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00:00 The castle has many challenges not only in the region, but also in the changes and events that happen in it.
00:10 We all feel with the brothers in Palestine and Gaza that they are going through a very difficult time.
00:20 But let's take the most broad perspective. We are talking about a global situation in the whole of Saudi Arabia.
00:30 The global situation is that, whether in America, Europe, Japan, or China, all the major markets are facing big problems.
00:44 These big problems are due to the previous period in which there was a great decline in the world.
00:54 The middle class could have been there when the interest rates were low.
01:01 But when the interest rates are very high, this will cause a lot of problems in financial institutions,
01:08 in balance sheets, and in the amount of funds that will be allocated by the US government.
01:20 In general, the world is not in its best conditions.
01:23 In addition to the difficulties that occurred at the beginning of the pandemic, the effects of the war in Ukraine,
01:34 the great tensions between China and the US, and the situation in the Middle East, and specifically in Gaza.
01:47 The possibilities of this conflict are very high.
01:53 All of this is causing a lot of problems.
01:56 This period is a very difficult period in the global economy, in the regional economy, and in the local economy.
02:05 Egypt also has a speciality in terms of the exchange rate.
02:10 Dr. Ahmed, what is the effect that we are witnessing today on the castle as a result of the stagnation in the exchange rate?
02:20 Especially that the delay in the compensation that companies were waiting for has been delayed until the beginning of December after the elections.
02:28 Were you with the delay in the compensation that more companies were in need of now?
02:35 You asked me to take the first question.
02:40 The first question is what effect does this have on the castle company?
02:43 This has no major effect on the castle company because we built our investment portfolio in a way that we saw that in the future
02:54 the currency will be under pressure as a result of the amount of energy that Egypt imports and the amount of food that Egypt imports.
03:02 So when this amount is multiplied by the high prices of energy, it causes problems.
03:10 Keep in mind that this problem started in 2002.
03:15 In 2002, Egypt went from a country that exports energy to a country that imports energy.
03:21 This gap has been increasing with time and when the prices increase, the gap in the amount of prices causes a big value in the amount of energy that is imported.
03:34 This problem started in 2002 and we have been able to solve this problem by building the castle company's investment portfolio.
03:44 As a result, the impact of this problem is less in our country than in other countries.
03:51 Of course, this has a very negative impact on many companies, but for us, the damage is less.
03:58 I'm not saying that there is no damage, but the damage is definitely less.
04:02 The damage is the biggest on the subject of investments.
04:10 It is clear that despite the losses we have seen in the castle company's investment portfolio,
04:16 the association decided to continue the company's work despite the excessive losses.
04:21 No, no, no. Let's look at it.
04:27 We are a company that invests in the original value of the investment.
04:32 We don't do a revaluation of the value of our assets.
04:37 We have 20 investments, 5 of them are bad and 15 are good.
04:44 The bad ones lower their value to zero, but the 15 do not raise their value.
04:50 The losses you see are not expressed in the portfolio.
04:56 I write about this every time in the castle.
04:59 We don't do a revaluation. For example, the energy company,
05:07 which was recently listed on our portfolio with 300 million pounds.
05:13 When we listed it, the value of this investment became 7 billion pounds.
05:21 You are talking about a lot of differences between someone who invested a long time ago
05:29 and someone who did not do a revaluation of these investments.
05:32 So, let's leave it at that.
05:36 Thank God, the effects that we have today,
05:43 I can't tell you what the effects are, but thank God we can contain them.
05:51 But of course, due to the economic situation,
05:59 the amount of energy and food imports,
06:04 and what happened in Gaza,
06:07 and what happened in the cancellation of some tourism bans,
06:11 and what happened in the reduction of the amount of gas imports,
06:15 these two things have no doubt had an impact on the economy.
06:21 We will see better improvement for the castle in the fourth quarter,
06:25 although we saw a decline in profits for the first half of this year.
06:29 How much is the fourth quarter doing better in your opinion?
06:35 Thank God, the castle company is doing reasonably well.
06:41 We have one challenge, which is to get rid of two or three of our loans in some of our companies.
06:50 Thank God, otherwise, our situation is very reasonable.
06:53 How much is the current amount?
06:55 It is reasonable.
06:57 The loans we are talking about are worth about 200 million dollars.
07:01 We need to rebuild the castle to about 200 million dollars.
07:06 Okay.
07:07 It is from the same banks that are being loaned, but there must be negotiations to get rid of them.
07:14 We see that companies are now referring to issuing bonds or even loans,
07:19 Dr. Ahmed, in order to avoid the cost of the interest rates.
07:23 Is this subject of financing some projects?
07:27 No, no. Today, all the castle companies have earned money,
07:33 and all the castle companies have sufficient funding.
07:37 We may have two or three additional investments in the castle company's investment portfolio.
07:47 We will need to get funding for these three investments.
07:52 But these investments are in the field of new and renewed energy, so financing is relatively easier than other investments.
08:00 How do we assess the Arab Energy Proposal as a model for the proposal that the castle has made?
08:05 Will we see more proposals?
08:07 Dr. Ahmed, is there any intention to see more proposals for the following companies?
08:12 I am happy with what happened in the Arab Energy Company.
08:17 We have a proposal that will be issued in the Egyptian Stock Exchange before the end of this year.
08:23 We have a medium-term plan to register a large number of companies owned by the castle company.
08:35 What is the company that we can see at the end of the year?
08:38 The company is called the National Castle Company.
08:42 Yes.
08:43 It is a packaging company.
08:46 Yes.
08:47 Do we expect it to have foreign investment, as happened with Arab Energy, Dr. Ahmed?
08:53 I imagine it to be a large, successful, growing and profitable company.
09:01 I don't think we will have a big problem in the future.
09:06 You are also looking at the possibility of the production of bioethanol and fuel for airplanes.
09:18 How do you expect this experiment to be?
09:21 How big is the investment in the ethanol sector?
09:24 We announced that we are doing the studies.
09:32 The first phase of the studies is over.
09:36 We are moving to the second phase of the studies.
09:39 I imagine that the size of this green ethanol project will be around 270-280 million dollars.
09:45 This is what I was telling you about when I told you about three projects,
09:49 one of them is in renewable energy and that funding is easier and less expensive.
09:55 Will it be produced in the local market or are you also studying the export process to foreign markets?
10:01 We are studying the export process.
10:03 There will be an off-take agreement between ethanol and export.
10:08 Are there specific countries for export, Dr. Ahmed?
10:11 No, we are talking about this in a very early stage.
10:15 We wish you all the best, Dr. Ahmed.
10:18 We are still negotiating with a number of buyers.
10:25 Who are the countries that need the most ethanol in the markets?
10:31 All of Europe will need green ethanol.
10:36 All airlines must consume 10% of their fuel in the form of renewable energy, SAF, which stands for Sustainable Aviation Fuel.
10:54 This is all coming from green ethanol.
10:57 We wish you all the best, Dr. Ahmed Haik, the president of the board of directors of Al-Qalaa company for financial investments.
11:02 You were with us from Riyadh, from the future initiative.