Sawiris, Masour offer to buy Qatari Diar investments in Egypt

CAIRO – 25 March 2018: Qatari Diar Real Estate Company has received offers from businessmen Naguib Sawiris and Yassin Mansour to buy the company’s investment in Egypt.

Sawiris’s offer includes buying all the company’s investments in Egypt for LE 35 billion while Mansour’s offer is to buy the 8.5 million cubic meter land of City Gate project at New Cairo City, according to al-Shorouk newspaper.

Diar Company has several projects in Egypt but with only one executed project – Sant Regis Hotel. The company is currently facing legislative issues with Urban Communities Authority concerning its Citygate project; the Authority is demanding that the company pay dues on behalf of the state, a total of LE 1.379 billion, representing the fees for changing the ownership structure of the company.

The company acquired Barwa Real Estate and its subsidiaries without informing the Egyptian government.

It also has a project in Sharm el-Sheikh city on a land of 300,000 meters.
The Hurghada project is the largest investment of the company in Egypt on an area of 30 million meters located between the Gulf of Soma Bay and Makadi Bay on the Hurghada – Safaga road, which was contracted by the company through privatization with the General Authority for Tourism Development in 2006, for $1 per meter.

According to al-Shorouk sources, negotiations to buy Diar’s investments in Egypt started in December and paused for a while as a sovereign company desired to buy investments owned by the Qatari Diar, especially its Citygate project in New Cairo.

The regulatory responsible for the Qatari investment portfolio in Egypt estimated the total fines required from Qatari Diar, the investment arm of the Qatari government, for the violations of its projects in Egypt at LE13 billion, of which $300 million was charged for changing the activity of Cairo Corniche project.

On June 5, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar, accusing it of links to extremist groups.