Abraaj Capital Bets On Egypt Consumption

 Abraaj Capital, the biggest private equity company in the Middle East and North Africa, will build on its $1 billion of investments in Egypt to tap consumer demand in the most-populous Arab nation.

“We have over $1 billion invested in that country and we continue to increase that because you cannot work against the tide of consumption,” Abraaj CEO Arif Naqvi said in an interview in Dubai on Monday. “The Egyptian economy is very resilient.”

Foreign investors have started to buy Egyptian assets after many pulled out of the country in the wake of a popular uprising last year that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak. Qatar National Bank SAQ expects to complete due diligence this month to buy Societe Generale SA’s 77.2 per cent stake in an Egyptian unit. Savola Group, based in Saudi Arabia, said in December it’s expanding its sugar refining operations in the North African nation home to about 82 million people.

Khaleejtimes