What was Egypt’s investment story like in 2021? The big picture tells us that investor interest is continuing to pick up, with a larger number and bigger value of investments announced this year compared to 2020. We’re not quite at the same value of investments as we were pre-pandemic, but investors appear to be bullish on Egypt. Notably, we didn’t see any major investment pledges that were later scrapped.

So, how did we do on investment this year?

First, our usual disclaimer: All data points recapped here are based on our internal Enterprise Investment Tracker, through which we track announced and executed investments in Egypt. We count only capital expenditure here — announced plans to grow opex outlay don’t count. There are plenty of investments 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.

In 2021, we reported on 118 announced investments worth a combined EGP 412.7 bn. The actual total value of planned investments is a notch higher — 34 of the 118 commitments we reported on did not specify the expected value.

Still, that’s a healthier investment pipeline than last year, when we reported on 92 investments worth a combined 403 bn. Last year also had a smaller share of announced investment wherein the value being committed wasn’t disclosed.

The top three industries for investment in 2021, by announced value:

• Energy at EGP 176.6 bn, buoyed mostly by the USD 2.5 bn (c.EGP 39 bn) petrochemical complex Anchorage Investments is looking to build in the Suez Canal Economic Zone;
• Real estate at EGP 99.6 bn, with significant investment pledges from Saudi Arabia’s Sharbatly Group and Emaar Misr;
• Infrastructure at EGP 38 bn.

Rounding out the top five: Healthcare (EGP 25.9 bn) and food and beverages (EGP 8.1 bn).

That’s a completely different makeup than last year, when the top five spots went to infrastructure (EGP 168 bn), telecoms and technology (EGP 35 bn), banking and financial services (EGP 31 bn), retail (EGP 12.8 bn) and manufacturing (EGP 7.8 bn).

Healthcare and manufacturing were the top two industries for investment this year, by number of transactions, with 12 transactions apiece. Manufacturing has commanded the largest number of transactions for three consecutive years, according to our trackers.

The biggest pickups in investment this year by value came in real estate (up more than 12x) and healthcare (+60% y-o-y).

The biggest drops: Retail, where investments fell 80% y-o-y, and infrastructure, which saw a 77% y-o-y drop in investments. The caveat: Last year’s infrastructure investment figure was massive thanks solely to the National Egyptian Company for Railroad Industries, in which the government is offering the majority of the equity to private-sector companies. Investments in telecoms and technology were also significantly lower this year compared to 2020, although 2020’s investment figure was inflated as all four telecom companies announced bns in network upgrade plans.

Continuing trend of the year: Development finance institutions are still dishing out plenty of funding for SMEs, as was the case in 2020.

What can we expect in 2022? We said this last year and it didn’t pan out, but businesses are still hoping for an end to the pandemic and the potential of slightly lower interest rates, if the Central Bank of Egypt decides to resume its monetary easing cycle and make capex borrowing more affordable. But with the prospects of high inflation and interest rates (thanks Fed), this doesn’t seem likely.