Despite unprecedented challenges market-wide in the past eighteen months, EFG Hermes Securities Brokerage has cemented its position as the broker of choice for global institutional investors trading in Egypt and the MENA region. The firm accounts for approximately 50 per cent of the foreign institutional executions on regional markets, ranks first on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX), is in the top five on most of the regional exchanges, and garnered a basket of prestigious awards and accolades throughout the year. When protests broke out nationwide on 25 January 2011, the EGX tumbled almost 1,500 points, losing roughly 21 per cent of its market capitalisation in just two days and being forced to shut down. Despite the closure and revolution in its home market, EFG Hermes Securities Brokerage rose to the occasion, seamlessly continuing to offer services in the twelve other regional markets in which the Division operates. The EGX reopened on 23 March 2011, but the challenges facing regional markets were not over, as the country faced political uncertainty during its ultimately successful transition to democracy. During this period, EFG Hermes lived up to its responsibilities as one of Egypt’s leading financial institutions, organising the fourth annual Egypt Capital Markets Day Conference, “Investment Opportunities in a New Egypt”, in cooperation with the London Stock Exchange. The conference brought together global buy-side investors with C-suite management from some top listed Egyptian companies and representing industries ranging from food production and financials to industrials, real estate and hospitality, and telecommunication services. From gulftoday