Egyptian tycoon Medhat Mohamed Khalil abandons sale of Raya Foods to Helios

Raya Holding has abandoned the sale of Raya Foods to Helios Investment Partners, ending a transaction its board approved eight months ago.

The Egyptian investment group, controlled by the businessman Medhat Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil, said its directors resolved at a meeting on Sept. 2 to discontinue the deal referenced in their Jan. 11 decision, which covered an amended offer from Helios to buy 100% of Raya Foods' share capital. Certain key conditions required to complete the transaction were not fulfilled. Neither company has said which ones.

Khalil holds the company through two positions. El Pharonia for Real Estate Investment, his investment vehicle, owns 26.59%, and he holds a further 17.05% in his own name, giving him control of roughly 43.6% before family holdings. His son Ahmed Medhat Khalil is managing director and chief executive, and other family members hold about 5% between them.

What Raya keeps is a substantial export business. Raya Foods is Egypt's leading exporter of frozen strawberries and ships frozen fruit and vegetables to more than 50 countries, with annual capacity around 50,000 tonnes. Roughly 95% of its revenue arrives in foreign currency, which makes it unusually valuable on an Egyptian balance sheet at a time when the pound has been under sustained pressure.

Helios is not leaving. The London firm, founded in 2004 and the largest Africa-focused private investment manager with more than $3.5 billion under management, already owns 49% of Raya Foods. It bought that stake in October 2024 in a deal worth about $40 million, combining a purchase of existing shares, a $14 million capital increase and a $9 million convertible mezzanine loan. The money funded expanded processing capacity and a freeze-drying facility at Sadat City.

The move to full ownership came in December 2025, when Raya Holding's board granted preliminary approval to sell the remaining 51% and called an extraordinary general meeting. Final approval was made conditional on a fair value report from an independent adviser and sign-off from the company's auditor.

The logic behind the original sale was portfolio rebalancing. Frozen food exports demand continuous spending on cold-chain logistics, manufacturing and working capital, and Raya Holding had been shifting toward electronic payments, information technology services and digital platforms, where returns on capital are higher. Selling a matured export platform would have released money for those businesses.

The company now says the opposite, describing Raya Foods as a strategic asset that will continue with its expansion plans and strengthen its export capability.

Khalil founded Raya in 1999. He worked at IBM's Egyptian operation before starting his own technology company, Protech, then partnered with Orascom Group in 1997 to launch Oratech. Those two merged with five other companies to create Raya Holding, which he listed on the Egyptian Exchange in 2005 and built into a conglomerate spanning information technology, outsourcing, electronic payments, microfinance, restaurants, food trading and vehicle assembly. It employs close to 18,000 people.

Baker McKenzie advised Raya Holding on the original Helios transaction, with Attijariwafa Bank of Morocco as financial adviser.