Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris takes majority control of chemical company OCI Global

Nassef Sawiris has taken majority control of OCI Global, lifting the stake held by his family investment firm to 54.94% as the Egyptian billionaire presses a cash bid to take the Amsterdam-listed company private.

NNS Holding, the Cyprus-based vehicle that manages Sawiris's fortune, bought 403,642 more OCI shares on July 10 at an average price of 4.0790 euros, according to a regulatory filing. Counting Sawiris's personal holdings, the family now controls 116,519,700 shares, or 55.13% of the company.

The purchases sit inside a broader campaign. NNS is running a voluntary all-cash offer of 4.10 euros per share for all of OCI, and it has been buying stock in the open market alongside the bid, staying at or below that price. It crossed the halfway mark only days earlier, reaching 50.26% on trades settled around July 7 before climbing further this week.

The offer is Sawiris's answer to a standoff that has frozen OCI for more than half a year. In December, the company agreed to merge with Orascom Construction, the Cairo- and Abu Dhabi-listed contractor also tied to the Sawiris family, in a deal meant to build an Abu Dhabi-based infrastructure group. A shareholder vote set for January was pulled after the Enterprise Chamber of Amsterdam's Court of Appeal sided with minority investors who complained of conflicts of interest. The court installed two independent directors with veto power to shield smaller holders.

Sawiris stepped down as OCI's executive chairman soon after, a move widely read as an effort to ease the court's concerns about his influence over the board. He and his sister Nadia Sawiris, who sits on the board, recused themselves from every discussion of the NNS bid. In April, a separate Sawiris vehicle lifted his stake in Orascom Construction to 43.39%, tightening the family's hold on the other side of the proposed merger.

NNS first floated a cash offer on May 11 and confirmed its intention to bid on June 24. It has called 4.10 euros its final price and said it would sell its own OCI stake if a rival came forward with a higher offer for all shareholders. The price sits about 2% above where OCI traded before the bid and values the company at roughly 866.6 million euros, or just under $1 billion. Members of the Sawiris family holding about 9.07% of OCI have agreed not to tender their shares.

OCI is a shell of the company it once was. Built by Sawiris out of the fertiliser and construction empire his father Onsi founded, it listed in Amsterdam in 2013 and grew into one of the world's largest nitrogen and methanol producers. Over the past few years it sold off most of those operating businesses, including stakes in fertiliser and methanol assets, and returned billions to shareholders through special dividends. What remains is a leaner entity whose direction has been caught between the family's drive to fold it into Orascom and minority holders seeking either better terms or a clean cash exit.

Sawiris is Egypt's richest person and among the wealthiest in Africa, with a fortune Bloomberg has estimated at about $11 billion. He led OCI from its Amsterdam debut and previously ran Orascom Construction Industries, the group at the center of one of the Arab world's best-known business dynasties. His brothers Naguib and Samih Sawiris built separate fortunes in telecoms and Red Sea resorts. His holdings outside OCI include a large stake in Adidas and co-ownership of the English football club Aston Villa.

The open-market buying gives sellers a way out at close to the offer price while steadily concentrating ownership in the family's hands. NNS has said it may keep purchasing shares outside the formal offer where the law allows, and that it will disclose any significant moves. The bid carries no minimum acceptance threshold, meaning Sawiris can complete it without winning over a fixed share of investors. Full control would clear the path to delist OCI from Euronext Amsterdam and turn it into a wholly owned arm of the family office.

That outcome now looks closer. With a majority already secured and the offer still open, the open question is how many minority holders take the cash and how many hold out for the value the Orascom deal was meant to unlock.