Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris lifts OCI stake to 57.5%

Nassef Sawiris has raised his holding in OCI to 57.5 percent, buying a further 320,708 shares on Wednesday as he pursues a takeover of the Amsterdam-listed chemicals group he built.

NNS Holding (Cyprus) Limited, the Egyptian billionaire’s family investment vehicle, paid an average of €4.0674 a share and a maximum of €4.0750, spending about €1.3 million. The purchase represents roughly 0.15 percent of OCI’s issued share capital, according to a statement filed under Dutch public offer rules.

The vehicle will hold 121,145,978 shares once the trades settle, or 57.32 percent. Sawiris holds a further 389,730 shares personally, and Dutch bidding rules treat him as a bidder alongside NNS, putting the combined position at 121,535,708 shares.

NNS announced the offer for OCI on June 24 and has been buying in the market since. It is required to disclose each transaction publicly while the offer remains open, and said it may continue purchasing shares outside the offer, either directly or through affiliates.

The Sawiris family established NNS Group in 2008 to manage its capital across public and private equity, credit and real estate, and to invest alongside external partners in joint ventures. The company is registered in Limassol, Cyprus.

OCI was built out of Orascom Construction Industries, the business the Sawiris family developed into one of the largest industrial groups in the Middle East before splitting its construction and fertiliser operations. The company listed in Amsterdam and became one of the world’s larger nitrogen fertiliser and methanol producers, before selling several of its principal divisions over the past two years and returning capital to shareholders.

Sawiris, 64, is Egypt’s wealthiest person, with a fortune Forbes estimates at $9.6 billion. He chairs the supervisory board of Adidas, co-owns Aston Villa alongside the American investor Wes Edens, and holds a substantial position in the building materials group Lafarge through its successor entity.

His brothers control their own businesses. Naguib built Orascom Telecom into a network spanning North Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh and North Korea before selling it to Russia’s VimpelCom. Samih founded Orascom Development, which built the Red Sea resort town of El Gouna and the Swiss alpine resort of Andermatt.

NNS did not disclose the terms of the offer in Wednesday’s statement.