Sections

About

Privacy & Support

Get EnterpriseAM daily

Available in your choice of English or Arabic

Wednesday, 31 Dec 2025

What We're Tracking Today
The Big Story Today
Economy
Banking
Coffee With
Automotive
Also On Our Radar
Planet Finance
Hardhat
Calendar

Happy new year

An independent publication supported by

Opening up a world of opportunity

Realize More

Live More

Powering with nature

Driving growth

Today at a glance

1

The Big Story Today

A pan-African gold bank?
2

Economy

Egypt welcomes USD 3.5 bn from Qatar as part of the Alam El Roum agreement.
3

Banking

Banks brace for EGP 1.5 tn “liquidity tsunami.”
4

What We're Tracking Today

State eyes USD 2-3 bn in investment from Ministries Square redevelopment.
5

Coffee With

Everything you need to know about Thndr’s plans ahead of its regional expansion.
6

Automotive

New tariff plan aims to tip the scales in favor of local EV assembly.
7

Also on our Radar

Sawiris’ HOF eyes Bugatti Rimac.
8

PLANET FINANCE

Private equity turns inward as continuation agreements hit record levels.
9

HARDHAT

2025 was the year Egyptian real estate stopped being a local story.

Wednesday, 31 Dec 2025

What We're Tracking Today
The Big Story Today
Economy
Banking
Coffee With
Automotive
Also On Our Radar
Planet Finance
Hardhat
Calendar
1

What We're Tracking Today

State eyes USD 2-3 bn in investment from Ministries Square redevelopment

Good morning, friends and welcome to the final morning of 2025. We are closing out the year with another busy issue, led by news that Egypt is looking to set up a pan-African gold bank and an internationally accredited refinery in a bid to keep African gold in Africa, as well as the state coffers welcoming USD 3.5 bn from Qatar as part of the Alam El Roum development agreement.

** A QUICK PROGRAMMING NOTE- EnterpriseAM Egypt will be taking a break from your inboxes tomorrow for New Year’s Day, but we will be back bright and early to kick off the first workday of 2026. Happy New Year, and see you soon.

Watch this space

PRIVATIZATION — The state is targeting USD 2-3 bn in total investment from the redevelopment of the Ministries Square, a senior government official tells EnterpriseAM. The Madbouly government is gearing up to launch the tender for the area, with the conditions booklet to be released during the first quarter of 2026. The former Finance Ministry HQ is now part of the plan, bringing the total number of buildings up for redevelopment to 12, the official told us.

Not for sale: In line with the Sovereign Fund of Egypt’s mandate to retain ownership of assets, the buildings will not be sold outright, instead, they will be offered under public-private partnership models or long-term usufruct agreements. Investors are being tapped to convert the buildings into a mix of corporate HQs, five-star hotels, and serviced apartments to capitalize on rising demand for tourism capacity in the capital, the source tells us.

Investors are already lining up: “We already have offers from foreign and Arab investors to participate in this massive project,” the source told us, noting that these bids are being studied concurrently with the final review of the tender procedures.

LOGISTICS — Is a new Libyan dry port the anchor of an Egyptian industrial zone? Cairo and Tripoli are in talks to turn the newly-established Al Jawf Dry Port southwest Libya into the cornerstone of a joint freezone — one designed to unlock West African markets for Egyptian exporters, a government source tells EnterpriseAM.

Why does it matter? It’s a play for industrial dominance. The move isn't just about transporting goods, but establishing a manufacturing foothold to rival global players. The proposed freezone is Egypt’s strategic countermove to competitors like China, which has already established a massive ceramics factory in Libya’s Misrata to export to Europe, Mohamed El Beheiry, head of the Arab Cooperation Committee at the Federation of Egyptian Industries, tells EnterpriseAM.

BACKGROUND- Talks on the project initially launched in May 2024 to create a launchpad for Egyptian exports to Libya, as well as wider intra-African trade, targeting landlocked Chad and Niger.

Not the first Egypt-backed project in the Libya-Niger-Chad corridor: The Madbouly government is planning to invest EGP 6 bn in the first phase of a new road project connecting Egypt to Libya and Chad. The planned dry port will be located in proximity to the new road — also known as the East Oweinat-Kufra road — which will stretch 1.7k km across the three countries.

INFRASTRUCTURE — Egypt positions its national champions to lead Sudan’s reconstruction: Egyptian firms will be given priority status for all rebuilding projects in war-torn Sudan, following an agreement reached between the two sides at the Joint Egyptian-Sudanese Trade and Industry Committee on Monday, according to a statement. The agreement signals a shift from humanitarian aid to a strategic plan and also covers technical support to help Sudanese factories damaged by the war restart operations.

This isn't just about winning contracts: Starting January, Egypt will begin training Sudanese customs personnel and implementing a system for the mutual acceptance of conformity certificates. By aligning Sudan’s technical specifications with our own, Cairo is effectively building a regulatory moat that makes it faster and cheaper for Egyptian firms to export goods and services to Sudan in comparison to regional competitors like Turkey or China.

What to watch for: Keep an eye out for the January conference of land-border crossing managers. The focus will be on raising the necessary funds to set up logistics zones between the two countries — a move that would turn the land bridge to Sudan into a viable, high-speed trade corridor for Egyptian manufacturers.

** DID YOU KNOW that we cover Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the MENA-IndiaCorridor?

** Were you forwarded this email? Tap or click here to get your own copy delivered every weekday before 7am Cairo time — without charge.

Data point

80% — that’s the amount of transactions in Egypt that were done in hardcash in 2025. This makes us one of the most cash-dependent nations in the region, behind only Iraq with 85% and Lebanon with 90%, according to data from Forex. Despite financial inclusion hitting 76.3% at the end of the last fiscal year, it seems that cash is still king.

PSA-

WEATHER- It’s another cool day in Cairo, with a high of 20°C and a low of 11°C, according to our favorite weather app.

The big story abroad

Few stories are making headlines on the last morning of 2025:

#1- A Saudi-led coalition hit Yemen’s Mukalla port with a limited airstrike, targeting what Riyadh described as weapons and heavy-vehicle shipments aboard two vessels arriving from the UAE. “The ships’ crew had disabled tracking devices aboard the vessels, and unloaded a large amount of weapons and combat vehicles in support of the Southern Transitional Council’s (STC) forces,” a statement published by state news agency SPA said. Saudi Arabia made the move to combat the UAE-backed STC’s military advances on its southern border with Yemen, which it deemed a “threat to the national security of the Kingdom.”

#2- Warner Bros Discovery is reportedly leaning toward rejecting Paramount Skydance’s amended USD 108.4 bn hostile takeover bid, despite a personal financing guarantee from Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Reuters reports citing a person familiar with the matter. The board still favors a lower-value USD 82.7 bn merger with Netflix, viewing it as a path of least resistance with fewer regulatory hurdles.

#3- Fed minutes reveal a central bank at a crossroads: Minutes (pdf) from the Fed’s December meeting showed a committee deeply fractured over the path for 2026, especially when it comes to the timing and size of the cuts to come. While officials voted 9-3 to lower rates to 3.5%-3.75%, the record shows some members only supported the cut by a “fine balance,” while others argued for a hold.

*** It’s Hardhat day — your weekly briefing of all things infrastructure in Egypt: EnterpriseAM’s industry vertical focuses each Wednesday on infrastructure, covering everything from energy, water, transportation, and urban development, as well as social infrastructure such as health and education.

In today’s issue: We look at what 2025 meant for the local real estate sector, from strategy pivots to fresh mega projects in the making.

Tags:

Christmas is just the beginning. At Somabay, the celebrations unfold day by day, night by night, building all the way into the New Year. From rooftop takeovers and beach parties to late-night performances and full-band shows, the season is curated to let you choose your moment and celebrate it your way — right through the final countdown and beyond.

New Year’s and beyond at Somabay.

Celebrate when it feels right: Pick your night. Book your plans.

Discover the full December & NYE calendar here. Welcome the New Year at Somabay.

2

The Big Story Today

Egypt to host a pan-African gold bank under MoU with Afreximbank

An African Fort Knox to kick out the middleman? Egypt is moving to end a decades-old practice of exporting raw gold only to buy it back as refined bullion. The Central Bank of Egypt and Afreximbank inked an MoU to establish a pan-African gold bank and an internationally accredited refinery in an Egyptian freezone, according to a statement from the CBE.

“It’s inconceivable that refining and purification happened outside… The gold is ours, why should we send it out and bring it back?” economist Hany Tawfik tells EnterpriseAM. Currently, miners like Centamin often ship ore abroad for processing. By “carrying out the process from A to Z” in an Egyptian freezone, the state and regional producers can capture additional value-added earnings from their gold, which currently goes to refineries in the Gulf, Europe, and North America.

Why it matters

More than just refining: The gold bank will provide advanced logistical solutions for member countries regarding gold storage, financial analyst Ahmed Ezz El Din told us. The establishment of the bank is also expected to reduce the gap between local and international gold prices, he added — “current price discrepancies are not solely due to the EGP / USD exchange rate, they are also influenced by the availability and quality of the commodity. The bank will increase supplies and better regulate supply and demand mechanisms.”

The move also aims to bolster monetary sovereignty. The initiative is about more than just a “bold declaration that Africa's gold must serve African people,” Afreximbank Chairman George Elombi said. It also aims to strengthen “the continent’s resilience, [minimize] vulnerability to external shocks, [and] improve currency stability and convertibility,” he added.

The challenge will be in the speed of implementation and securing the international accreditation for the refinery, economist Hany Abou El Fotouh tells us. “Without this accreditation, converting this gold into global liquidity will be difficult.”

Could the bank help us secure cheaper financing? “Having a documented and liquid gold reserve in a specialized bank raises a country’s credit rating and reduces borrowing costs,” Abou El Fotouh said. “When international lenders see a tangible guarantee of world-class gold, they forgo the high risk premiums typically imposed on emerging markets.”

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background as well as external sources.)

Tags:

This publication is proudly sponsored by

3

Economy

Egypt welcomes USD 3.5 bn from Qatar as part of the Alam El Roum agreement

Egypt has received the USD 3.5 bn cashbased portion of the Alam El Roumdevelopment agreement from Qatari Diar, according to a statement from the cabinet.

While the IMF’s recent staff-level agreement emphasized broad fiscal discipline, a senior government official tells us that the receipt of this specific Qatari inflow was the catalyst required to satisfy the Fund’s requirements regarding foreign currency buffers and the closure of financing gaps.

As part of the Finance Ministry’s commitment to deleveraging, the government will allocate 50% of these proceeds toward the direct reduction of public debt. The remaining half will be channeled into the Central Bank of Egypt’s foreign reserves to provide an additional buffer against external shocks — carrying on with a blueprint laid out with last year’s Ras El Hekma agreement.

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background as well as external sources.)

Tags:
4

Banking

From 'money box' to growth engine: Egypt’s banks brace for EGP 1.5 tn “liquidity tsunami”

How are our top lenders recycling maturity proceeds into the real economy? Local banks are preparing for a massive structural shift in liquidity as an estimated EGP 1.3-1.5 tn in high-yield certificates reach maturity in early January 2026. Industry leaders see this influx as a “healthy economic phenomenon” marking the transition from a period of emergency monetary tightening to a new era of growth and production.

How will these banks retain this massive liquidity? As these certificates expire, the banking sector faces the critical challenge of managing a surge of disposable capital. Specialized asset-liability committees within the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Banque Misr — the two largest state-owned lenders — evaluated their product portfolios to prevent “liquidity leakage.”

Pricing adjustments: The two banks reduced yields on several local currency three-year saving certificates by 1 bp to 16% starting today, following the Central Bank of Egypt's (CBE) decision to cut rates 100 bps last week.

The macro picture: With its last rate cut of the year, the CBE signaled that it is pivoting to a growth-stimulating strategy walking into 2026. The central bank slashed rates by a total of 725 bps in 2025, marking the end of its restrictive monetary cycle that followed the March 2024 currency float. Consequently, interest rates are now at their lowest level since early 2024.

By the numbers: The committee set the overnight deposit rate at 20.00%, the overnight lending rate at 21.00%, and the main operation and disc. rates at 20.50%.

Positive real yields: Unlike 2024, when a 27% yield was negated by 35%+ inflation, the current environment — with inflation at 12.3% and certificates at 17-18% — offers savers a real profit of 6-7% for the first time in years. “CD holders must recognize and seek out the real return rather than being deceived by the nominal return. With the significant drop in inflation levels the real return on savings vessels is currently higher than ever before,” Sahar El Damaty, banking expert and former Banque Misr deputy chairperson, tells us.

Savers are advised to lock in last chance yield: “We advise customers to lock their savings into existing certificates at current rates,” EG Bank Board Member Mohamed Abdel Aal tells us. As the yield curve trends downward, today's 17% is projected to fall closer to 13%, 12%, or even 9% in 2026, he added.

Banks should be transitioning from “piggy banks” to “engines of growth,” economist Hany Abou El Fotouh tells us. Banks should innovate investment vehicles that link savings to productive activity, rather than tying them solely to the state treasury,” Abou El Fotouh suggested.

Expanding the credit reach: With the loan-to-deposit ratio reaching 64.3% by the end of September, banks must shift focus from government debt to financing the industrial and agricultural sectors, Abou El Fotouh said. Our largest 10 banks recorded an even higher LDR of 65.1% at the end of September.

Stabilizing the net interest margin: Banks are working to strike a balance between interest paid to depositors and interest earned from loans while closely monitoring monetary policy requirements and inflation constraints to avoid losses as the cost of capital declines.

Our take: The upcoming “tsunami” is the ultimate test of the Egyptian banking sector's maturity. With EGP 15.3 tn in total deposits and a robust liquidity buffer, the sector's success will be measured by its ability to recycle these tns into the real economy rather than just acting as a “money box.”

Tags:
5

Coffee With

Egypt’s Thndr has some big regional expansion plans ahead — here’s what you need to know

As homegrown digital investment platform Thndr gears up to further expand across the GCC, we sat down with CEO Ahmad Hammouda (Linkedin) to talk about the startup’s narrative for stepping into the UAE and Saudi Arabia, as well as its plans for Egypt, which include a real estate fund and potential EGX listing.

Today, the platform boasts 500k funded accounts, including over 400k investors placing EGP 8 bn into mutual funds. In terms of user demographics, 80% are first-time investors and half are located outside Cairo and Alexandria.

The narrative for expanding into the GCC

Expanding to broaden retail access to the region’s capital markets: “Our expansion into the UAE and Saudi Arabia is rooted in the fact that only about 3% of people in the MENA region are investing — a deeply under-penetrated market with massive upside,” Hammouda said. He added that the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange (ADX) “in particular is underrated and has shown exceptional long-term performance.” Hammouda also explained that the market in Saudi Arabia is well-positioned for Thndr’s entry with the “adoption of investing [amongst individual investors] rapidly growing thanks to market reforms and youthful demand.”

Progress so far: Thndr now holds an ADGM Category 3A license and received the first-ever remotebrokerage license from ADX. This remote license grants it full brokerage membership without requiring a physical branch in Abu Dhabi. Thndr is currently in the process of securing a license in Saudi Arabia.

What’s new for Thndr at home?

Earlier this month, Thndr obtained asset management and portfolio management licenses from the Financial Regulatory Authority, which Hammouda said Thndr will use to design its own funds “with the everyday [retail] investor in mind, not institutions.”

Hammouda framed this as part of a broader mission: Moving from “access to agency.” “The first thing we did was open the door to a very exclusive club [distributing the funds to retail investors],” he said. “Now, we’re designing the menu, the experience, and the products for everyday investors.”

The first product under the fresh licenses will be a real estate fund, Hammouda revealed, explaining that Thndr is “after income-yielding real estate, [allowing investors to] get an annual yield, and also a hedge.” Unlike other platforms, Thndr’s approach is property-by-property — investors will know exactly which property they are investing in and the income it generates, rather than buying exposure to an entire portfolio.

Meet ThndrX + Alpha — two new products which Thndr has launched recently. For the “serious investors” — a segment Hammouda estimates at 25% to 30% of the user base — the company offers ThndrX. This product targets those who view investing as a “craft” or a “new profession” and are willing to put in the “time and effort to understand and to learn.” It provides the technical tools required to “spot opportunities that no one is seeing” and conduct deep research. Hammouda notes that for this type of user, ThndrX allows him to act like professionals who might “work in the bank in the morning” but return home to “his screens, start doing his research, build his thesis.”

Hammouda describes Alpha as a “portfolio builder” designed specifically for newcomers and “lifestyle investors” who might otherwise be overwhelmed by the market. The product functions by asking users three simple questions to gauge their goals, timeline, and emotional resilience, specifically asking, “Do you get very stressed or can you actually withstand” market volatility. Based on these inputs, Alpha guides the user toward a diversified allocation — for example, advising “50% in equities... 30% in a fixed income fund, and then... 20% in gold.” He envisions Alpha evolving via AI into a tool that can “understand your financial reality” through conversation, such as knowing a user has two kids or plans to send them to schools.

No EGX listing in the cards for 2026

“100% I want to go public, but not next year,” he said, stressing that the goal isn’t an exit or quick capital, but building a business that can deliver lasting value.

On what will make Thndr IPO-ready, Hammouda was clear — the focus is on users, not fundraising. “Our target is 10 mn Egyptians investing, and replicating our success in the UAE and Saudi,” he said. “When we achieve that scale and impact, we’ll be ready to go public.”

Asked why list in Egypt rather than larger markets like Tadawul or ADX, he reaffirmed his commitment to the local market. “Saudi and the UAE are great, but Egypt is at least as great. We can even do a dual listing. We’re very committed to Egypt.” On timing, he confirmed that they are looking to go public in the next five years.

Thndr is playing the long game

While it might seem natural to assume Thndr would focus on transaction fees — since they come from frequent trades — Hammouda sees things differently. He wants the emphasis to shift toward subscriptions. “I don’t want to see more trades,” he said. “I want to see better trades from my users. The goal is not to make people trade more — it’s to help them trade smarter.”

Currently, transaction fees remain the largest revenue source, but maybe not for long, he said. Subscriptions start at EGP 250 a month, and while subscribers get their first 50 trades at no cost, non-subscribers pay 0.1% per transaction.

Thndr’s long-term focus is why subscribers get their first 50 trades at zero cost, and why the platform encourages lifestyle investors to use mutual funds. While individual stocks can generate more revenue, Hammouda is focused on helping users trade smarter. “We want to make money from users over the next five years, not just the next three months,” he said, emphasizing education and sustainable trading as the core of Thndr’s strategy.

Tags:
6

Automotive

The end of the free ride? Egypt weighs new tariffs on imported EVs to shield local assemblers

Egypt is considering a major overhaul of its customs regime that would see the end of full exemptions for imported EVs, a senior government official tells EnterpriseAM. The move is part of a broader strategy to give global manufacturers — and not just in the automotive sector — reasons to set up shop in Egypt to assemble or manufacture, rather than shipping finished units into the country.

Since EVs became a thing in Egypt, the difference paid in customs tariffs between them and traditional combustion engine-powered cars is stark. While EVs only face the 14% rate of VAT and a 1% schedule tax, gas guzzlers face duties ranging from 40% to 135%.

Why it matters: Introducing tariffs on EV imports isn’t about leveling the playing field with other vehicles, it's about leveling the playing field between outside exporters and local players like Al Mansour Group and Al Safi Group who are moving towards locally assembling EVs themselves.

But while full exemptions for EVs may soon be a thing of the past, duties will likely remain lower than their polluting counterparts, our source said.

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background as well as external sources.)

Tags:

7

Also on our Radar

Sawiris’ HOF eyes stake in Bugatti Rimac

HOF Capital is after Porsche’s Bugatti Rimac stake

Onsi Sawiris-founded HOF Capital eyes Bugatti Rimac: US-based global VC HOF Capital, founded by Onsi Sawiris, and Abu Dhabi-based BlueFive Capital are reportedly in advanced talks to acquire the stake of cashstrapped Porsche in the Bugatti Rimac venture, Bloomberg reports, citing people it says are familiar with the matter. Porsche holds 45% of Bugatti Rimac and 24% of Rimac, as of 2021. Rimac expressed interest in April in a buyout of Porsche in light of strategic and cultural friction between the two. Talks are ongoing, with sources suggesting an agreement could be signed in the coming weeks.

Valued at EUR 1 bn, the potential transaction would see the consortium pick up Porsche’s interest in the hypercar joint venture while also purchasing a direct stake in the parent company, Rimac Group. The transaction is expected to inject fresh capital into Rimac Group to fund its continued expansion.

The acquisition is a strategic wager on the convergence of heritage luxury and EV technology. By backing Bugatti Rimac, the investors are securing a unique asset that controls both the world’s most exclusive hypercar brand and the underlying battery technology supplying the wider automotive industry.

Suez Canal seals EGP 1 bn grant for diving support vessel

The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) secured a EGP 1 bn grant from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) to obtain its first diving support vessel, according to a statement from the Planning and International Cooperation Ministry. The dual-fuel-engined vessel will be built in Japan and help the SCA strengthen navigational safety, towing capacity, and emergency response across the canal.

The SCA has been expanding its service vessel fleet to handle more complex operations in the canal as it prepares for an uptick in maritime transit traffic next year. Jica’s backing came after the SCA announced contracts worth EGP 4.2 bn to add 10 new tugboats to its fleet, a senior government official told EnterpriseAM last week.

Beltone folds Chimera regional assets into its balance sheet in USD 1 acquisition

Beltone Holding is centralizing its regional footprint by absorbing a portfolio of Emirati and Egyptian assets from its majority shareholder in a USD 1 transaction that signals an internal restructuring by Chimera, according to a disclosure (pdf) from Beltone. The company's general assembly approved the acquisition of 100% of Lumen Aegis Enterprises from fellow Chimera-owned outfit ePointZero, a move that effectively folds private regional holdings into Beltone's publicly listed balance sheet.

China’s North Petroleum Int’l is doubling down on Egypt’s brownfields

North Petroleum International Company — the Egyptian arm of China’s state-owned Zhenhua Oil — is lining up over USD 100 mn to expand its upstream footprint in Egypt, Country Manager Sun Bao told the Oil Ministry’s PetroCast (watch, runtime: 17:20). The investment is earmarked for an “aggressive” 2026 drilling program and potential new acquisitions in the Western Desert and offshore.

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background as well as external sources.)

Tags:
8

PLANET FINANCE

Private equity turns inward as continuation agreements hit record levels

Private equity is selling to itself at scale. Buyout firms routed a record share of exits through so-called continuation vehicles in 2025, as weak IPO markets and cautious buyers kept traditional sales out of reach, Financial Times reports.

About one in five PE exits this year used continuation structures, up from roughly 12-13% in 2024. Advisers estimate USD 100-107 bn of assets have moved through these vehicles in 2025 — an annual record — with even large, previously cautious managers such as EQT now planning to use the structure for select holdings.

This isn’t new. As we’ve previously noted, continuation agreements have been on the rise as IPO markets froze and other exit routes narrowed. While global IPOs saw a modest rebound in 9M 2025 — led by Saudi Arabia and other MENA countries — exits in the US and Europe remain patchy, keeping self-sales in play.

Why it works: Continuation agreements let managers return some capital without fully exiting, keeping exposure to assets they still back. One adviser called them a “popular and effective [triple-W] liquidity solution in a stressed exit environment,” with valuations still recovering from 2024 lows.

These vehicles can reset economics on ageing assets, creating fresh fee streams and extending performance upside at a time when full exits remain hard to execute.

Still, some pension funds remain uneasy about conflicts when firms act as both seller and buyer. Bain found nearly two-thirds of PE investors still prefer traditional exits — trade sales or IPOs — even as self-sales become more common.

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background as well as external sources.)

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

2025 is ending on another mixed note for Asia-Pacific markets, which are broadly down in early trading. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index is down, while mainland China’s CSI 300 is beginning to trade up after as fresh data shows manufacturing activity in China rose for December — a first since March. Japan and South Korea’s markets are closed for the day. Wall Street looks set to open in the red, with futures trading down.

EGX30

41,690

-0.1% (YTD: +40.2%)

USD (CBE)

Buy 47.62

Sell 47.74

USD (CIB)

Buy 47.65

Sell 47.75

Interest rates (CBE)

20.00% deposit

21.00% lending

Tadawul

10,382

-1.0% (YTD: -13.8%)

ADX

9,964

-1.0% (YTD: +5.8%)

DFM

6,015

-2.0% (YTD: +16.6%)

S&P 500

6,896

-0.1% (YTD: +17.3%)

FTSE 100

9,941

+0.8% (YTD: +21.6%)

Euro Stoxx 50

5,796

+0.8% (YTD: +18.4%)

Brent crude

USD 61.25

-0.1%

Natural gas (Nymex)

USD 3.94

-0.8%

Gold

USD 4,381

-0.1%

BTC

USD 88,236

+1.1% (YTD: -5.6%)

S&P Egypt Sovereign Bond Index

991.74

+0.4% (YTD: +27.5%)

S&P MENA Bond & Sukuk

151.88

+0.1% (YTD: +8.5%)

VIX (Volatility Index)

14.33

+0.9% (YTD: -17.4%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The EGX30 fell 0.1% at yesterday’s close on turnover of EGP 5.5 bn (0.8% above the 90-day average). Regional investors were the sole net sellers. The index is up 40.2% YTD.

In the green: TMG Holding (+2.9%), Beltone Holding (+2.3%), and Ibnsina Pharma (+1.3%).

In the red: GB Corp (-1.9%), Misr Cement (-1.9%), and Emaar Misr (-1.8%).

Tags:

Our weekly deep-dive into infrastructure in Egypt.

Published every Wednesday in EnterpriseAM.

Read Hardhat
9

HARDHAT

2025 was the year Egyptian real estate stopped being a local story

If you look back at the archives from 2023 or 2024, the headlines were dominated by inflation, repricing, and the struggle to secure materials. 2025 was different. It was the year the real estate sector fully executed a strategic pivot long in the works by increasingly looking outside the country for projects and buyers. Faced with an affordability ceiling at home and a thirst for hard currency, Egypt’s real estate giants spent the last twelve months aggressively diversifying their risk. The result was a year defined by a dual export strategy: selling Egyptian homes to the world, and building new ones outside of Egypt.

All roads lead to east

The expansion of Egyptian companies into the Gulf and a few other Arab nations went from a trend into a stampede this year. Instead of just Egyptian contractors supporting projects abroad, Egyptian developers began to establish their own footprints with their own badged projects. With a sizable amount of luxury housing stock already in the works in Egypt, projects abroad open up additional capital flows — especially in FX.

Egypt’s largest developer Talaat Moustafa Group played a big role in this push, with its now under-constructionUSD 17.3 bn Benan City project in Saudi Arabia. It also recently inaugurated two large-scale developments in Oman expected to bring in USD 4.7 bn, and a USD 10 bn project in Iraq.

But nearly all the major players got involved, including Mountain View. Its Saudi arm made significant strides this year on the USD 320 mn One Mountain View project in Riyadh and the USD 600 mn Al Fursan project, launched in partnership with the Kingdom’s National Housing Company. Hassan Allam Holding also looked east through its development arm Grova Developments, inking an agreement for a SAR 3.3 bn integrated project in Riyadh, while Ora Developers began enabling works on its large-scale Bayn project in Abu Dhabi.

The message? Local developers are becoming an endangered species — to survive at the top of the food chain in 2025, one must be a regional player.

But the traffic wasn't one-way

The distinction between a local and a regional project effectively vanished with the accelerated development of Ras El Hekma. The arrival of the UAE’s Modon as a top-tier competitor changed the competitive landscape overnight. Its entry into the top sales rankings for the first nine months of the year — recording EGP 75 bn in sales — proved that the biggest projects in Egypt are now regionally funded. This has forced local incumbents to up their game in terms of delivery speed and product finish to compete with well-capitalized newcomers that aren't facing the same liquidity constraints.

USD 1.5 bn — that’s the amount of property exports that stacked up over the year

The value of property exports — sales to non-residents — in 2025 was up 200% from the USD 500 mn recorded the year prior, according to the Real Estate Development Chamber. This shift wasn't just about sales volume; it was a fundamental change in the currency mix of the nation’s top developers. With local purchasing power strained by cumulative inflation, companies prioritized buyers who paid in USD or fresh flows of foreign-sourced capital. This liquidity shield allowed the top-tier players to partly decouple themselves from the local credit squeeze that hampered smaller competitors.

Egypt also made global headlines with several big-ticket projects

The Ras El Hekma effect of 2024 proved to be a blueprint, not a one-off. In November 2025, the government signed a USD 29.7 bn agreement with Qatari Diar to develop 4.9k feddans in the Alam El Roum area of Matrouh. Simultaneously, the Red Sea saw its own massive pivot with Emaar Misr signing an EGP 900 bn (USD 18.6 bn) agreement for the Marassi Red Sea complex near Hurghada.

An ambitious project to divert a branch of the Nile to build a EGP 1.5 tn new desert city also made global headlines. Private sector developers Palm Hills, Mountain View, and Nations of Sky inked a partnership and development contract for the Jirian project in June with the state, represented by the Egyptian Armed Forces-linked Mostakbal Misr Agency for Sustainable Development. The project will see 6.8 sq km reclaimed from the desert to house 20k residential units.

Away from grand announcements, important things happened on the policy front

The decades-old Old Rent system underwent its most radical structural change in 2025 following a landmark ruling. Long criticized for freezing rental values at nominal rates (sometimes as low as a few EGPs) and granting indefinite tenure to tenants and their heirs, the system had effectively locked bns of EGP in dead capital and caused the widespread decay of historic urban centers. But in August, the government moved to fully liberalize the market through a time-bound transition.

The government finally abolished the 5% schedule tax on construction in June, replacing it with the standard 14% VAT. To the casual observer, a rate hike sounds like bad news. But for every CFO in the construction sector, this was the relief they had been begging for. The old 5% tax was a non-deductible cost that ate directly into margins. The move to the standard VAT system allows contractors to deduct input taxes. For a sector that has been plagued by rising material costs, this technical tweak improved cashflow and helped formalize the supply chain, allowing contractors to recover funds used to be lost to the treasury.

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background as well as external sources.)

Tags:

CALENDAR

2026

JANUARY

1 January (Thursday): European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to fully come into effect.

1 January (Thursday): Bank holiday.

7 January (Wednesday): Coptic Christmas.

25 January (Sunday): Revolution Day / Police Day.

FEBRUARY

10-12 February (Tuesday-Thursday): Gitex Global’s AI Everything Middle East & Africa Summit

19 February (Thursday): First day of Ramadan (TBC).

MARCH

15 March (Sunday): IMF to hold its seventh review of Egypt’s USD 8 bn EFF arrangement.

21 March: (Saturday): Eid El Fitr starts (TBC).

30 March - 1 April (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt International Energy Conference and Exhibition 2026 (EGYPES)

APRIL

12 April (Sunday): Coptic Easter.

25 April (Saturday): Sinai Liberation Day.

MAY

1 May (Friday): Labor Day.

27-29 May (Wednesday-Friday): Eid El Adha (TBC).

JUNE:

30 June (Tuesday): National holiday in observance of June 30 Revolution (TBC).

JULY

23 July (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Revolution Day (TBC).

AUGUST

26 August (Wednesday): National holiday in observance of Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (TBC).

SEPTEMBER

15 September (Tuesday): IMF to hold its eighth review of Egypt’s USD 8 bn EFF arrangement.

27-29 September (Sunday-Tuesday): Global Conference on Population, Health and Human Development.

OCTOBER

6 October (Tuesday): Armed Forces Day.

EVENTS WITH NO SET DATE

Early 2026: Passenger operations on the New Administrative Capital–Nasr City monorail scheduled to begin.

Early 2026: The government will launch the second package of tax breaks.

1Q 2026: Trial operations for the Ain Sokhna–Sixth of October section of Egypt’s first high-speed rail line scheduled to begin.

1Q 2026: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to visit Egypt

May 2026: End of extension for developers on 15% interest rates for land installment payments

2H 2026: Operations at Deli Glass Co’s new USD 70 mn glassware factory kick off.

2027

20 January-7 February: Egypt to host the African Games.

April 2027: Tenth of Ramadan dry port and logistics hub to begin operations.

EVENTS WITH NO SET DATE

2027: Egypt to host EBRD’s annual meetings.

2027: Egypt-EU Summit 2027

End of 2027: Trial operations at the Dabaa nuclear power plant expected to take place.

September 2028: First unit of the Dabaa nuclear power plant begins operations.

Now Playing
Now Playing
00:00
00:00