Egyptian businessman Ashraf Sabry loses more than $8.5 million from stake in fintech unicorn

Egyptian multimillionaire businessman Ashraf Sabry has seen the market value of his shareholding in Fawry drop by millions of dollars in recent months, as shares in the Egyptian payment company declined by double digits percent on the Egyptian Stock Exchange.

Fawry is one of Africa’s few tech unicorns, with a technology that provides more than 250 e-payment services through a network of over 105,000 service points in 300 Egyptian towns.

Sabry, who founded the payment platform in 2008 and pioneered electronic bill payments in Egypt, owns 2.345 percent of the company.

Research conducted by Billionaires.Africa revealed that the businessman has recorded a loss of more than EGP134.9 million ($8.5 million) from his position in the payment company since the start of 2022.

As of press time on March 18, shares in the leading financial technology firm were trading at a price of EGP9.48 ($0.603), 3.16-percent lower than their opening price on the local bourse, giving the firm a market valuation of EGP16.2 billion ($1.03 billion).

Since the start of the year, its shares have slumped from a price of EGP12.85 ($0.818) on Jan. 1 to EGP9.48 ($0.603) as of the time of drafting this report, accruing a total loss of 26.2 percent for shareholders in 46 days as investors continue to trim down stakes in the company.

As a result of the recent slump in the Fawry shares on the Egyptian Stock Exchange, the market value of Sabry’s stake has dropped by EGP134.9 billion ($8.58 billion) in the past 46 days.

His stake has slumped from EGP514.47 billion ($32.73 million) on Jan. 1 to EGP379.54 million ($24.1 million) on March 18.

As a result of the fast adoption of its services and the gradual reopening of the economy, the value of transactions handled by the Egyptian fintech unicorn through its acceptance machines surged by 232 percent year-on-year to EGP6 billion ($382 million) in 2021.

On the other hand, its payment acceptance transactions through the Internet gateway surged 400 percent to EGP5 billion ($318.4 million), firmly establishing it as a leading fintech company in Egypt, Africa’s second-largest economy.