EFG Hermes

A downgrade could have sent the funds that track the index heading for the exit.

So Ahmed Adefraoui, who is the managing director and head of quantitative research at EFG Hermes, expects the market to take this mostly as good news.

Later on the show, Egypt's bankers explain why they're keeping AI on a short leash and who gets sued when the machine makes a bad call.

Gold, real estate, foreign currency, CDs, they all come with a catch.

CIB grabs about a fifth of MNT Halland's IPO before the book even opens.

And EFG Holding readies three more IPOs, including a mystery heavyweight.

Plus, Wall Street tests its AI appetite with a $60 billion loan for Anthropix chips.

It's Tuesday, October 6th, and you're listening to Morning Drive, a show from Enterprise AM that brings you the latest in what's shaping business, policy, and finance.

So how close are they to getting there? We'll find out later on the show on our coverage of this week's Going Green.

And make every day count.

EFG Holding has three more IPOs coming to our bourse this year, and Karim Awad, its group's CEO, told the forum yesterday that one of them will put a very sizable share of the company up for trading.

Awad wouldn't name the company, but he called the offering a massive game-changer, and that in dollar terms it'd probably rank among our largest listings in 15 to 20 years.

He says what's left to decide is whether FTSE takes Egypt off that list altogether.

Ahmed Adefraoui from EFG Hermes expects it will, and he sees no money leaving the market when it does.

Sure, three names is better than two, but Thunder's Amru Al-Alfi says we used to have more.

And until we do again, the money that follows the index will flow to those three stocks and not the whole market.

Also, yes, it's a vote, but there's only one shareholder in the room, since every share belongs to Misser Insurance Holding, and the holding company itself belongs entirely to the Sovereign Fund of Egypt.

The decision precedes a sale of up to 20% of the company, with EFG Hermes running the book and the IPO on track to close by year-end.

And Banque du Caire is slated for the same window in November, with 30-40% on offer.

That puts two of the biggest names left in the state privatization program on the market within weeks of each other.

Contact your stockbroker to invest in Bunyan today.

First up, the EBRD is lending EFG Holding $40 million, which is its first direct loan to the parent company.

The funds will flow through subsidiaries of its NBFI platform and target small businesses outside major cities, where it's hardest to access finance.

Second, the Finance Ministry and the Banking Federation settled how ATMs are treated under the property tax, after years of inconsistency.

In the global picture, the Federal Reserve raised rates last Wednesday.

But EFG Hermes' Mohamed Aboubasha waves it off.

He thinks that five percentage points of spread is a real buffer that keeps our local debt insulated.

The head of research at Al-Ahli Faros, Hani Ghanina, agrees and puts it bluntly.

Only the Egyptian unit is going public, though, with the parents' arms in Pakistan, Turkey, and the Emirates all staying private, so investors are buying the Egypt story on its own.

Our friends at EFG Hermes, joined by Citi, have the mandate.

Back in June, the two banks were pitching investors at up to $1 billion for the Egypt business.

So early backers are not getting a fast exit out of this one.