COVID-19 rearrange priorities of Egypt's sovereign fund

CAIRO – 6 May 2020: Priorities of Egypt's sovereign fund had been rearranged in light of COVID-19 pandemic, CEO of the fund Ayman Soliman said Wednesday.

Soliman CNBC Arabia that investing in infrastructure is one of the most important fields in which the fund’s assets are invested, and a large part of those assets is aimed at investing in tourism, education and health.

He pointed out that the targeted investments also include the areas of food processing, in addition to the fourth area in which a portfolio is built for investment, which is financial technology and banking services.

Regarding the fund's assets, he indicated that the fund is currently targeting LE 60 billion, and seeks rapid development to reach LE 1 trillion within years.

Soliman stressed that the fund is looking to expand in the field of logistics, including food processing.

Earlier Wednesday, Egypt Sovereign Fund and Investment Management Company, Concord International Investments, based in New York, announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that includes entities' cooperation to establish a joint company to manage a fund specializing in the healthcare sector.

The target fund volume is $300 million, as a preliminary stage and aims to maximize the value of assets in the long run by taking advantage of direct investment opportunities in Egypt, according to the statement.

The statement indicated that the fund will act as a catalyst to attract large foreign direct investment, as well as create joint investment opportunities in other huge projects.

Through the new fund, Egypt’s sovereign fund aims to create a diverse health care platform that benefits from the growing population in Egypt who need different health care services. It also seeks to create global export-oriented health care entities covering various health activities, in addition to maximizing the value of promising companies in this. The sector, unexploited assets and support for new specializations, taking advantage of Egypt's unique position and the relatively low costs of production and health services in Egypt for export to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Egypt recorded, Tuesday 388 new coronavirus cases and 16 deaths, which raises the total infected patients of COVID-19 to 7201 and the total deaths to 452 according to Health Minister’s daily briefing.

Health Ministry Spokesman Khaled Megahed added that 98 patients, were discharged from the hospital after being confirmed that they are completely recovered from the viruses, this also raises the number of recovered cases to 1730 out of 2224 who had been retested for the virus and had received negative results.