Table of Contents
Key Points
- A UK judge dismissed a civil suit accusing Egyptian billionaire Hisham Talaat Moustafa of orchestrating the 2008 murder of Suzanne Tamim.
- Talaat Moustafa Group’s North Coast project, SouthMed, has generated nearly $7 billion in sales since launching in July 2024.
- Following a stock rebound, Moustafa’s 43.5% stake in TMG is now valued at over $1 billion, reflecting renewed investor confidence.
More than two weeks after a London civil suit accused him of orchestrating the 2008 murder of Lebanese pop star Suzanne Tamim, Egyptian billionaire and property developer Hisham Talaat Moustafa has won a legal battle to dismiss the case. The lawsuit was filed by Riyadh Al-Azzawi, a former world kickboxing champion and Tamim’s partner at the time of her death.
Moustafa cleared in London civil case
Moustafa, who chairs Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG), Egypt’s largest listed real estate developer, was previously convicted in Egypt of paying a former police officer to kill Tamim at her luxury apartment in Dubai. He was sentenced to death in 2009, but the ruling was overturned. After two retrials, he was convicted again and served eight years of a 15-year sentence before receiving a presidential pardon in 2017.
Tamim had become a household name after winning a television talent show in the 1990s. Her relationship with Al-Azzawi had drawn media attention before her death. In 2022, Al-Azzawi filed a suit at London’s High Court, claiming psychological and emotional harm caused by Tamim’s killing and seeking damages from Moustafa.
Moustafa’s legal team argued that the case should be dismissed because Al-Azzawi’s lawyers failed to present all relevant information when they first sought the court’s permission to bring the claim. They also argued that the case, if it were to go forward at all, belonged in Dubai, not London. On Friday, Judge Christopher Butcher ruled in Moustafa’s favor, stating that Al-Azzawi did not disclose key facts about whether the claim had been filed too late and that Dubai was clearly a more appropriate venue for such proceedings.
Egypt developer’s stake tops $1 billion
The ruling comes at a time when Moustafa’s business empire is once again making headlines, this time for its performance on the stock market and ambitious new projects. His company, Talaat Moustafa Group, recently announced Sharm Bay, a new coastal development near Sharm El-Sheikh expected to generate EGP120 billion ($2.4 billion) in sales. The project signals the group’s growing focus on high-end tourism and luxury properties.
Founded in 1974, Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG) has grown into one of Egypt’s most valuable publicly listed companies, with a strong footprint on the Egyptian Exchange. While Egypt remains its home base, TMG is starting to look beyond the country for new opportunities.
Chairman Hisham Talaat Moustafa, who holds a 43.5 percent stake in the company, has seen the value of his investment rebound in recent weeks. A drop in TMG’s share price in June briefly knocked $78.5 million off his net worth, but a recovery has since lifted the value of his holdings to EGP50.39 billion ($1.02 billion), up by EGP4.7 billion ($95 million). This reflects growing investor confidence in Egypt’s real estate sector and steady demand for TMG’s developments.
That optimism is showing up in the numbers. In its latest update, the company reported EGP160 billion ($3.16 billion) in real estate sales so far in 2025, up 127 percent from the same period last year, and the highest ever recorded in Egypt’s property market. Much of that came from the second-phase launch of SouthMed, TMG’s massive North Coast project, which pulled in EGP70 billion ($1.38 billion) in a single day, selling more than 5,100 units.
TMG posts $6.95 billion in sales
Since launching in July 2024, SouthMed has generated EGP352 billion ($6.95 billion) in total sales. Spanning 23 million square meters, it remains one of TMG’s flagship developments. The company plans to lean more on an asset-light model for future phases, aiming to reduce exposure while protecting margins.
TMG’s strong showing in 2025 follows a record-breaking 2024, when it posted EGP504 billion ($10 billion) in total sales. Management credits the company’s continued success to solid execution, flexible payment plans, and a loyal base of over 200,000 high-net-worth clients.
