Nassef Sawiris Biography, Early Life, Career & Net Worth

Nassef Sawiris Biography, Early Life, Career, Sport Ownership, Personal Life and Net Worth

Born: 19 January 1961

Education: Deutsche Evangelische Oberschule

Occupation: Businessman

Spouse: Sherine Sawiris

Children: 4

Parent: Onsi Sawiris

Nationality: Egyptian

Nassef Onsi Sawiris is an Egyptian businessman who was born on January 19, 1961. He is the youngest of Onsi Sawiris’ three boys; his brothers are Naguib and Samih. His net worth was thought to be $8.7 billion in October 2021, making him the richest Egyptian and the fourth richest African.

Early Life

Nassef Sawiris went to the Deutsche Evangelische Oberschule Kairo for his secondary schooling. After that, he went to the University of Chicago and got a bachelor’s degree in economics there in 1982.

Career

In 1982, Sawiris joined the Orascom group and took over running Orascom Construction after his father, Onsi Sawiris, handed over the reins of management in 1995. He became CEO of Orascom Construction Industries when the business was founded in 1998. OCI SAE bought a 50% share in Besix in 2004 and put him on the board. Until 2017, he was a member of the compensation and nominations committee.

From 2004 to 2007, he served on the boards of the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchanges. From July 2008 to June 2010, he served on the board of the Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX).

He became CEO of OCI NV in January 2013 when they bought the parent company OCI SAE. He was chosen to be on the board of LafargeHolcim in 2015, after being on the board of Lafarge SA since 2008.

It was said in October 2015 that Sawiris had bought a piece of Adidas AG through his financial firm, NNS Holding Sàrl Luxembourg. He was made senior director of Adidas AG in Herzogenaurach, Germany, in 2016.

Sawiris set up Avanti buying Corp, a Special-purpose buying company, in October 2020. But Avanti Acquisition shut down in October 2022 because it couldn’t buy another business.

Sports Ownership

Sawiris has put a lot of money into owning sports teams, mostly association football teams. Sawiris owns the football club holding company V Sports with millionaire Wes Edens. V Sports owns the Premier League team Aston Villa and a 46% stake in the Primeira Liga team Vitória S.C. V Sports is also talking about starting a Major League Soccer team in Las Vegas. The name “Las Vegas Villains” is already registered as a trademark in both the United States and Europe.

Sawiris also has a 6.3% share in the American company MSG Sports, which owns the NBA’s New York Knicks and the NHL’s New York Rangers as of March 2021.

Aston Villa

In July 2018, Sawiris and fellow billionaire Wes Edens bought a controlling 55% share in English Championship club Aston Villa for £30 million. They called themselves NSWE. Under the former owner, Tony Xia, the club had a lot of cash flow problems and was in danger of being wound up by HMRC because it owed them £4 million in taxes. After being taken over, NSWE spent a lot of money to fix those problems.

The club was promoted back to the Premier League after a lot of changes in management and playing staff, including the hiring of Dean Smith as manager and Christian Purslow as CEO, who used to work for Liverpool. This included a stretch of 10 straight wins for Villa, their longest winning streak ever. After being promoted, NSWE bought out the rest of Xia’s shares and became the single owner in August 2019. To do this, they took on Xia’s unpaid £30m debt to the company’s previous owner, Randy Lerner.

Since Sawiris and Eden bought Aston Villa, a lot of money has been put into it. As of August 2022, about £360 million in debt-free share capital had been put in. Plans are well under way to make Villa Park bigger, from 42,682 seats to over 50,000. As part of these plans, the North Stand will be torn down and a large shopping area will be built. The project will cost more than £100 million, and V Sports will pay for it all.

The NSWE holding business changed its name to V Sports in 2021. Its goal is to use a multi-club model to invest in other clubs around the world.

Vitória de Guimarães

V Sports agreed to buy a 46% share in Portuguese Primeira Liga team Vitória S.C. for €5 million in February 2023. As part of the deal, V Sports would put an extra €2 million into sports facilities over the next two years and offer a credit line of up to €20 million. The members of Vitória approved the deal on March 4, 2023.

Other Activities

University of Chicago, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2013)
Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Member of the Global Board of Advisors
Cleveland Clinic, Member of the International Leadership Board

Personal Life

Sawiris is married to Sherine and has four children. He lives in Cairo and also has a home in New York City. He is a Christian Copt.

Net Worth

Nassef Sawiris is an investor and comes from the richest family in Egypt. His most important thing is a nearly 6% stake in Adidas, a company that makes sportswear.
He bought a 5% share in Madison Square Garden Sports, the company that owns the NBA’s Knicks and the NHL’s Rangers, in December 2020.

He is in charge of OCI, which has plants in Texas and Iowa and is one of the biggest nitrogen fertilizer companies in the world. It trades on the Euronext Amsterdam market.

A company called Orascom Construction does business on the Cairo market and the Nasdaq Dubai.

He owns shares in Adidas and the cement giant Lafarge Holcim. He is also on the board of directors for Adidas.
Wes Edens of Fortress Investment Group and Nassef Sawiris worked together to buy Aston Villa Football Club in the Premier League.

He is estimated to have about $8.6 billion