“A positive message” is how the presidential spokesperson described President Mohamed Morsi's decision to send an envoy to receive businessmen Naguib Sawiris, the telecommunications and media tycoon, and his father, Onsi Sawiris, the founder of the Orascom Group, at Cairo Airport last Friday when they returned to Egypt. The return of these two prominent members of the Sawiris family, the owners and founders of the country's largest business group, came only a couple of days after Orascom Construction Industries (OCI), owned by Nasser Sawiris, the middle son, said it had agreed to pay LE7 billion in late taxes. The authorities then lifted a travel ban imposed on both Onsi and Nassef. According to the presidential spokesperson, the warm reception of the two businessmen and other members of their family meant that “Egypt welcomes honest businessmen who are willing to reconcile their finances with the state.” The tax issues with OCI, which has construction and fertiliser units, are related to capital gains it realised in 2007 when it sold cement unit to the French firm Lafarge for $11.5 billion. Morsi has referred publicly to the case in a way that many have read as being hostile to the company's executives. Market experts said that the travel ban was issued as a retaliatory step after news that OCI, representing about a quarter of the EGX-30 stock index, would list most of its shares at NYSE Euronext in Amsterdam. Naguib Sawiris, the eldest son of the influential Coptic family and a critic of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood group, left the country earlier this year in self-imposed exile due to political confrontations with the regime. Sawiris was involved in political life after the 25 January Revolution by setting up a political party that participated in many anti-Morsi demonstrations. He also used to own a private TV channel, ONTV, which broadcast talk shows critical of the regime. “No businessman or politician can work in such a political environment,” he said in a TV interview in March. “How can you expect someone to come to invest in a country where he may be imprisoned,” he asked. Since the overthrow of former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011, several Egyptian businessmen have been investigated or tried on corruption-related charges. “Reconciling with the Sawiris family and businessmen in general is a boost for the business environment, which is currently overshadowed by political instability,” said Mohsen Adel, deputy head of the Egyptian Association for Finance and Investment Studies. The Muslim Brotherhood regime has been criticised for favouring businessmen belonging to the group at the expense of others, including remnants of the former Mubarak regime. In dealing with cases where businessmen from the former regime are involved, the authorities must differentiate between a felony and reconcilable financial misconduct, Adel said. The return of the Sawiris family coincided with news that a settlement had been reached with the lawyer of fugitive businessman Hussein Salem, a friend and confidante to former president Mubarak. Salem faces charges of profiteering from links with the old regime, as well as squandering public money in contracts to export gas to Israel through a company in which he held the majority of shares. Reconciliation with former regime business icons would convey a positive message to foreign investors about the business environment in Egypt, Adel said. In February, Hassan Malek, the most influential businessman in the Muslim Brotherhood, launched a campaign to come to agreements with Mubarak-era business tycoons. Malek said that the return of these investors, who own large projects in Egypt, would be a reassuring sign for the economy. The list includes Travco Travel Company head Hamed al-Shiati and Yassin Mansour, whose family has interests in the automotive, banking and retail industries. Malek is also engineering negotiations with former trade and industry minister and vice president of Unilever Mashreq, Rachid Mohamed Rachid. Rachid was sentenced to five years in jail and fined $1.57 million in absentia in 2011 on charges of profiteering and wasting public funds. Most of the charges were later annulled and a retrial ordered. “The economy is in dire need of the investments of these businessmen. They could even negate the need for the IMF loan,” Adel concluded.
