By: Amr Adel
Dubai – Mubasher: The Egyptian company Pharos Holding for Financial Investments announced the establishment of Pharos Gulf Limited as its new headquarter in the UAE.
This step aims at attracting investors from the Gulf States to Egypt.
The new firm will be under the supervision of the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), and it will offer financial consulting services and capital and loans coordination services in the GCC states.
CEO of Pharos Holding Elwy Taymour said on Sunday during the inauguration of the new headquarter that the new firm is Pharos’ first expansion outside the Egyptian market.
Taymour pointed out that Pharos obtained the licence from Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), and the company is currently in talks with a number of clients in the region.
He attributed opening Pharos Gulf to the increased number of Pharos Holding’s Emirati clients in the Egyptian market.
Pharos Gulf targets attracting investors from the UAE or the GCC States in general who are interested in investing in Egypt, he continued.
The company may reach a new category of clients in the UAE’s financial markets through its existence in the DIFC, Taymour added.
Pharos may offer services to investors in the markets of Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia soon, he noted.
The UAE is the gate to the GCC markets, Taymour said, revealing that opening the new headquarter aims at covering the GCC markets, not the UAE markets only.
Pharos is considering expansion in the UAE through implementing transactions in the country as an Egyptian bank in Dubai, he highlighted, adding that this step is guaranteed by achieving operating profits.
He indicated that the UAE’s economy faced some obstacles, especially after the decline in oil prices, however, the country succeeded in achieving the least impacted economic diversification in the GCC region, as it depended on various sources of income over the past years.
Pharos’ volume of transactions amounts to EGP 12 billion ($681 million) in several sectors, including food, pharmaceutical, and manufacturing industries, Taymour said.
He added that Pharos now manages about EGP 4 billion assets, mostly are financial portfolios to institutional investors in fixed income instruments.
Pharos’ CEO noted that the investment climate in Egypt has been better than before after the new investment law, stressing that foreign investors are regaining their confidence in the Egyptian economy on the back of the reform programme.
Terror attacks may slightly affect foreign investors’ directions, but it wouldn’t be the same as the previous years, as the investment climate in Egypt is being improved and the country is somehow stable, Taymour concluded.
Pharos Holding, one of the leading financial institutions in Egypt, was established in 2005, and offer its clients with investment banking, asset management, securities brokerage, and bookkeeping services.
Translated by: Mai Ezz El-Din
