Al Ahly Capital signs to buy El Sewedy’s 40% of CIRA’s Damietta university venture

Al Ahly Capital Holding has signed an agreement to buy El Sewedy Education Services Holding’s entire 40% stake in Cairo Misr for Educational Facilities, the company developing CIRA Education’s university project in New Damietta, according to a joint statement (pdf). The deal, whose price hasn’t been disclosed, covers 30 mn shares and leaves CIRA’s 60% untouched. With the Egyptian Competition Authority’s approval already in hand, the parties are now completing the share transfer and expect to close before the end of 2026.

What Al Ahly Capital is buying into: The 58-feddan site in New Damietta is set to become the Advanced Science and Technology International Hub (ASTIH), housing three independent universities with 19 faculties offering 91 programs. At full build-out, the campus will have room for about 30k students. The first phase is due to open in the 2027/28 academic year, in line with the September 2027 opening that CIRA CEO Mohamed El Kalla flagged in August. Al Ahly Capital, the investment arm of state-owned National Bank of Egypt (NBE), plans to put its investment and financial expertise behind developing Badr University in Damietta, CEO Karim Saada said in the statement.

The move deepens an existing partnership. Al Ahly Capital and CIRA already own Al Ahly CIRA for Educational Services — launched in 2021 with EGP 2 bn in capital — which went on to build Saxony Egypt University. The Damietta company becomes the second education platform the two own together. El Kalla said that makes theirs “the largest alliance of its kind in Egypt’s education sector,” adding that the partners plan to keep adding schools, universities, and other education facilities.

El Sewedy isn’t walking away from CIRA. The two launched three schools together in Greater Cairo and plan further joint projects, El Kalla and El Sewedy Capital Chairman Ahmed El Sewedy said. The Damietta project now moves to a partner with the means to take it into its next phase, El Sewedy added.

ADVISORS- Grant Thornton Egypt is acting as financial advisor and ran financial due diligence for Al Ahly Capital, with KPMG on tax advisory and due diligence. NAMEK Law handled legal due diligence and transaction documents and secured the competition approval. Nexon Partners is the exclusive financial advisor to the seller.

Another M&A in pharma

Rameda’s board greenlit a plan to buy all of Art Pharma in Rameda stock and told CEO Amr Morsy to go make the offer, according to a bourse filing (pdf). Art Pharma’s holders would trade their shares for newly issued Rameda paper. No price was given because none is fixed yet: independent advisor Baker Tilly will value both companies and set the exchange ratio, then bring it back to the board. The resolution carries a floor: holders of at least 90% of Art Pharma’s shares have to accept, or the acquisition doesn’t happen.

The related-party flag: The board got there with the votes of directors tied to “the major shareholder owning the target company” excluded, the filing says, without naming them or the shareholder. Rameda’s own board page points to the group they belong to: its Non-executive Chairman Sharif El Akhdar is LimeVest’s founder and also sits on Art Pharma’s board, and so does fellow Rameda director Dalia El Shal, LimeVest’s group CFO, the vehicle holding 31.5% of Rameda. A director stepping out of a vote on a company where they also hold a board seat is the ordinary way a related-party transaction is handled, and it is why the independent valuation, rather than the board’s approval, is what will decide whether the exchange ratio is fair.

IN CONTEXT- The strategy was already on the record. In March, as LVP Pharma was building its stake, Rameda’s COO Mahmoud Fayek told us the company was “actively engaged in evaluating value-accretive [prospects], whether through strategic molecule acquisitions or broader corporate transactions.” By June, CFO Mohamed Aboamira had narrowed it: Rameda was strictly targeting high-margin product and molecule acquisitions with zero capex, rather than corporate acquisitions. Art Pharma cuts the other way — a 6th of October plant built in 2015, not a molecule, turning out sterile dental anesthetic cartridges under the Artpharmadent brand, a manufacturing skill Rameda’s own branded generics, nutraceuticals, supplements, and veterinary products don’t cover.