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The International Finance Corporation has flagged a proposed loan of up to $80 million for MIDROC Ethiopia to refurbish the Sheraton Addis and build an additional Sheraton branded hotel next door, a deal that would put fresh World Bank Group money behind one of East Africa’s best known luxury assets. The total project cost is estimated at up to $116 million, with MIDROC expected to fund the balance.
The plan matters because the Sheraton Addis is not just another hotel. It is where visiting presidents, donors, bankers and dealmakers tend to wash up, often in the same week, and its fortunes have long tracked Ethiopia’s push to sell itself as a diplomatic and conference hub.
IFC disclosures describe the financing as an A loan, and reporting says the proposal is still pending board consideration. The IFC notes that disclosure is not approval and terms may change. The work itself is already underway. Renovations at the 294 room Sheraton Addis have been running in phases since 2023, with completion targeted for 2026. Alongside that facelift, MIDROC wants a new 200 key property plus private villas on about 2.5 acres within its existing compound in Addis Ababa’s Kirkos district.
The IFC has classified the project as Environmental Category B, a label used for impacts that are considered limited, site specific and manageable with standard mitigation. Due diligence was carried out between June and July 2025, including site visits and meetings with management, contractors and worker representatives, plus a review of labour conditions in Ethiopia’s construction and hospitality sectors.
In practice, the IFC is betting that Ethiopia’s top end hospitality market still has legs. Addis is chasing more international events and more business travel, and the government has leaned hard into urban renewal and flagship developments. Extra room inventory also matters in a city where peak weeks can turn five star rates into something closer to London than the Horn of Africa.
The sponsor is MIDROC Ethiopia, part of the wider MIDROC Investment Group controlled by Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi, an Ethiopian born Saudi businessman who has made and remade his fortune across construction, energy, mining and manufacturing. Corporate ownership disclosures cited in reporting indicate Al Amoudi holds 75 per cent of MIDROC Ethiopia, with his wife, Sofia Saleh Al Amoudi, holding the remaining 25 per cent.
Al Amoudi’s Ethiopia footprint is broad. Through MIDROC Ethiopia, he has stakes across gold mining, cement, agriculture, manufacturing, real estate and hospitality, and he has also held energy and refining interests through Corral Petroleum and related entities in Europe and North Africa. He is widely credited with bringing large scale private capital to Ethiopia from the mid 1990s, and his Sheraton Addis has long been treated as one of the country’s most recognisable private assets.
His profile has not been without drama. In late 2017 he was detained in Saudi Arabia during a high profile anti corruption crackdown and was released in January 2019, according to widely reported billionaire profile summaries. The episode blurred his public visibility for a time, but his companies continued to operate and invest, including in Ethiopia.
