Egyptian billionaire Samih Sawiris teams up with Emirati investors to deploy $235 million into a coastal tourism megaproject in Morocco's Essaouira

Egyptian billionaire Samih Sawiris is joining forces with UAE-based Al Nowais Investments and Egypt's Sunrise Group to pour $235.2 million (EUR 200 million) into a large-scale coastal tourism project on Morocco's Atlantic coast, Waya.media reported on April 20, citing Asharq Business.

The 3-way alliance has taken over a project in Essaouira that covers 2.5 million square metres and had been stalled for years under its previous structure. The consortium acquired full ownership of SAEMOG, the Moroccan company that manages the Essaouira Mogador station, late last year, with Morocco's Competition Council confirming the deal. The first phase of their investment plan targets up to 800 hotel rooms across several components, with a 5-year deployment timeline before a second phase follows.

The phased rollout breaks down into 270 rooms expected to come online by 2027, a 350-room hotel to be delivered over 4 years and 150 additional rooms inside a mixed-use commercial and entertainment village. The development will also feature golf courses and 30 boutique hospitality units.

Why the Essaouira bet makes sense

Morocco is one of the fastest-growing tourism markets in Africa. The country received 19.8 million visitors in 2025, up 14% from the prior year, making it the continent's top tourism destination for the 2nd consecutive year. With Morocco co-hosting the 2030 FIFA World Cup alongside Spain and Portugal, infrastructure investment in tourism is accelerating across several cities and coastal corridors.

Essaouira, a coastal city with a UNESCO-listed medina and a growing reputation as a windsport and cultural destination, sits in the middle of that growth story. The Mogador project had been part of Morocco's Plan Azur tourism development initiative since 2006 but struggled to gain momentum without committed investor capital behind it. The Sawiris-Al Nowais-Sunrise alliance is betting the demand is now real enough to justify the build.

The full scope of the development plan goes beyond the first phase. It includes renovation of the existing Sofitel Mogador, 3 new beachfront hotels, a Club Med resort, a beach club, a leisure village, a golf course and residential real estate. Over its full lifecycle, the project aims to add 3,700 accommodation beds and create up to 20,000 direct and indirect jobs in the region, according to earlier statements from Morocco's Ministry of Tourism.

Who Samih Sawiris is

Samih Sawiris, 69, is the middle of the 3 Sawiris brothers who divided Egypt's Orascom conglomerate between them in the late 1990s. Naguib took telecom and media, Nassef took construction and chemicals, and Samih took tourism and real estate. That split turned him into one of the most active destination developers in the region.

His signature achievement is El Gouna, an integrated resort town he built on Egypt's Red Sea coast that became a template for the kind of self-contained tourism destination he has replicated across multiple countries. He transformed Andermatt, a former Swiss military base in the Alps, into a $1.2 billion luxury resort with ski runs, championship golf, hiking and Michelin-starred dining. He also developed Lustica Bay in Montenegro, a Balkan coastal project that has attracted buyers from across Europe and the Middle East.

He stepped down as chairman of Orascom Development Holding AG in December 2021 and handed control to his son Naguib Samih Sawiris, but has continued investing through personal vehicles. The Morocco deal is being structured through Orascom Investments LLC, a UAE-based entity created specifically for this transaction.

Sawiris holds dual Egyptian and Montenegrin citizenship, acquired Montenegrin nationality in 2011, and studied engineering at the Technical University of Berlin. His net worth is estimated at approximately $1.4 billion. He ranks 20th on Africa's rich list by Forbes' 2026 measure.

Gulf and Egyptian capital moving together

What makes this deal structurally notable is less the dollar amount, which is meaningful but not enormous at the regional scale, and more the composition of the consortium. UAE capital from Al Nowais is flowing directly into a Morocco project alongside Egyptian developer expertise from Sunrise Group and Sawiris' own track record in resort creation.

That kind of cross-border capital deployment is becoming more common across the MENA tourism corridor. Gulf investors who once confined their tourism bets to their own markets are now treating North Africa as an adjacent high-growth zone with proven demand and government policy support behind it. Morocco, in particular, has worked hard to position itself as a destination that attracts institutional-grade investment rather than purely speculative land plays.

The 5-year deployment schedule gives the consortium time to build out the first phase and test absorption before committing to phase 2. How quickly those 800 rooms fill, and at what rate, will likely determine the pace and scale of what comes next.