Egypt’s Nassef Sawiris Bids to Take OCI Global Private

EGYPT · MARKETS

Nassef Sawiris, Egypt’s richest man, has offered €4.10 a share to take OCI Global private, valuing the chemicals company at about €867 million. The all-cash bid would let the billionaire buy out the minority and close a years-long transformation of a group his family built.

The offer on the table

The bid was confirmed by OCI’s board on 25 June 2026. At €4.10 a share it sits about 2% above the previous close and values the whole company at roughly €867 million.

The offer is all cash and comes through NNS Holding, the Cyprus-registered vehicle Sawiris uses to manage his family’s money. NNS has filed a draft offer document with the Dutch market authority, the AFM.

NNS describes €4.10 as its final price. It has also signalled it would sell its own stake if a rival turned up with an offer that delivered more for every shareholder.

If enough holders accept, OCI would leave the Amsterdam exchange. Its shares have traded thinly as the company shrank.

How Nassef Sawiris already controls OCI

This is not a hostile takeover by an outsider. Nassef Sawiris already owns 49.21% of OCI, and the broader family holds 58.28% between them.

That means the bid targets only the 41.72% in other hands. In effect, the controlling owner is offering to buy out the minority and take the company off the public market.

Buying the rest would end years of public-market scrutiny. It would also let the family steer the next phase without outside votes.

OCI traces back to Onsi Sawiris, the patriarch of one of Egypt’s most prominent business families. Nassef Sawiris is also known abroad as a co-owner of the English football club Aston Villa.

The end of OCI’s long sell-off

OCI was once a global fertiliser and methanol giant. Over the past few years it sold off most of those businesses in a series of multibillion-dollar deals and handed much of the cash back to shareholders.

What is left is closer to a holding shell than an industrial empire. Taking it private is the tidy final step of that long unwinding.

The disposals turned a sprawling producer into a lean vehicle with cash and a listing. That is an unusual thing to take private, and a clue to what comes next.

The Orascom condition

OCI’s board, with Nassef and Nadia Sawiris standing aside, backed the offer. Its support, though, is conditional.

The directors want the buyout combined with a planned merger into Orascom Construction. They argue minority holders should keep the option to join that infrastructure platform rather than simply be cashed out.

Orascom Construction is the family’s engineering and building arm. Folding the two together would create a single, infrastructure-focused platform.

Why it matters beyond Egypt

The Sawiris name reaches far past Cairo. The family controls assets across construction, fertilisers, finance and sport, and moves capital between Egypt, Europe and the Gulf.

OCI is listed in Amsterdam, not Cairo, which shows how Egyptian fortunes now operate inside global markets. The deal is a reminder that some of the continent’s biggest players set the terms rather than follow them.

It also shows how Gulf and European money now flows through Egyptian hands. The Sawiris family has long sat at that crossroads.

For investors across emerging markets, it is also a study in timing. Sawiris is buying out the rest of a company just as its long restructuring nears its end.

What the deal signals

The bid is small by global takeover standards, yet its symbolism is large. It marks the close of one of the most aggressive corporate makeovers in the region.

It also tests how minority investors are treated when a founding family tightens its grip. The board’s push for the Orascom option is meant to protect them.

However it ends, the episode underlines a trend. African and Middle Eastern tycoons increasingly buy, sell and restructure on their own terms.

The episode also reflects how quickly Egyptian corporate power has matured. A generation ago few local firms shaped deals on European exchanges; today they help set the price.

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