Egyptian tycoon Ahmed Elsewedy’s firm moves into elevators

Elsewedy Electric, the Cairo-listed industrial group run by Egyptian tycoon Ahmed Elsewedy, has moved into the elevator business with a new brand called RYZE and is targeting 1 billion Egyptian pounds ($17.8 million) in elevator and escalator sales in 2027.

The group’s building solutions unit, Elsewedy Electric Building Solutions, unveiled the brand on Sunday at a press conference at the company’s headquarters. It is putting an initial 100 million pounds ($1.8 million) into the business and plans to raise that amount as sales grow, Salma Hany Mahmoud, the unit’s chief executive, said on the sidelines of the launch.

RYZE will sell elevators, escalators and moving walkways built on Japanese technology. The company did not name its Japanese technology partner or say where the equipment will be made. The elevators carry loads of 320 kilograms to 2,500 kilograms, the escalators rise between 2 meters and 7.5 meters, and the moving walkways run up to 120 meters long. The company says the equipment can cut energy use by as much as 30%.

The brand will compete on price and will be backed by local maintenance and after-sales service. Its customers are expected to include real estate developers, builders of commercial projects, contractors and owners of buildings and homes.

From Egypt to the Gulf and Africa

Elsewedy, chief executive and managing director of Elsewedy Electric, said the Arab region and Africa are seeing rapid urban growth and new cities, and that the aim is for RYZE to become “an Egyptian brand with global standards” able to compete across the region. The company plans to start in Egypt and expand gradually into Gulf and African markets, using the group’s existing network.

Egypt has been building new cities for more than a decade, including the New Administrative Capital east of Cairo, which has created steady demand for elevators in residential towers, offices and malls. Mahmoud said the range of projects under way in Egypt gives the unit room to grow its role in building services. The building solutions arm says it has more than 900 clients and has completed more than 155 projects.

The elevator target is small next to the size of the group. Elsewedy Electric is aiming to lift revenue to $7 billion this year from about $5.7 billion in 2025. Its sales rose 32% to 163.32 billion pounds ($2.9 billion) in the first half of 2026.

A family-controlled group

The Elsewedy family started the business in 1938, and it has grown into one of Africa’s largest industrial companies, making cables, transformers, meters and other electrical equipment and building power plants and grids. It operates in six business lines and has a presence in more than 100 countries.

Ahmed Elsewedy and his brother Sadek Elsewedy each own 534,980,391 shares, or about 25% of the company, which trades on the Egyptian Exchange. Mohamed Ahmed Elsewedy holds another 385,602,690 shares.

The elevator launch follows a run of large contracts abroad. In October, a joint venture of Elsewedy Electric and China’s Sinohydro signed a $2.2 billion contract to build a 2.3-gigawatt gas-fired power plant at Rabigh in Saudi Arabia, a project due to start commercial operation in May 2029.

Figures were converted at 56.3 Egyptian pounds to the dollar.