Infrastructure sector has 35% of EBRD’s Egypt portfolio

Infrastructure sector makes up about 35 percent of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s portfolio in Egypt, said deputy head of EBRD’s Egypt office on Sunday.

Around 25 percent of EBRD’s portfolio was dedicated to Egypt’s financial sector, Khalid Hamza told Amwal Al Ghad.

The bank has invested so far around €300 million ($333.8 million) in Egypt since the beginning of the current year, Hamza said.

Founded in 1991 to help former communist countries in eastern Europe shift to market economies, the London-based EBRD has extended its operations over the last decade to more than 35 countries, from Morocco to Mongolia.

It started its operations in Egypt in 2012, a year after the uprising that unseated long-time president Hosni Mubarak and threw the country into political turmoil that drove off foreign investors.

In 2018, Egypt overtook Turkey as the EBRD’s largest country of investment, with about €1.2 billion invested in renewable energy, power, property, and tourism, agribusiness, and transport sectors.

More than half those investments have come since 2017, a year after Egypt began implementing a three-year economic reform programme tied to a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).  The reforms included a sharp devaluation of the Egyptian pound that made Egypt more attractive to private capital.