Al Ahly Capital buys El Sewedy's 40% stake in Damietta university venture

Al Ahly Capital is buying El Sewedy Capital's 40% stake in a planned private university in New Damietta, with Egypt's Competition Authority approving the deal earlier this week and closing expected before year-end.

El Sewedy Capital Holding, the investment arm of Egypt's Elsewedy Electric group, is selling 30 million shares in the joint venture it set up with education company CIRA, EnterpriseAM reported, citing Al Borsa. The price was not disclosed. CIRA retains its 60% stake.

What is at stake in New Damietta?

CIRA and El Sewedy formed the venture in 2021 and secured a 58-feddan plot in New Damietta for the campus. EnterpriseAM estimated the university would cost about 2.5 billion Egyptian pounds to build.

CIRA chief executive Mohamed El Kalla said in August that the university is due to open in September 2027.

CIRA is the largest integrated private education company in Egypt and is listed on the Egyptian Exchange. Private universities outside Cairo and Alexandria have become a growth area: land is cheaper in the provinces, and the government has eased approval for new institutions there.

Why does the buyer matter?

Al Ahly Capital is the investment arm of state-owned National Bank of Egypt. The deal is the latest in a series of El Sewedy Capital assets that have passed to it:

• In 2024, Al Ahly Capital completed the purchase of 51% of Easy Lease, El Sewedy Capital's leasing company.
• It later bought a further 46.55% of Ezelis from El Sewedy Capital.

Al Ahly Capital already works with CIRA in education. In 2021, the two formed Al Ahly CIRA for Educational Services, with CIRA holding 51%. That venture built Saxony Egypt University of Applied Sciences and Technology, which CIRA describes as Egypt's largest private technological university in the greater Cairo region.

The pattern points to a deepening alliance between Egypt's largest private education operator and the state bank's investment arm, with Al Ahly Capital now positioned as co-owner of a 2.5 billion-pound greenfield university campus ahead of its September 2027 opening.