Emirati sovereign fund increases share in some of Egypt’s most historic hotels

An Emirati sovereign fund has bought additional shares in some of Egypt’s most historic hotels, which were formerly publicly owned.

Amid a biting foreign currency shortage, the government has sold stakes in strategic publicly owned companies to a number of investors in the Gulf over the past two years to service a huge public funding gap.

A joint venture between the Emirati sovereign fund ADQ and its subsidiary, ADNEC Group, has now bought up a 40.5 percent stake in the Arab Company for Hotel and Tourism Investment (ICON), a representative for ADQ said on Friday.

ADQ said the new deal — the value of which it did not disclose — will take the form of an increase to ICON’s company capital. Some of the deal’s value will help reduce the company’s debts, said ADQ, while the rest will act as an “indirect investment” in a portfolio including the seven publicly owned luxury hotels.

ICON, which partially belongs to real estate tycoon Hesham Talaat Mostafa and partially to ADQ, acquired shares in Legacy Hotels over the course of last year — a state company that owns seven hotels in Cairo, Luxor and Aswan.

The Emirates already has a substantial footprint in other key sectors of Egypt’s economy, including stakes in publicly owned fertilizers and logistics companies it purchased in 2022.