Catalyst Partners Presents Medium Size/Family Incubation Model

Catalyst Partnershosted an event at The Four Seasons Nile Plaza, Cairo, Egypt to unveil its Medium Size/ Family incubation model designed for the Egyptian market and reveal itssuccess at turning around one of its Incubated Partners Green Valley Group from a distressed company with several unfocused business lines and significant leverage liabilities to reclaim its position as a top local producer and exporter of ‘in-shell’ raw peanutsand a pioneer of branded packaged and loose peanuts, “Krinko” and “Peanutcho” respectively. Green Valley Group was transformed from a centralized business ‘one man show’ to an institution through the unique tailor-made‘Incubation Process’ designed by Catalyst Partners.

Aly El-Tahry, Catalyst Partners Managing Partner, disclosed to the attendees that Catalyst Partners works with its ‘Incubated Partners’ (IP) to design, implement and monitor the IP’s vision, strategy, corporate governance, organizational infrastructure, internal report & processesand re-structure &secure financialrequirements either debt and equity by leveraging CP’s expertise. Catalyst Partners brings Incubated Partners to a certain critical massthat is would be ready and ripe to be offered on Egypt’s stock exchanges, feeding the equity market with attractive, liquid traded securities featuring high underlying growth.

Amr El Sammak, CEO of Green Valley for Food Processing a subsidiary of Green Valley Group, emphasized during the event on Catalyst Partners contribution in transforming Green Valley Group from a distress company to a leading peanut company in MENA region within 2 years of partnering with Catalyst Partners and disclosed that Green Valley Group with the support of CP is in the process of go public by the end of 2015 in the Egyptian Stock Exchange. Amr said, “Going public is not the end of the transformation of Green Valley Group, on the contrary, it is the beginning of a new transition of Green Valley Group with Catalyst Partners to become a global company”

Aly El- Tahry during the eventhighlighted,based on Central Bank of Egypt, that financial institutions in 2013 financed the Agriculture sector only by 1% out of their loans. Having said that, Catalyst Partners designed and introduced‘Mozarع’new innovative productto serve the Agricultural sector in Egypt that is extremely underserved by the financial institutions in Egypt.Mozarع is a special purpose vehicle company that partners with planters to cultivate their crops and so give the planters the financial capability to grow exponentially.Catalyst Partners launched its new product Mozarع in 2013 to partner up with Green Valley Group to cultivate 3,000 acres in “Sharq Al Owaynat”. Investors that acquired shares in Mozarع realized an IRR of 32% at the end of the peanut season.

Among the attendees;Mr. Sherif Samy, Chairman of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA), Mrs. Fatma Lotfy, Vice Chairman of Audi Bank, Mrs. Nayera Amin, Executive Vice Chairman of Piraeus Bank, Mr. HishamTawfiq, Chairman of Arabia Online Securities, Mrs. Neveen el Tahri, Chairperson and Managing Director of Delta Shield for Investments, among other bankers, high-net-worth investors, Mozarع investors, medium size companies and family business.

Catalyst Partners views its role in the Egyptian economy as a ‘catalytic’ pillar that would bolster SMEs, whom play a major role in economic development. 99% of enterprises in Egypt are small-sized companies with 1-50 employees, 0.13% are medium-sized companies with 50-100 employees, and less than 1% are large companies with over 100 employees. SMEs face various challenges including weak investment climate, poor infrastructure and the most critical challenge is the access to finance. They typically lack proper governance, organizational infrastructure, and a reporting system. Catalyst Partners seek to remove the obstacles holding back SMEs from reaching their potential scale and allow them to focus on their core business, and in-effect, becoming the ‘House of Choice for Medium Size/ Family businesses’.

Aly El-Tahry is Managing Partner and co-founder of Catalyst Partners. Mr. El Tahry was co-founder of Delta Financial Investments, which was acquired by Arabiyya Lel Isthmaraat in 2012. Mr. El Tahry was also co-founder of Hermes Financial and Beltone Financial Holding in 1993 and 2003, respectively; both now leading MENA investment banking firms. Starting 1987, Mr. El Tahry served as Vice President of Kidder, Peabody and Co. out of their London Office and returned in 1990 to Egypt to co-found Kidder,Peabody& Co.’s Representative Office in anticipation of Egypt’s capital market re-birth.  Mr. El Tahry presently serves on the boards of Green Valley Group, Martin Currie’s Global Funds and MENA Capital’s Hedge Fund. The October 1997 and September 1998 issues of Global Finance magazine named Mr. El Tahry as one of the ‘World’s 600 Most Powerful People in Finance’. Mr. El Tahry received his MBA from the Krannert Graduate School of Management at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA, in 1987. In 1977 he earned B.Sc. degrees in Physics-Engineering from Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia and Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, USA, respectively.