Egypt's billionaire El-Sewedy family will supply the transformers for a giant New Zealand AI hub

Elsewedy Electric, the Cairo manufacturer controlled by Egypt's billionaire El-Sewedy family, will build the transformers for a substation powering what its developer says will be New Zealand's largest artificial intelligence data centre.

Datagrid has signed a pre-purchase agreement with Transpower New Zealand, the grid owner, covering four high-voltage power transformers, associated bushings and other long-lead items for its site in Southland. Elsewedy Electric will manufacture the transformers.

The substation will connect to the existing 220kV transmission lines running between the Manapōuri Power Station and Tiwai Point, delivering up to 360 megavolt-amperes of renewable electricity to the planned facility. One of the four transformers will serve as a dedicated backup, allowing full capacity to be maintained if any unit goes offline.

Ordering the equipment well ahead of construction is the critical scheduling move on a project of this kind, because transformers of that scale take years to build and deliver.

"Data centres are becoming the backbone of the digital economy, and meeting their growing energy needs will require trusted partners with both global scale and local commitment," said Abdelrahman El-Sewedy, group chief operations and strategy officer at Elsewedy Electric. "Through our global manufacturing network, we have the capability to meet rising demand across international markets while delivering with speed, reliability, and confidence."

El-Sewedy joined the board in 2017. The company credits him with a central role in building its data centre and artificial intelligence client vertical, with spearheading its entry into the North American market and with accelerating its expansion across Europe. He also serves as executive chairman of Elsewedy Steel, Elsewedy Telecom Cables and Elsewedy Digital, and as chief executive of the group's electrical products business.

Rémi Galasso, founder and chief executive of Datagrid, called the agreement a turning point. "Securing the grid connection equipment for our new GXP is a major milestone for Datagrid," he said. "It is great to work together as Team New Zealand, willing to position New Zealand as an international digital player in this highly competitive AI infrastructure game."

James Kilty, chief executive of Transpower, said the operator was watching the demands a project of this size would place on the system. "Transpower is carefully managing projects that require significant electricity such as Datagrid's to ensure that as they connect there is sufficient capacity on the grid to deliver the electricity and sufficient generation available to supply it," he said. Detailed design on the substation is continuing, and Datagrid is targeting commissioning in late 2027.

Datagrid says the Southland facility will be carbon-neutral and hyperscale, running on the region's renewable electricity.

The family behind the company

The El-Sewedy family began trading electrical equipment in 1938, became the distributor for Egypt's sole cable manufacturer in 1960, and opened Arab Cables in 1984, the first private-sector cable factory in a market where every other producer was state-owned.

The family held 78.7 percent of the listed company as of January 2025 and 68.1 percent by that July. Ahmed El-Sewedy has been president and chief executive since 2006 and held 25.52 percent, or 546,252,820 shares, worth about $897 million in March last year. His brother Sadek, the non-executive chairman, held 25.53 percent. Their combined stake approached $1.8 billion at that point. Mohamed, Azza, Zainab and Mona El-Sewedy have also held positions in the business.

Revenue rose 52.4 percent to 231.98 billion Egyptian pounds, about $4.58 billion, in 2024, while net profit climbed 72.6 percent to 17.46 billion pounds, roughly $344.74 million. Wires and cables drove the result, growing 66.4 percent to 137.2 billion pounds. Total assets increased 64.8 percent to 249.53 billion pounds, about $4.93 billion.

First-quarter revenue for 2025 reached 59.4 billion pounds, about $1.2 billion, up 31.3 percent year on year, with net profit of 4.15 billion pounds.

The group operates in 19 countries across seven segments spanning electrical cables and accessories, electrical products, telecommunications, transformers, wind energy, energy measurement and engineering, procurement and construction. It trades on the Egyptian Exchange under SWDY.

Recent work has followed regional infrastructure spending. Elsewedy Machinery, the group's trading division, is supplying the HVAC system for Egypt's 660-kilometre high-speed rail network alongside Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning MEA, on a project designed to move a million passengers and 8,500 tonnes of cargo daily.

Elsewedy Electric set out a three-year expansion strategy in early 2025 aimed at doubling exports and using artificial intelligence to raise productivity. The New Zealand agreement puts Egyptian-manufactured transformers into the power infrastructure of an AI data centre in the South Pacific, well outside the Middle East and African markets that have carried most of the group's growth.