Raya Holding eyes data center acquisition

Raya is ready to sign on its data center buy: Raya Holding’s proposed buy of a local data center has received board approval. The board gave management the green light to push ahead with talks on an agreement and to get an independent estimate of a fair value for the unnamed target’s shares, according to a bourse filing (pdf).

IN CONTEXT- Raya’s board approved in September up to USD 60 mn, money that only becomes a commitment if Raya secures the asset. Raya Information Technology, its wholly owned tech arm, would put it into a capital increase at Raya Data Center to cover the equity portion of a USD-denominated price, and that vehicle is not wholly Raya’s: Africa50 paid USD 15 mn for 42.9% of Raya Data Center in 2024. It’s not clear whether the pan-African investor is also kicking in capital for the data center buy.

Still not clear — the target or how much Raya might pay. Raya Holding has been returning to its roots with investments in tech of late: Marwa Abbas took over Raya IT as CEO in July after 30 years at IBM, and the group launched AI company Raya Nexus with EGP 250 mn in September.

Copper-bottomed expansion

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) signed a USD 45 mn senior loan agreement with Egyptian German Industrial Corporate (EGIC), according to the lender’s project summary. EGIC will use the funds to expand its copper valves and inserts production capacity and build a finished-goods warehouse. This is the third facility from EBRD for the Cairo plumbing-systems maker, after USD 25 mn in 2013 and USD 50 mn of long-term working capital approved in 2023. EGIC was set up in 1991 to bring PP-R plumbing to Egypt; it now runs four plants here and one in Germany, including a copper foundry it bills as the Middle East’s largest.

Weaving closer European ties

Apparel, textile councils sign EU sourcing pact: The Apparel Export Council and the Textile Export Council have signed an MoU with Euratex, Europe’s apparel and textile industry confederation, to broker joint ventures and sourcing agreements between Egyptian factories and European buyers, according to a LinkedIn post. The agreement lands as garment makers chase a USD 4 bn export target for 2026 and ride a wave of European demand: Europe took USD 1.29 bn of the sector’s exports in the first nine months of 2026, up 32% y-o-y and 44.6% of the total, according to the Apparel Export Council. Egyptian garments enter the EU duty-free under the EU-Egypt Association Agreement, an edge that widens as tariffs rise elsewhere.

Distressed factories get the fund

Subscriptions to the EGP 1 bn distressed-factories fund were fully covered on 3 November, about a month after the Central Bank and the Industry Ministry launched it, CI Capital Holding said in a statement. CI Capital’s direct-investment arm manages the closed-ended fund, which takes equity in industrial companies that have viable assets but are in financial or operational trouble. It works with management on debt restructuring, fresh capital, and governance under Financial Regulatory Authority oversight. The five banks contributing to it are the National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, Arab African International Bank, the Agricultural Bank of Egypt, and EBank. Most recently, the ministry was in talks with investors to acquire some 30 distressed factories.

A Japanese zone of their own

Egypt is studying a purpose-built industrial zone for Japanese manufacturers, Investment Minister Mohamed Farid Saleh told a delegation of 25 companies from the Central Japan Economic Federation, among them Mitsubishi, Mitsui, and Marubeni, according to a ministry statement. The pitch is a cluster that plugs Japanese plants into local supply chains and points their output at exports, though no site, size, or timeline has been set.