Egypt's billionaire Elsewedy family bets $700 million on energy services

Elsewedy Electric, the Cairo-listed group controlled by Egypt's billionaire El Sewedy family, has announced roughly $700 million of new investment over the past nine months and taken control of a Dutch turbine servicing company, moving a business built on selling cable into the higher-margin work of running and maintaining power systems.

The clearest evidence of the shift came on Tuesday, Sept. 8, when Elsewedy signed an agreement in Cairo with Vodafone Business and Cassava Technologies to establish Africa Data Centres Egypt, a venture starting at 20 megawatts and scaling to 200. Egypt's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology expects it to attract $200 million initially and $1 billion on completion. Elsewedy's role is power, construction and delivery, the part of a data centre project that determines whether it opens on time.

The $700 million figure is a Billionaires.Africa aggregation of the company's announced commitments and does not include the data centre venture, where the split among the three partners has not been disclosed.

Buying the service layer

The strategic move came in May, when Elsewedy acquired 60 percent of Thomassen Service, a Netherlands-based specialist in gas turbine inspection, repair and overhaul with about three decades in the field. Ahmed El Sewedy, the company's chief executive and managing director, signed the agreement with Peter Hertog, Thomassen's chief executive, in the presence of Sadek El Sewedy, the chairman. The transaction covered Thomassen's Middle East and Africa arm, its filter manufacturing unit and its Africa-based subsidiary.

The purchase price was not disclosed.

Turbine servicing is a different business from making cable. Cable is a commodity sold once, priced against copper and aluminium, and squeezed by whoever can produce it cheapest. Servicing a turbine is a recurring contract that runs for the life of the asset, carries higher margins, and locks the supplier into the customer's operations. Original equipment manufacturers have historically kept the aftermarket for themselves, which is why an independent servicing capability is worth acquiring rather than building.

Elsewedy is also developing two facilities in the United Arab Emirates dedicated to gas turbine component repair, which would let it handle work regionally rather than shipping parts to Europe.

The Saudi build-out

Saudi Arabia has become the company's largest expansion theatre. Its industrial operations there already generate $533 million, alongside engineering and construction projects worth about $4 billion.

In December the company said it would put roughly $400 million, or 1.5 billion Saudi riyals, into nine new factories in the kingdom. Two are planned at Yanbu, one making specialised cables and one producing copper rods in partnership with Alfanar, with annual capacity above 130,000 tonnes. Riyadh plants would make cable accessories, fibreglass, electric vehicle chargers and water meters. A Dammam facility would produce power transformers. A further $67 million, or 250 million Qatari riyals, was earmarked for copper and aluminium rod and distribution transformer plants in Qatar, with production potentially starting in 2027 if the board approves.

The project work has moved in parallel. Elsewedy is building six high-voltage substations across Saudi Arabia at 110 to 115 kilovolts, working with Saudi Electricity Company and National Grid Company alongside Hitachi Energy and Siemens Energy. The sites run from Jawharat Al Arous and Naqua in the west, through Riyadh, to Al-Nasriyah, Al-Khaleej-2 and Al-Fayhaa around Dammam.

The company is also part of a consortium with Siemens Energy delivering the Rabigh 1 Expansion, a combined cycle gas turbine plant of about 1,200 megawatts sited 135 kilometres north of Jeddah and built ready for carbon capture. Elsewedy Electric Power Systems Projects, led by chief executive Hesham Hegazy, is the engineering, procurement and construction contractor.

Egypt, vehicles and waste

At home, the group committed $200 million in June to three industrial projects centred on waste valorisation, recycled materials processing and closed-loop manufacturing, arguing that Egypt has a comparative advantage in circular-economy production of cables and electrical components.

It completed ROX ESI Egypt, a joint venture with the Abu Dhabi electric vehicle company ROX, which is to build luxury electric vehicles at Elsewedy's Sixth of October industrial complex from mid-2027. It won a $60 million contract for high-voltage cable installation on a Kuwaiti national housing project.

Elsewedy Data Centers has separately been working with Gulf Data Hub, the Dubai-based operator, on plans for three data centre campuses in Egypt. Gulf Data Hub, founded in 2014, runs facilities in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Jeddah with more under construction across the Gulf.

The expansion has been financed in part through a 20 billion Egyptian pound credit facility, about $395 million at roughly 50.6 pounds to the dollar, signed with Emirates NBD Group in October 2025 to fund growth in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Who owns it

Elsewedy Electric was founded in 1938 by the El Sewedy family as a small trader in electrical equipment. It now employs about 17,000 people across six continents, runs more than 34 industrial plants, operates in 60 countries and exports to more than 110.

The family retains control. Ahmed El Sewedy, the president and chief executive, holds 25.52 percent, or 546,252,820 shares. His brother Sadek, the non-executive chairman, holds 25.53 percent, or 546,502,820 shares. A third brother, Mohammed, holds 18.01 percent. Together the three own roughly 69 percent of a company with about 2.14 billion shares on the Egyptian Exchange. Billionaires.Africa last valued the two brothers' combined holding at about $1.8 billion in June 2026.

The company reported 2024 revenue of 231.98 billion Egyptian pounds, about $4.58 billion, up 52.4 percent, and net profit of 17.46 billion pounds, roughly $344.74 million, up 72.6 percent.

What the record of the past nine months shows is a family group repositioning around the constraint the region actually faces. Gulf and North African economies are adding generating capacity, industrial plant and now data centres faster than they can service them, and the companies that own the maintenance contracts, the substations and the turbine repair shops capture more of that value than the ones selling the cable that connects it all.