We also believe that the decision will lower the Egyptian government’s debt servicing cost, easing the pressure on the budget deficit. The MPC decision will have a positive effect on the resumption of CAPEX lending, in our view, partially offsetting coronavirus fears. February inflation came in at 5.3% y-o-y, better than our expected 5.9% y-o-y and well below the CBE’s inflation target of 9% (+/-3%) for 4Q20. We expect increased demand for consumer staples resulting from the coronavirus to reflect in inflation picking up to an average 8.0% over 2020e, higher than our earlier estimate of 6.6%. We believe that the current Brent price at USD34/barrel could allow the government to reduce gasoline prices by the maximum allowed band of 10% quarterly. Applying Bloomberg 2021 consensus estimate for Brent at USD39/barrel, could allow the government to gradually reduce 92-Octane gasoline and diesel prices further, which would reflect positively on containing inflationary pressures. Applying our new inflation forecast into our real effective exchange rate (REER) model, we expect the EGP to devalue by c4% from current level by December up from our previous estimate of c3% devaluation. Also, assuming that the 12-month T-bills rate declines by c3% to 11.7%, applying 15% tax rate on T-bills for foreigners, and given our inflation forecast, we expect Egypt to offer 1.99% positive real interest rate compared to 0.3% for Turkey, with Egypt’s 5-year CDS at 517bps vs. 469 for Turkey, which suggests that Egyptian yields still look relatively attractive. Despite this, we expect that the coronavirus fears will lead to outflows from Egyptian treasuries and expect it to be financed by the Egyptian interbank market, similar to what happened during emerging markets massive outflows in 2H18. We accordingly expect Egyptian banks to move into a net foreign liability position, which could be reversed later with foreign portfolio inflows, as coronavirus fears subside. We believe that Egyptian banks will fill in the domestic funding gap especially after the Egyptian government announced that it is not planning to issue additional Eurobonds in FY19/20, beyond the issued USD2bn in November 2019. In our Navigating Egypt report published on 20 February, entitled Good stories with limited downside risk, we had accounted for 200 bps rate cut in 1H20 in our equity valuations, so the additional 100 bps rate cut act as an upside risk to our valuations, that might partially offset the negative effects of the coronavirus outbreak. For the real estate sector, the cut can attract liquidity from saving instruments and help boost developers’ sales, however we maintain our view that a recovery in demand is more likely towards the end of 2020, as affordability continues to be a concern. In the short-term, the cut is expected to reduce developers’ future financing cost, improving their execution pace and hence deliveries, in light of an expected increase in CAPEX spending, as well as lowering their interest expense bill for outstanding floating rate debt. Companies most likely to benefit from the cut include Palm Hills Development (PHDC EY) and Heliopolis Housing (HELI EY) due to their high leverage, while the rest of the sector to also benefit from cheaper future financing and lower interest expense on outstanding debt mentioned above. For the consumer sector, the policy rate cut would help in boosting private consumption pickup, which definitely bodes well for most of our coverage sales volumes. We still believe that companies delivering staple products would recover faster than discretionary ones owing to lagging wage increases and consumer consumption cautiousness, which will give the former companies an advantage given their responsive nature to improvements in private consumption pattern. We still believe it is too early to see recovery in automotive consumption given the distortion of the sector. We still believe the local demand for floor coverings will lag behind, given that carpet sales are mostly related to real-estate developers’ delivery schedule which have been dropping y-o-y in 2019. In light of the policy rate cuts, all of our consumer coverage will benefit from a lower interest expense bill, with the exception for Eastern Company (EAST EY) given its net cash position. Within our consumer staples coverage, we believe that Juhayna Food Industries (JUFO EY) and Arabian Food Industries (Domty) (DOMT EY) will benefit the most given their high leverage and since more than c90% of their debt is in EGP terms. While within our discretionary coverage GB Auto (AUTO EY) will benefit the most due to its high leverage. We do not expect Oriental Weavers to benefit given that almost all of its debt is in USD and Euro terms. Among our industrial sector coverage, only Ezz Steel (ESRS EY) is highly leveraged, which should see the cut reduce its interest bill EGP500–550m, but we see this dwarfed by the bad overall operating environment, both in terms of profitability and market demand, which has the company running a loss on the gross profit level, on our estimates.”

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