Islam Azzam, Chairman of the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA):

  • The fund's launch is the result of close cooperation between the FRA, the relevant authorities and the fund's parties, implementing the state's plan to rescue distressed industrial companies and factories.

  • The FRA is using non-bank financial products to support vital sectors of the national economy, and investment funds are playing a growing role in strengthening the business environment.

As part of the Financial Regulatory Authority's continued support for vital economic sectors, and its ongoing efforts to back the industrial sector through the non-bank financial products it supervises, in line with presidential directives and Egypt Vision 2030, the FRA, chaired by Dr. Islam Azzam, has approved the licensing of the Distressed Factories Restructuring Investment Fund (No. 1033) and the opening of subscription in its certificates from next Sunday, 4 October 2026.

The fund's certificates will be offered under the terms set out in detail in the information memorandum approved by the FRA: 1 billion certificates, including those subscribed by the fund's founder, at a par value of EGP 1 each and a total value of EGP 1 billion.

The new fund was established under Capital Market Law No. 95 of 1992, its executive regulations and their amendments, and the supplementary decrees, with a target size of up to EGP 1 billion to be paid in installments according to available investment opportunities that meet the criteria disclosed in the information memorandum. The most important of these requires the investment manager, when selecting target companies, to apply a set of quantitative and qualitative criteria that ensure the selection of companies that can be turned around and are able to generate a rewarding return after restructuring, based on the feasibility study prepared by the investment manager.

Dr. Islam Azzam, Chairman of the FRA, said the launch of the Distressed Factories Restructuring Fund is the result of joint efforts and close cooperation between the FRA, the relevant authorities and the fund's parties. It aims to implement the state's plan to rescue distressed industrial companies and factories and make use of their production capacity and existing assets, as a key step toward reviving the industrial sector across its activities and supporting its sustainability.

He explained that the FRA is continuing its approach of using non-bank financial products to strengthen sectors of vital importance to the national economy, as well as broadening and deepening the activities it supervises so that they contribute more to the economy's prosperity. He noted that the continued development of the regulatory framework for open-ended and closed-ended investment funds has had a positive effect on the business environment and has led to the growth of safe investment channels under the FRA's full supervision.

The Distressed Factories Restructuring Fund was established as a closed-ended private equity investment fund. Its certificates are offered through a private placement limited to financial institutions and to qualified public and private entities and legal persons, in accordance with the rules issued by the FRA board in Decree No. 48 of 2019. Its investments are managed by CI Capital PE for Fund Management, Investment and Venture Capital.

The fund aims to invest directly in the shares and stakes of distressed companies operating in food processing, engineering industries, chemicals, textiles and ready-made garments, pharmaceuticals and building materials, in order to support the restructuring of these companies and the development of their operational and financial policies.

The fund plays the role needed to ensure the recovery plan is carried out, operating targets are met, and distressed industrial companies and factories are restructured. These are companies with financial obligations they cannot meet as the interest charged on them accumulates, yet which still have a product and a market share, have not lost their core economic viability, and can be rescued through a carefully studied financial and operational restructuring.

The fund performs this role in coordination with the executive management of these distressed companies and factories, as decided by the fund's investment committee. The investment manager may form a technical committee of members experienced in the target industrial sector in which the target company operates; its composition varies according to the nature of the investment opportunity and the target industry.

Investment opportunities are valued before they are acquired and before exit, and the fund's net assets are valued twice a year, with the help of independent financial advisers registered with the FRA and in accordance with the financial valuation standards set out in its regulatory decrees.