Egypt is a very interesting market for Renaissance Capital: Head

CAIRO - 19 November 2017: Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital (RenCap) is positive on Egypt's market after regional tensions heated up, global head of RenCap James Friel said Sunday.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Friel explained that their vision of Egypt comes at a time when global investment banks are shifting their focus to Africa.

"Our strategy is unchanged... we have taken a long-term view on the Egyptian market and remain firmly convinced that this is a positive move for the firm,” he said.

Friel was also positive on the impact of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) $12 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) on Egypt’s capital markets.

In a report issued in August, RenCap said that oil and gas, commercial retail, real estate and consumers’ goods fields are the sectors with the highest investment potential in Egypt.

It said the United Kingdom, the United States and Belgium are the largest foreign investors, while the UAE represented the largest Gulf source of investment for Cairo.

Being the largest source of FDI, the UK invested a total amount of $4.8 billion over the first nine months in fiscal year 2016/17, shaping 55 percent of total investments and increasing 11 percent in a year-on-year level.

Renaissance Capital opened in 2017 its new office in Cairo as it sought to deepen investment ties in Egypt, the bank’s MENA chief executive Ahmed Badr told Reuters in April.

Renaissance Capital, which is focused on emerging and frontier markets, has sales and trading teams in London, Moscow, New York, Johannesburg, Lagos, Nairobi and Dubai.