Palm Hills borrows $160 million for Cairo development

Palm Hills Developments, the Cairo property company chaired by Egyptian billionaire Yasseen Mansour, has borrowed 8 billion Egyptian pounds, about $160 million, from the country’s two largest state-owned banks to finish building a housing development on the eastern edge of Cairo, eight days after reporting that profit had fallen even as sales rose.

The National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr split the loan evenly, each putting up 4 billion pounds in a syndicated facility signed on Aug. 22. A syndicated loan is one in which two or more banks share a single facility and divide the risk between them. The borrower is Palm for Investment and Real Estate Development, a subsidiary of Palm Hills. Conversion uses 49.89 pounds to the dollar.

The money goes into Palm Hills New Cairo, a development covering roughly 500 feddans, about 2.1 million square metres, in the satellite city built east of the capital during the 2000s to relieve pressure on Cairo itself. The site combines villas and apartment blocks with shops, offices, service areas and a sports and social club. The loan funds phases already under construction and phases still to come, and Palm Hills says it will let buyers take delivery of their homes ahead of schedule.

The company needs that pace. On Aug. 14 it reported half-year revenue of 19.53 billion pounds, about $391.5 million, up 25.4% on the same period a year earlier, while net income after tax and minority interest fell 7% to 2.26 billion pounds. Gross margin narrowed to 35.5% from 42.8%, which Palm Hills attributed to a larger share of sales coming from lower-margin projects and to rising construction and development costs. It is selling more homes and keeping less of the money.

The squeeze reflects how Egyptian developers operate. Most units are sold off-plan, with buyers paying in instalments over several years before they take possession, so construction has to be financed long before the cash arrives. Bank borrowing bridges that gap, and the gap widens as building costs climb.

Soha El-Turky, deputy chief executive of the National Bank of Egypt, said the bank places particular importance on supporting property developers amid the challenges facing the market, and that the loan fits its strategy of financing sectors with wide effects on economic activity. She pointed to real estate’s links with other industries and its role in employment.

Hesham Okasha, chief executive of Banque Misr, said participating reflected the bank’s commitment to backing large urban development projects, given the sector’s weight in the Egyptian economy and its role in creating jobs.

Mansour said the financing demonstrated the banking sector’s confidence in Palm Hills, the quality of its projects and assets, and its ability to deliver.

He has run Palm Hills since it was founded in 1997 and holds the titles of chairman and group chief executive. He owns roughly 318.57 million shares, most recently reported as a 10.83% stake. Forbes values him at $1.4 billion and ranks him the 20th wealthiest person in Africa. He took no personal liability for the loan, which sits with the operating subsidiary.

The fortune is inherited and shared among brothers. Their father, Loutfy Mansour, founded the Mansour Group in Cairo in 1952 and built it into a conglomerate that became the exclusive distributor of General Motors vehicles and Caterpillar equipment across Egypt and several other countries, employing about 60,000 people. Two of Yasseen’s brothers, Mohamed and Youssef, are also on the Forbes billionaires list. Yasseen took a degree at George Washington University, joined Mansour Motors Group in 1986, and later helped establish the vehicle that became the controlling shareholder in Palm Hills.

Palm Hills is Egypt’s second-largest listed property developer. It holds land covering 38 million square metres in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, booked $4.5 billion in contracted sales during 2025 against total assets of $3.6 billion, and signed an agreement in January with the Egyptian Kuwaiti Company to jointly develop 1.4 million square metres in West Cairo, a scheme it expects to generate $3.8 billion in sales.

The National Bank of Egypt acted as initial mandated lead arranger, security agent, debt service reserve account bank and documentation bank. Banque Misr was also initial mandated lead arranger, and served as facility agent, account bank and escrow account bank. Both marketed the financing to other lenders.

Egyptian property has been one of the few dependable stores of value through years of currency devaluation, with buyers treating apartments as protection against a falling pound. That demand is what has kept Palm Hills’ sales rising. What the half-year figures show is that building the homes now costs enough to absorb much of the benefit.