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Egyptian billionaire Hisham Talaat Moustafa, chairman of Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG), has seen the market value of his stake in the real estate giant fall by more than $59 million after a recent pullback in the company’s shares on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX).
Moustafa’s TMG stake falls below $1 billion
Moustafa controls 43.5 percent of TMG, or roughly 890.6 million shares. In less than a month, the value of that stake slipped from EGP49.78 billion ($1.03 billion) to EGP46.93 billion ($973.78 million), erasing about EGP2.85 billion ($59.13 million).
The reversal marks a sharp contrast with the gains he enjoyed just weeks earlier. Between July 30 and Aug. 11, renewed investor demand had lifted his stake above the $1 billion mark, adding more than $72 million to his paper wealth. That rise was short-lived, as profit-taking and weaker sentiment have since pressured the stock.
TMG’s market cap slips under $2.3 billion
TMG, founded in 1974 by Hisham Talaat Moustafa, has grown into Egypt’s largest publicly traded real estate company, with developments ranging from luxury apartments and hotels to large-scale mixed-use projects. With Moustafa still at the helm, TMG has become a bellwether for the country’s property sector, attracting domestic and foreign investors.
The stock has lost 5.72 percent over the past three weeks, dropping from EGP55.90 ($1.16) on Aug. 18 to EGP52.7 ($1.09). That slide cut TMG’s market capitalization to below $2.3 billion, dealing losses to shareholders across the board, including its chairman.
Your money and your life
Year to date, the company’s shares are down 4.62 percent. For retail investors, that decline is tangible: a $100,000 position in January would now be worth about $95,380, translating into a paper loss of $4,620.
Despite the setbacks, TMG remains one of Egypt’s most valuable listed companies. The decline in the market value of Moustafa’s stake reflects how wealth tied to publicly traded assets can increase or decrease in line with market sentiment.
