Egypt’s billionaire El-Sewedy family loses $109 million from stake in electric company

The El-Sewedy family, one of Egypt’s wealthiest families, has seen the market value of their joint interest in Elsewedy Electric fall by more than $109 million since the start of the year, owing to profit-taking and portfolio-rotation activities on the Egyptian Stock Exchange.

Elsewedy Electric is an Egyptian international electrical corporation established in 1938 by the Elsewedy family. The firm presently has total assets of (EGP67.7 billion ($4.3 billion) spread across 15 countries, led by Ahmed El-Sewedy.

The El-Sewedy family, represented by Sadek, Ahmed and Mohammed Elsewedy, owns 68 percent of the corporation, or 1,478,689,860 ordinary shares.

The recent drop in the market value of their holding might be attributed to a double-digit decline in the company’s shares, as investors book profits on their position following a run above EGP9 ($0.57) per share in early January.

Elsewedy Electric shares were trading at EGP8.67 ($0.55) per share as of press time on Feb. 16, 1.4-percent higher than their starting price on the local exchange yesterday morning.

Since the start of the year, its share price has fallen from EGP9.83 ($0.62) to EGP8.67 ($0.55) at the time of writing, resulting in an 11.8-percentage loss for shareholders during the 47-day period.

As a result of the price drope, the market value of the family’s joint shareholding fell from EGP14.5 billion ($923.7 million) to EGP12.8 billion ($814.7 million) between Jan. 1 and Feb. 16.

This amounts to a total loss of EGP1.7 billion ($109 million) for the family since the year began.

Elsewedy Electric reported a 16.7-percent increase in net profit in 2021, from EGP3 billion ($191 million) in 2020 to EGP3.5 billion ($224.5 million) at the end of 2021, thanks to a substantial growth in sales and income.

The financial performance was led by a 60-percent rise in wire and cable sales from EGP18.5 billion ($1.2 billion) to EGP29.6 billion ($1.9 billion), a 36.7-percent increase in transformer sales revenue, and an 11.5-percent increase in turnkey projects.

Ahmed El Sewedy, CEO of the company, commented on the group’s financial performance for the year, stating that it concluded the year with a good performance as it continued to drive growth across all its operational sectors.

“We kept our net profit margins nearly stable at around six percent. Elsewedy’s growth has spread across all of its segments, and I anticipate that our recent investments will yield good returns in 2022 and beyond,” he added.