Omar Effendi Again Has Egyptian Owners

This is one of those posts for the old Egypt hands, and may mean little to anyone else. Omar Effendi, Egypt's biggest department store chain, has been bought back by Egyptian investors after several years in Saudi hands. Descendant of a mercantile enterprise founded in the mid-1850s, it's a shopping institution. Comparing it to Macy's or Harrods would be misleading but not completely so, since it's a national institution, and I mostly knew it in its days as a nationalized institution with all the efficiency that "Egyptian state-run institution" implies. Like most of the big department stores, it was nationalized after the 1952 Revolution, mostly privatized more recently, though the state still holds a percentage. (The 1946 ad at left, complete with Royal "By Appointment to ..." logo, oddly uses pictures of fellahin, but is a reminder of its institutional status.)

The new ownership is Egyptian again, though there've been some questions about the purchase, and apparently the head of the investment company that bought it, Mohamed Metwalli, is alleged to be close to the Muslim Brotherhood. I have no idea if that's true, but many MB supporters are very much committed to capitalism. (His wife is from the Lokma family, also said to have links to the Brotherhood, and owners of Groppi, the tea room/cafe/chocalatier institution. (The Lokmas are also said to have Brotherhood links, and Groppi's Bar closed decades ago when the once-Italian institution fell under devout Muslim ownership. I remember Groppi's Bar. I'm old.)

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