Egypt, Russia discuss starting work on Russian Industrial Zone at Ain Sokhna

Egypt and Russia have moved the Russian Industrial Zone from paperwork to the practical stage. The two sides met on Monday to discuss steps to begin work in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, according to a Foreign Ministry statement. Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty received Maxim Oreshkin, deputy chief of staff of the Russian presidential executive office and the special representative for Brics financial and economic cooperation, on his first visit to Egypt, and President Abdel Fattah El Sisi received him the same day. The agenda was activating the zone after July’s naming of an industrial developer and speeding up implementation, plus a wider cooperation list: heavy industry, vehicles, digital transformation and AI. No launch date was announced.

IN CONTEXT- The zone has existed on paper since the 2018 intergovernmental agreement: 5.25 mn sqm in East Port Said, a USD 7 bn ticket, and a 50-year framework. What is being activated now is a 50-hectare plot (c. 500k sqm) next to Ain Sokhna port, under a long-term usufruct settled in May 2025, with tax and customs terms fixed for 49 years and the Crystal Fund as the single-window development institution. Design and construction are slated for 2026-2029, with operations targeted for 2030. We reported in October 2025 that the ticket had come down to USD 5 bn with completion seen by 2028 and a first-phase company list due before end-2025 — that list never surfaced, and the developer was only named in July 2026.

Going off-market

Egypt Intercontinental for Granite and Marble (Egy Stone) is moving to delist its shares from the EGX after its board approved an independent fair value of EGP 9.06 per share and agreed to put the proposed voluntary delisting to an extraordinary general assembly, according to board minutes (pdf). Objecting shareholders and anyone who doesn’t want to stay in get bought out at that price, funded by shareholder Hassan Salama Ali Mohamed, with the shares transferring directly to him. Egy Stone has been listed on the SMEs market since 2010.

The price is the story: EGP 9.06 is 64% above the last screen price of EGP 5.51 and 13% above the EGP 8 indicative price Salama floated in June, when he notified the company of his intention to tender for up to 100% of a business he and his related group already own some 89.99% of. That leaves a float of roughly 10%.

There hasn’t been a market to speak of: The EGX suspended trading in Egy Stone — alongside Speed Medical — in coordination with the FRA in September 2025, pending a statement from the regulator, and the stock had barely traded for months before that: the last session with meaningful volume was January 2025.

A bridge to fresh capital

Contact Financial Holding is turning to its major shareholders for up to EGP 700 mn in zero-interest funding, after its board approved a proposal to take out a subordinated loan from the company’s main shareholders, according to an EGX disclosure (pdf). The proposal still needs shareholder approval at an ordinary general assembly.

The loan is meant to tide Contact over until it can raise fresh equity. The board is looking to raise EGP 1.6-1.8 bn through capital increases at par value, open to all shareholders. But with regulatory approvals expected to take time, Contact wants the money sooner. The shareholder loan would be converted into equity once the capital increases go through, with the funds going toward bolstering the capital of its subsidiaries. Much of the money is going toward meeting regulatory requirements rather than expansion. The board says some subsidiaries need additional capital to meet the regulatory minimums set by the FRA and bring them into compliance. It didn’t specify which subsidiaries or how much each would need.

Systems upgrade

Pakistani IT services firm Systems Limited plans to raise its Egypt investment by more than 50% in 2027, with growth possibly exceeding that in 2028, on top of the USD 10 mn already committed, Daily News Egypt reports, citing country manager Ahmed Kandil. The company is also setting up digital banking centers of excellence in Egypt for two major UAE banks. The company already works with Orange, Vodafone, and e& and serves nine of Egypt’s largest banks.

IN CONTEXT- The expansion rides a sector the government is pushing hard. Outsourcing exports reached USD 5.2 bn in FY 2025/26, about 70% of Egypt’s USD 7.4 bn in digital exports, and the sector employs roughly 195k people across 252 companies, ITIDA chief Ahmed El Zaher told us last month. The Communications Ministry targets USD 6 bn in outsourcing exports this fiscal year and USD 8 bn in digital exports by June 2027.

A western gateway

The Cabinet approved a 30-year usufruct agreement for 652 feddans next to the Salloum land port in Matrouh, clearing the General Authority for Land and Dry Ports (GALDP) to contract an industrial development company to build, develop, and operate an integrated logistics zone, according to a Cabinet statement. The statement didn’t name the company, the construction timeline, or the planned facilities.

REFRESHER- The zone is the commercial anchor of the Gargoub-Salloum corridor, a 223-km rail line from Gargoub port on the Mediterranean to Salloum, Egypt’s largest land port, and one of the state’s integrated international logistics corridors. It revives a thread that has stalled twice: the transport ministry signed an MoU with a consortium of Egypt-Europe for Industrial Development (EEID), Mirad Developments, and Lenza Egypt for a 700-feddan zone in February 2023, and GALDP was expected to hand EEID a 15-year concession over the existing 28-acre Salloum zone in August of the same year. The new approval is both larger and longer-tenured than anything previously floated.

Pending green light

RMBV has signed definitive agreements to invest growth capital in ATCO Pharma, according to a joint press release (pdf) distributed by Zilla Capital, ATCO Pharma’s financial advisor. RMBV, a North Africa-focused investment firm, and ATCO Pharma, an Egyptian pharmaceutical group, will “enter into a joint control arrangement” through a mix of primary and secondary shares. RMBV, through its North Africa Fund III (RNAFIII), will reportedly invest USD 50 mn to acquire a stake of up to 50% in ATCO Pharma. The partners aim to expand ATCO Pharma’s portfolio of human and veterinary medicines, speed up product launches and scale regionally. The deal still needs approvals, including a green light from the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA).