Egyptian billionaire Samih Sawiris has caused a big stir in German investment circles after acquiring the Thomas Cook franchise in Germany through his tourism group, Raiffeisen Touristik Group, and he is now about to become one of the country's biggest entrepreneurs.
According to Germany's Handelsblatt newspaper, Sawiris owns about 74.9% of the Raiffeisen Touristik Group, and while the company generates about 3.5 billion euros in sales, in addition to incorporating the Otto Reiseland brand, Thomas Cook Netherlands and 700 private travel agencies, hundreds of travel agencies are expected to pass to Sawiris after he obtained the Thomas Cook franchises in Germany.
Sawiris also holds shares in Munich-based tourism company FTI, owning a third of the company after taking the partial stake three years ago, while his company is linked to hotel development, as his company Orascom owns about 35 hotels in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the Sultanate of Oman and Switzerland. His tourism business is expected to expand with his future plans to set up hotel projects in Montenegro and Morocco.
According to the German newspaper, sales and acquisitions of the franchises of the Thomas Cook brand and a number of local companies have spread since it declared bankruptcy in Germany in the past few months.
According to Britain's The Telegraph newspaper, the Egyptian billionaire's business in Switzerland received the same attention at the beginning of this year after he put the village in the Urseren Valley in the Swiss Alps on the global tourism map, and the newspaper noted that Sawiris had reinvented the Swiss resort.
