Qatari Diar, a unit of the sovereign wealth fund, will announce the investment in a project on Egypt’s Mediterranean coastline on Thursday, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing private matters.
The focus will be developing tourism sites, other real estate projects and golf courses, with the aim of attracting regional and international visitors, according to the people.
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Qatari Diar has also committed to an in-kind investment of about $26 billion, they said, without giving a timeframe. The project will cover 7.2 kilometers (4.5 miles) in the Alam Al-Roum area of Egypt’s northern coastline.
It’s the latest in a string on big-ticket foreign investments in Egypt since early last year, when the United Arab Emirates and International Monetary Fund led a $57 billion bailout to help the Middle East’s most populous nation overcome its worst economic crisis in years.
Egyptian dollar bonds extended their advances after the news. The country’s February 2061 note rose more than 1 cent on the dollar, with its yield dropping around 12 basis points to 9.26%. Nine of Egypt’s bonds were among the top 20 gainers in the Bloomberg EM Sovereign Total Return Index.
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The UAE’s mammoth $35 billion investment included a broadly similar deal to develop Ras El-Hekma, a nearby headland on the Mediterranean that’s three times the size of Manhattan.
As its two-year foreign-currency shortage fades, Egypt is pushing on with efforts to attract more large-scale foreign direct investment while pledging to empower the private sector. Both are key elements of an expanded $8 billion IMF deal.
Bloomberg in June reported Qatar and Egypt were in advanced talks on a Mediterranean development deal as part of a previously announced $7.5 billion investment package.
Egypt’s north coast, whose golden beaches have long made it a favorite with wealthier Egyptians in the summers, is assuming an ever-greater role in the country’s plans to super-charge foreign tourism and reach 30 million annual visitors by 2031.
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The IMF has delayed and combined the last two reviews of its Egyptian program, waiting for authorities to show more progress in its pledges to sell off national assets and roll back the state’s economic footprint.
A Qatari deal would be a significant assurance, likely easing the way to a staff-level agreement and the eventual disbursement of $2.5 billion in IMF loan tranches. In 2024, the UAE deal was swiftly followed by the crucial IMF agreement.
(Edited by : Jerome Anthony)
