Egypt’s second-richest man, Nassef Sawiris, is preparing an aggressive $50 billion investment drive into U.S. infrastructure, marking a dramatic shift in his global business strategy.
Speaking in an interview with the Financial Times, the billionaire revealed that he is consolidating his publicly traded holding companies in Abu Dhabi as he sets his sights on North America.
Sawiris is close to finalizing the dissolution of OCI Global, his Dutch-listed fertilizer and chemicals company, which has sold more than $11.6 billion worth of assets in recent years.
The plan, first floated in February last year after OCI completed $7 billion in divestitures, involved further asset sales and the restructuring of his primary holding.
With those sales now largely complete, Sawiris is moving to integrate OCI into Orascom Construction, his family’s flagship company, in a deal expected to be announced Monday.
The new entity will list publicly in Abu Dhabi and will concentrate on infrastructure investments in the United States.
It is expected to draw on Orascom’s long-standing construction expertise as well as over $1 billion in cash and other proceeds left on OCI’s balance sheet.
Sawiris aims to use these resources to take advantage of a surge in U.S. spending in areas such as data centers, combining his company’s own capital with that of investment partners over the next decade through both equity and credit deals.
“We want to focus the next stage of our business on the area we see the biggest opportunity, which is infrastructure,” Sawiris told the Financial Times.
He added, “Any day, these companies will be more successful than a bunch of bankers who do desktop analysis of an asset and then struggle to create the most value.”
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This move mirrors the strategies of major firms like BlackRock’s GIP and Brookfield Asset Management, which have also expanded aggressively into U.S. infrastructure in recent years.
According to a KPMG audit, OCI and Orascom together delivered more than $22 billion in dividends to investors and achieved an overall internal rate of return exceeding 39% from Orascom’s 1999 listing through the end of 2024.
Sawiris, who holds a 40% stake in OCI, oversaw the sale of its international methanol business to U.S.-based Methanex last year for about $2 billion.
That deal was part of a strategic review launched in May 2023, when activist investor Ubben acquired a 5% stake in OCI and pressed the board to consider divestitures and other steps to boost shareholder value.
By the end of 2023, OCI had agreed to sell two fertilizer businesses for $3.6 billion each to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and U.S.-based Koch Industries.
Bloomberg now estimates Sawiris’s net worth at $9.66 billion, just behind his brother Naguib Sawiris at $9.71 billion.
He recently relocated to the UAE and Italy after leaving the UK, which has seen a wave of business departures tied to changes in tax policy.
In 2023, Sawiris also disclosed plans to re-domicile his investment vehicle, NNS Group, in Abu Dhabi’s international financial hub, the Abu Dhabi Global Market, pending regulatory approval.
NNS Group has said it will target large stakes in select companies with a focus on Europe, the Middle East, and North America.
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Image Credit: Business Insider Africa
