Egyptian billionaire Ahmed Elsewedy's company wins $2.2 billion Saudi power plant deal

Elsewedy Electric, the Cairo-listed cable and power infrastructure group run by Egyptian tycoon Ahmed Elsewedy, has signed a $2.2 billion contract in a joint venture with China's Sinohydro to build a 2.3-gigawatt gas-fired power plant in Saudi Arabia.

The engineering, procurement and construction contract for the Rabigh 2 IPP expansion was awarded by Al Mourjan Two for Electricity Co., a project company set up by Saudi utility developer ACWA Power and Saudi Energy, formerly Saudi Electricity Co., according to Bahraini business news site TradeArabia. Each of the two Saudi sponsors owns 40% of the project, trade publication MEED reported. The companies did not say how the contract value is split between Elsewedy Electric and Sinohydro, a unit of state-owned Power Construction Corp. of China.

The plant, in Saudi Arabia's western Mecca region, will use six Siemens SGT6-5000F gas turbines and two Siemens SST-5000 steam turbines in a combined-cycle setup, in which waste heat from the gas turbines drives the steam units, TradeArabia reported. Commercial operation is targeted for May 2029.

Work already under way

Construction started before the main contract was signed. Work has been carried out under a limited notice to proceed, an early-works order that lets contractors mobilize ahead of a final agreement, and the project is now more than 39% complete, according to TradeArabia.

Hesham Hegazy, chief executive of Elsewedy Electric's power projects arm, called the signing "a proud moment for the joint venture" and said the team was "fully mobilized" to take the plant to commercial operation. ACWA Power Chief Executive Officer Samir Serhan described the project as "a valuable addition to Saudi Arabia's power system."

The expansion reached financial close earlier this month, with 14 local and international banks providing 9.69 billion riyals ($2.58 billion) of long-term debt with a tenor of about 34 years, MEED reported. Lenders include Saudi National Bank, Riyad Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

The plant will sell its power to Saudi Power Procurement Co., the kingdom's main electricity buyer, under a 31-year agreement worth 11.5 billion riyals ($3.07 billion), according to MEED, which cited the developers' stock exchange filings.

Growing in the Gulf

The contract adds to Elsewedy Electric's growing business in Saudi Arabia, which is adding generation capacity as electricity demand rises. The group opened a $40 million factory in Riyadh in November, Billionaires.Africa reported in August. Last year, Elsewedy's power projects unit hired Belgium's John Cockerill to supply two cooling towers for the same plant.

The company was founded by the Elsewedy family in 1938 and has grown into one of Africa's largest industrial groups, with factories and projects across the Middle East and Africa. Ahmed Elsewedy has been its president and chief executive since 2006, while his brother Sadek is non-executive chairman.

Ahmed Elsewedy owns about 25% of the company. That stake was worth about $1.11 billion at the end of September, according to Billionaires.Africa calculations.

Elsewedy Electric's sales rose 32% to 163.32 billion Egyptian pounds ($3.27 billion) in the first half of 2026, while net income climbed 14% to 9.92 billion pounds ($198.9 million).