Sawiris restructures Andermatt

Zurich/Cairo. A Cairo court threatened the Egyptian businessman Samih Sawiris with a fine and possible imprisonment last week. Sawiris is accused of breaching Egyptian capital market laws through his company Orascom Hotels & Development. Sawiris has lodged an appeal.

Altdorf/Cairo. Orascom Development appoints Gerhard Niesslein as new CEO of the group. Samih Sawiris remains Executive Chairman focusing on the firm's strategic development.

Andermatt. The diggers are hard at work in the Ursen Valley. In the end, 1.5 million sq.m of fallow land will have been completely redeveloped. At the moment, only the mounds of earth indicate what the developer has in mind: In Andermatt in Switzerland, the outline of "Andermatt Swiss Alps" is slowly taking shape, the mega destination resort which the Egyptian Samih Sawiris will build from nothing by 2016. The plan is to attract tourists to this less popular part of Switzerland, located between Grisons and Valais with a whole new infrastructure. 850 hotel rooms, 490 apartments and at least 20 villas/holiday homes, a massive sport and leisure centre, congress hall, concert, golf and ski facilities are planned. The first million CHF villas and the first two buildings with condos have already been sold. And just a few weeks ago, Sawiris' own Orascom Development Holding AG began to advertise the holiday properties for sale in Great Britain, Germany, Austria and Italy. After all, the whole undertaking for the Egyptian developer is not a simple tourism project, but a hard, long-term property deal intended to bring huge capital gains. Sawiris' business model is quite unique in Europe, both in terms of geographical dimensions as well as detail of planning.