2022 was a positive year for investments — especially as green hydrogen stole the show and we attracted lots of GCC interest: In a year of global economic turmoil and uncertainty here at home — with imported inflation and a currency under pressure — Egypt is ending 2022 having attracted a whole lot of investment interest. This year’s announced investments significantly outpace last year’s in terms of value, despite the number of announcements staying more or less steady y-o-y.

Our usual disclaimer: We derived the data points for this wrapup from our internal Enterprise Investment Tracker, which we use to keep tabs on announced and executed investments in Egypt. Our tracker only accounts for capital expenditure and does not include opex spending plans. The data is also not necessarily complete — there are investments out there that didn’t make it onto our radar because they weren’t announced, particularly from smaller and mid-sized companies, and companies that aren’t publicly traded.

ALSO- Our last two years of data tracked investment values in EGP. For consistency purposes, we’re tracking this year’s investments in USD. Comparative values from last year’s data are expressed in USD equivalent, based on the FX rate at the end of 2021.

In 2022, we reported on 113 announced investments worth a whopping USD 192.2 bn. The actual total value of planned investments was higher — 15 of these commitments did not specify a value.

That’s a much bigger pipeline (in terms of value) than last year, when we reported on 118 announced investments worth a combined USD 26.4 bn.

The top three industries for investment in 2022, by announced value:

• Energy at USD 151.6 bn, buoyed primarily by the USD 119 bn of green hydrogen and wind projects Egypt signed during COP27;
• Manufacturing at USD 3.7 bn, including a potential USD 2.3 bn complex to make solar panel components, courtesy of a group of unnamed Chinese firms;
• Infrastructure, with USD 2.5 bn of investment commitments announced throughout the year.

Rounding out the top five: Food and beverages (USD 471 mn) and tech (USD 440 mn).

How does that compare to 2021? Last year, the top five target industries for investments were energy (USD 11.27 bn), real estate (USD 6.36 bn), infrastructure (USD 2.43 bn), healthcare (USD 1.65 bn), and food and beverages (USD 517 mn).

The biggest y-o-y increase in investment this year by value: Energy, by a very, very wide margin. Investment commitments announced this year for energy projects ballooned by some 1,245% y-o-y.

Meanwhile, healthcare and real estate saw the biggest drops in investments compared to last year. Healthcare investments from private sector players nosedived 99% y-o-y to USD 23.9 mn in 2022. In real estate, investments fell 76% y-o-y to USD 1.5 bn. This should come as no surprise, considering inflation and cost pressures significantly hindered operations for many real estate developers as they struggled to secure building and raw materials. Some 10-20% of real estate developers have at some point halted their construction projects this year due to fiscal and logistical pressures, sources have previously told us. Some have even sold off projects before starting construction.

Other than the energy boom, the big investment trend of 2022 for Egypt was the influx of GCC interest. Out of the total planned investments announced this year, Gulf-based investors accounted for USD 55.7 bn — that’s around 23% for those of you keeping score at home. This figure includes the USD 10 bn Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, pledged to give as aid to Egypt, as well as the separate USD 10 bn Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, ADQ, pledged to invest in industrial projects in Egypt, the UAE, and Jordan.