What is Nassef Sawiris’s Net Worth?
Nassef Sawiris is an Egyptian billionaire businessman and investor who has a net worth of $9 billion. That makes him the richest person in Egypt.
The youngest son of business tycoon Onsi Sawiris, Nassef Sawiris, works for his family’s conglomerate, Orascom Construction, and runs its nitrogen fertilizer producer OCI. He also co-owns the sports holding company V Sports, through which he is a co-owner and the chairman of the English Premier League football team Aston Villa.
Early Life and Education
Nassef Sawiris was born on January 19, 1961, in Aswan, Egypt, into a Coptic Christian family. He has two older brothers named Naguib and Samih, both of whom also became businessmen. Their father was Onsi Sawiris, who founded the Orascom Construction conglomerate in the 1970s, and their mother was Yousriya. Nassef Sawiris was educated at the Deutsche Evangelische Oberschule in Egypt before he moved to the United States to attend the University of Chicago. There, he earned his bachelor’s degree in economics in 1982.
Sawiris joined the family company, Orascom Construction, in 1982. An engineering, procurement, and construction contractor, the company went on to become the first multinational corporation based in Egypt, with cement plants in over 25 countries. Sawiris oversaw the company’s construction activities, and following its incorporation in 1998, he became its CEO. Orascom Construction expanded considerably in the 2000s when it built a nitrogen fertilizer plant in Iowa and acquired the Weitz Company and BESIX Group. In 2013, the newly created Dutch company OCI NV became the parent company of Orascom Construction, and Sawiris was named OCI NV’s CEO. Later in the decade, Orascom Construction partnered with the French electric utility company Engie to construct the largest wind farm in Egypt.
Sports Team Ownership
In 2018, Sawiris co-founded the sports holding company NSWE with American billionaire businessman Wes Edens. The pair subsequently acquired a 55% controlling stake in the English football club Aston Villa, with Sawiris becoming the chairman of the club. In his first season as chairman, he oversaw Aston Villa’s longest winning streak ever, with 10 consecutive victories in 10 matches. Sawiris and Edens went on to purchase the entirety of Aston Villa in 2019. Two years later, NSWE was rebranded as V Sports. The company subsequently branched out into African football by forming a youth partnership with the Egyptian Premier League club ZED FC, owned by Sawiris’s brother Naguib.
In early 2023, V Sports acquired a minority stake in the Portuguese Primeira Liga club Vitória de Guimarães. As part of the deal, the company agreed to provide a credit line and invest in Vitória’s sporting infrastructure. Later in 2023, V Sports began partnerships with the Japanese J1 League club Vissel Kobe and the Spanish club Real Unión. The company went on to acquire a minority stake in Real Unión in late 2024. In addition to V Sports, Sawiris owns a small stake in the American sports holding company MSG Sports, which owns the NBA’s New York Knicks and the NHL’s New York Rangers.
Other Activities
Among his other business activities, Sawiris sat on the board of directors of the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchanges from 2004 to 2007. From 2008 to 2010, he sat on the board of directors of the Dubai International Financial Exchange and was also a board member of Lafarge SA. Sawiris later became a board member of LafargeHolcim in 2015, the same year he acquired a stake in Adidas AG via his investment company NNS Holding Sàrl Luxembourg. He subsequently became the supervisory director of Adidas AG in 2016.
In 2020, Sawiris founded the special-purpose acquisition company Avanti Acquisition. The company was ultimately shuttered in 2022 in the wake of a failed acquisition. Elsewhere, in the United States, Sawiris is a member of the global board of advisors of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the international leadership board of the Cleveland Clinic. He is also a member of the board of trustees of his alma mater, the University of Chicago.
Personal Life
With his wife, Sherine, Sawiris has four children. The couple has residences in Cairo, Egypt, and New York City, New York.
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