Dar Ventures co-founder Nader Aboushadi wins ACT Treasury Professional of the Year in Dubai

Nader Aboushadi (LinkedIn), Sidara group’s chief treasurer and co-founder of our friend Dar Ventures, was named Treasury Professional of the Year at the Association of Corporate Treasurers’ ACT Middle East Treasury Awards. The award was presented in Dubai on 22 September.

REMEMBER- Aboushadi was instrumental in putting together and closing the group’s c. GBP 210 mn (c. USD 280 mn) acquisition of Wood Group in March. He told EnterpriseAM about Sidara’s USD 1.35 bn, five-year financing, which refinanced existing Sidara debt and gave the group additional capacity to absorb the Wood transaction.

An FDI push coming our way

The Investment and Foreign Trade Ministry is preparing to launch a new FDI strategy targeting 16 industrial sectors, according to a ministry statement. The strategy, developed with the World Bank, shifts the ministry’s approach from general investment promotion to targeting investors directly, Minister Mohamed Farid said. The updated investment map lists some 1.3k investment prospects across multiple governorates.

Targeted sectors are expected to include garments and textiles, foodstuffs, automotive manufacturing, electrical equipment and engineering, electronics assembly, pharma, green and renewable energy, machinery, and chemicals, AGBI reports, citing a May report from the ministry.

REMEMBER- Egypt kept its place as Africa’s largest FDI recipient in 2025, pulling in some USD 15 bn, according to UNCTAD.

MEANWHILE- Farid took the direct approach to Paris earlier this week, meeting with France’s Meridiam, Casino Group, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE), and the UAE’s RMB Group to discuss expansion plans in Egypt on the sidelines of the Egyptian-French business forum, according to a separate statement. The talks focused on driving local manufacturing, sourcing, and exports across key priority sectors:

• Garments, textiles, and food: Casino’s Monoprix discussed plans to launch its first two Egyptian branches and sourcing from local food, textile, and garment makers, without disclosing a timeline. The rollout was initially slated for 2025, with 15-20 stores targeted;
• Renewables and desalination: Meridiam discussed expanding across renewables, healthcare, and manufacturing desalination components locally. As we reported last week, desalination makes up the bulk of Egypt’s USD 3.08 bn PPP pipeline;
• Food processing: RMB followed up on its meat and poultry processing project in the Suez Canal Economic Zone;
• Telecoms equipment + localization: ALE discussed possible local assembly down the line and said it is targeting an Egypt office by end-2026 to serve the wider region, pending approvals.

Inside the EGP 12 bn package

Innovo and Redcon entered into a partnership to set up a joint alliance, with the EGP 12 bn DP03 East package at Modon’s Wadi Yamm — the first district at Ras El Hekma — as their first W, Invest-Gate reports. And we have fresh details on the package: it covers infrastructure and residential works spanning 323k sqm, including over 660 standalone villas and townhouses, alongside public service areas, a commercial mall, and landscaping. The package is set to be delivered within 21 months of signing — longer than the 18-month timeline reported when the award first surfaced earlier this month. Details on ownership structure, governance, and each contractor’s individual scope in the new alliance were not disclosed.

Energi meets data centers

Korra Energi is partnering with Japan’s Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric Industrial Systems Corporation (TMEIC) to target data center power infrastructure and industrial automation in Egypt and regional markets, according to an EGX disclosure (pdf). The partnership will bring TMEIC’s uninterruptible power supply systems, motors, drives, power converters, automation systems, and clean energy equipment into Korra’s engineering and energy-efficiency offering. Korra didn’t disclose the investment value, revenue target, target customers, or local manufacturing plans.

IN CONTEXT- The partnership puts Korra closer to the infrastructure behind Egypt’s planned data center buildout. Egypt currently has just 14 operating data centers with roughly 60 MW of combined capacity, while a much larger pipeline is taking shape and power availability remains one of the sector’s bottlenecks. The tie-up also fits the regional growth pitch Korra laid out ahead of its June IPO, when CEO Ayman Korra told us the company had already opened branches in Saudi Arabia and Iraq and was planning to enter three African markets.

No outside money

State-owned Port Said Container and Cargo Handling’s board signed off on tripling its capital, raising issued and paid-in capital to EGP 3 bn from EGP 1 bn, and authorized capital to EGP 6 bn from EGP 1.5 bn, according to a bourse filing (pdf). The EGP 2 bn increase comes incash through 400 mn new shares at EGP 5 apiece, offered pro rata to existing shareholders with no trading of subscription rights, preventing new investor entry and ensuring the state’s position isn’t diluted. The increase is still pending extraordinary general meeting approval.

REMEMBER- The company has been sitting in the EGX’s waiting room since December 2022, when it landed a temporary listing under the ticker POCO.CA ahead of an IPO that never happened. A government source told us in March that the government will renew the temporary listing for the company to push it toward the finish line.

Swap line, renewed

Egypt and the UAE renewed their AED-EGP currency swap agreement for another five years, keeping a AED 5 bn facility in place to support bilateral trade and financial settlements, Wam reports. The facility is equivalent to EGP 69 bn and is intended to support greater use of the two countries’ currencies in cross-border transactions.

And so, it’s settled

An arbitration panel in The Hague dismissed a USD 34 bn claim against Egypt brought by Saudi investor Hashem Al Mehdar and his family, ruling on 22 September that it had no jurisdiction to hear the case and ordering the claimants to cover Egypt’s arbitration and counsel costs, the State Lawsuits Authority said in a statement. The claim, filed at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2023 and litigated over three years, alleged that state measures damaged the family’s investments in several construction projects in Egypt, in breach of the 1981 Organization of Islamic Cooperation agreement on investment promotion and protection.