{"id":614518,"date":"2024-02-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2024\/02\/04\/serial-entrepreneur-sherif-el-zayat-on-why-hes-stepping-down-as-ceo-of-ek-holding-and-what-comes-next\/"},"modified":"2024-02-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-04T00:00:00","slug":"serial-entrepreneur-sherif-el-zayat-on-why-hes-stepping-down-as-ceo-of-ek-holding-and-what-comes-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2024\/02\/04\/serial-entrepreneur-sherif-el-zayat-on-why-hes-stepping-down-as-ceo-of-ek-holding-and-what-comes-next\/","title":{"rendered":"Serial entrepreneur Sherif El Zayat on why he\u2019s stepping down as CEO of EK Holding \u2014 and what comes next"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sh<\/strong>erif El Zayat<\/strong> stepped down as CEO of EK Holding on Thursday, 1 February 2024, to <\/strong>start a new chapter <\/strong>that will see him focusing on the growth of two family-owned packaging businesses and other ventures that could see him deploy tens of mns of USD in Egypt in the years to come. His passion: Manufacturing for export. <\/strong><\/p>\n

El Zayat will stay on at EKH until the end of March, helping settle in new managing <\/strong>director <\/strong>Jon Rokk<\/strong> (LinkedIn<\/a>), who formally took the reins on Thursday. Rokk has more than 30 years of experience in a list of industries that overlaps nicely with the business that El Zayat helped take to the next level, including oil, gas, petrochemicals, and infrastructure. <\/p>\n

Who\u2019s Jon Rokk?<\/strong> He was most recently chief operating officer of South Tees Development in the United Kingdom, where he oversaw \u201cEurope's largest regeneration project in the energy transition and renewable energy sectors, with investments exceeding GBP 2 bn,\u201d EK Holding will say in a statement (pdf)<\/a> later this morning. Rokk has a decade of regional experience, particularly in Qatar, the UAE and Oman, and has worked on acquisitions in the UK, China and the Mideast. <\/p>\n

El Zayat grew EK Holding\u2019s bottom line nearly 7x since 2015 to USD 241 mn at the end of <\/strong>2022 <\/strong>(and USD 137 mn in 9M 2023). That\u2019s no mean feat when you consider that (a) most of the company\u2019s lines of business generate revenue in EGP, (b) many of those businesses (gas distribution and electricity come immediately to mind) are highly regulated or have USD-linked expenses, and (c) we\u2019ve had more than one devaluation in that period. <\/p>\n

Longtime Enterprise readers know El Zayat as a serial entrepreneur. <\/strong>He and his brother Ahmed led the acquisition and turnaround of Al Ahram Beverages, which they transformed from a failing, state-owned enterprise into an industry pioneer that they later sold to Heineken in a landmark transaction. El Zayat stayed on for a period post-acquisition before leaving to build Misr Glass Manufacturing, which he exited to Middle East Glass in 2016<\/a>. <\/p>\n

We spoke on Thursday at his home in Maadi. <\/strong>Edited excerpts from our conversation:<\/p>\n

ENTERPRISE: Why are you stepping down now? <\/strong><\/p>\n

SHERIF EL ZAYAT: <\/strong>It was simply time for someone else to take on the challenge. I told Loay [Al Kharafi, EK Holding\u2019s chairman and largest shareholder] maybe nine or ten months ago that I felt it would soon be time to start focusing on my personal businesses. That started a search process that saw us choose Jon as the next CEO. We\u2019ve been doing handover meetings, visiting our various investments, in the last while. I\u2019m leaving EK Holding in good hands. <\/p>\n

E: You had a good run with EK. <\/strong><\/p>\n

SEZ:<\/strong> Yes, alhamdulillah [smiles]. Look at our share price. Last year, we paid our highest dividends ever \u2014 USD 150 mn in dividends, or 11 cents per share. CIB paid out USD 50 mn and they\u2019re what \u2026 five times \u2026 ten times larger than us? <\/p>\n

We\u2019ve built EK Holding into a much larger, much more resilient business<\/strong>, one that can perform in any economic cycle. From power generation and distribution to gas distribution, fertilizers, building materials, upstream, and district chilling, the business aligns with Egypt\u2019s macro drivers and will thrive. EK today is robust and very well-positioned to continue growing in the years to come. <\/p>\n

E: What are the personal businesses you want to focus on as you step away from EK? <\/strong><\/p>\n

SEZ:<\/strong>There are two: GoodSeal Packaging<\/a>, which makes aseptic bags and bag-in-box solutions for the food industry, and United Glass Containers Co (UGC)<\/a>, which is best known for making ampules and vials for the pharma industry. GoodSeal is the newer of the two \u2014 we started about three years ago and today we export 70-80% of our production to Europe, including Scotland and Germany. <\/p>\n

I love the food packaging market: <\/strong>The industry as a whole is worth USD 350 bn globally right now and that\u2019s going to be USD 550 bn in the next seven years. <\/p>\n

Our focus is all on import substitution in Egypt and on exports, exports, exports.<\/strong> What makes us unique is that we develop low-emission products. We\u2019re taking market share away from high-plastic products, and the fun is working with multinationals to create and produce packaging with CO2 emissions that are 70-80% lower than mainstream options. <\/p>\n

One of the great things about the business is that I own 70% of it <\/strong>and the rest of the shareholders are family and friends. It\u2019s time to really focus on how to grow these two businesses heavily, to take them to the next level. There\u2019s the potential to grow the two businesses by multiples \u2014 multiples. <\/strong>They\u2019re smaller than EK, of course, but the growth potential is incredible. <\/p>\n

E: Do you have any plans to invest outside of Egypt? <\/strong><\/p>\n

SEZ:<\/strong>No, I\u2019m committed to investing a lot more in my country. I believe so much in Egypt as a hub for exports \u2014 in harnessing Egyptian knowledge and expertise and competitive advantages. We\u2019re not living up to our potential as an export powerhouse. Europe imports USD 3 tn in products \u2014 and from Egypt? Peanuts. <\/strong><\/p>\n

We have a huge advantage against China, against India \u2014 even against European companies themselves. The Chinese pay a lot of customs duties. They have huge freight costs. Europeans? High labor and high raw materials costs. Egypt has zero customs access to Europe, our freight costs and time to market are much lower<\/strong>, we have cheaper raw materials and cheaper labor. <\/p>\n

When you have good quality control systems and you train your people, nobody can <\/strong>compete with Egypt. <\/strong>The problem is in companies taking the time to learn the markets and hone the unique value proposition they\u2019re offering their offshore clients. <\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just Europe \u2014 I\u2019m really excited about Africa, too, for the same reasons and more. It\u2019s zero customs because of Comesa, for example, but when you sell to Africa, you\u2019re eligible for export subsidies from the Egyptian government. Maybe they\u2019re slow in paying the subsidies, but they come.<\/p>\n

E: How are GoodSeal and Untied dealing with the FX challenge right now? <\/strong><\/p>\n

SEZ:<\/strong>It obviously helps that while we do sell in the domestic market, we\u2019re very focused on exports. For us, the big thing has become simply to \u201cthink\u201d in USD. Six months ago, I told the management team that even though our financials are in EGP, even though we\u2019re an entirely Egyptian business, we\u2019re going to track our P&L in USD. That\u2019s how we measure growth, success, profitability \u2014 in USD terms. <\/p>\n

E: You mentioned earlier that you\u2019re mulling over some new investments\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

SEZ:<\/strong>And I\u2019m not going to tell you about that now. When the time comes. Look, I love my country and I\u2019m going to build companies here \u2014 projects that will demand tens of mns of USD. I\u2019m excited \u2014 about food packaging, for sure, and about pharma packaging, where I see massive room to grow. And there are other things. <\/p>\n

But the joy of running a private company after being CEO of a publicly traded corporation? It will be really nice not to have everyone know everything about the business, about the strategy. You have less ability to maneuver a public business outside the spotlight. You\u2019re judged quarter by quarter by quarter. The market doesn\u2019t appreciate a decision that sees the margins come down because you\u2019re making the right call to invest in something you absolutely know will pay off in much higher growth in the years to come. <\/p>\n

E: We\u2019ve known each other for a lot of years\u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

SEZ:<\/strong>Yes. [Smiles]<\/p>\n

E: \u2014and this is as happy as I\u2019ve seen you in a long time. <\/strong><\/p>\n

SEZ:<\/strong>I loved my time with EKH. We took it places \u2014 and it has lots of room to grow. But in looking at the potential of my personal businesses? I don\u2019t remember the last time I was this excited about building a business. The only thing that would make it better would be having my sons join me as they finish their university education. <\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one thing more fun than being an entrepreneur, it\u2019s building the next generation of entrepreneurs. And if your kids want to join you? If there\u2019s a chance they could share your passion? What more can you ask for in life? All I want is to have fun and see my children be happy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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