Saudi billionaire Abdulrahman Sharbatly's Golden Pyramids Plaza posts an 89% profit drop in Egypt

Golden Pyramids Plaza, the Egyptian Exchange-listed hospitality and entertainment company controlled by Saudi billionaire Abdulrahman Hassan Sharbatly, posted a 89.01 percent year-on-year drop in consolidated net profits attributable to the parent company in the first quarter of 2026, registering $4.945 million in net profit after tax compared to $35.9 million in the same period of 2025.

The sharp earnings contraction came despite revenues holding broadly stable. Operating revenues declined modestly to $25.372 million from $26.035 million in Q1 2025, a drop of just 2.5 percent. The divergence between the narrow revenue decline and the steep earnings collapse points to significant cost pressures, one-time charges or base-period gains that inflated the prior year's comparable figure, rather than a structural revenue collapse at the operating level.

Golden Pyramids Plaza was established in May 1991 and has been listed on the Egyptian Exchange since August 1997, trading under the ticker GPPL. The company's core asset is CityStars, Egypt's largest integrated tourism and entertainment complex, located in the Nasr City district of Cairo. CityStars houses more than 550 retail shops, the InterContinental Cairo CityStars and Holiday Inn Cairo CityStars hotels, chalets, wedding and events venues, bowling alleys, roller skating rinks, cinemas, housing units, administrative offices and a surgical and health centre. The complex functions as a self-contained urban destination drawing domestic and international visitors across its retail, hospitality and entertainment dimensions.

The company generated full-year 2024 revenues of $94.29 million, up 3.53 percent from $91.07 million in 2023, reflecting a steady upward trajectory in its core operations before the Q1 2026 earnings disruption. Its market capitalisation on the EGX stands at approximately $808.6 million.

Who controls the company

Abdulrahman Hassan Abbas Sharbatly personally holds a 21.70 percent stake in Golden Pyramids Plaza, representing 125,358,064 shares. Memphis Worldwide Hotel, the largest single shareholder, holds 32.61 percent. Lady Well Corp holds 11.11 percent. Blue Nile Limited holds 7.58 percent. Al Nahla Trading and Contracting Company, a vehicle linked to the Sharbatly family business group, holds a further 4.24 percent. Sharbatly family members including Yasser Hassan Abbas Sharbatly and Ibrahim Hassan Abbas Sharbatly hold additional smaller stakes. The combined Sharbatly family control across directly held shares and associated corporate vehicles exceeds 40 percent of the company's issued share capital.

Sharbatly has served as chairman and co-managing director of Golden Pyramids Plaza since 2012. He is also the founder and chairman of Golden Pyramids Real Estate Group, the broader development entity behind CityStars.

Who Sharbatly is

Abdulrahman Hassan Sharbatly is the chairman and chief executive of Al Nahla Group, one of Saudi Arabia's top ten family business conglomerates and one of the oldest commercial dynasties in the Kingdom. The group was founded in 1946 by his grandfather, the late H.E. Hassan Abbas Sharbatly, who was bestowed the title of Honorary Minister of State by the late King Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud in 1934 in recognition of his contributions to the early economic and social development of Saudi Arabia. It was the first such title in the history of the Kingdom.

Abdulrahman leads the second generation of the family's stewardship of a group whose interests span trading, real estate, hospitality, automotive, financial services and investments across Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other markets.

His business footprint extends well beyond Golden Pyramids Plaza. He is the founder of Al Sagr Cooperative Insurance Company, one of Saudi Arabia's established cooperative insurance operators. He is the founder of SACO, the Saudi home improvement and hardware retail chain that has grown into one of the kingdom's most recognisable home goods retailers. He is the founder of Jeddah Economic Company and the founder of SAMACO, the Saudi automotive distribution and dealership operation.

In financial services, he served as a non-executive director on the board of Riyad Bank, one of Saudi Arabia's largest commercial banks. He served as a non-executive director on the board of MTN Group, the South African telecommunications giant with operations across Africa and the Middle East, giving him direct board-level exposure to the continent's largest mobile operator. He also served on the board of Saudi Arabia Refineries Company. His undergraduate education was at the University of Victoria.

In Egypt beyond Golden Pyramids Plaza, he is the chairman of South Valley Cement Company, a position he has held since 2020, giving him a presence in Egypt's construction materials sector alongside his hospitality and retail holdings.

He chairs the Hassan Sharbatly Foundation for Community Service, the family's philanthropic vehicle. Arabian Business named him among its 150 Most Influential Arabs in its 2025 ranking, describing him as one of the Arab world's most significant multi-sector business leaders.

His son Hassan Sharbatly serves as CEO of Al Nahla Hospitality, a subsidiary of the Al Nahla Group focused on developing Saudi Arabia's hospitality sector in alignment with the kingdom's Vision 2030 diversification programme.

The Q1 2026 profit collapse at Golden Pyramids Plaza does not alter the fundamental commercial position of an integrated complex that generated $94 million in revenues in 2024 and commands a market capitalisation approaching $810 million on the Egyptian Exchange. It does raise questions about the cost structure and non-operating items that produced such a sharp divergence between revenue stability and earnings performance that the company's management will be expected to address in subsequent quarterly disclosures.