Egyptian

Beltone is a financial services group with 24 diversified funds and more than 100,000 clients. Khalil El Bawab, CEO of the Local & Regional Markets Division, shares the firm’s growth plans and challenges with Global Finance.

Beltone began in Cairo in 2002 as an asset management firm. In 2022, it was acquired by Emirati Chimera Investment, part of Abu Dhabi-based IHC. Since then, Beltone has completed two record capital increases—EGP 10 billion (about $210 million) in 2023, which at the time was the largest in Egyptian Exchange (EGX) history, and EGP 10.5 billion in 2025, which is now the record for the largest all-cash capital increase on the EGX. Today, Beltone is part of IHC’s new entity, 2PointZero, alongside eight other companies.

Global Finance: How is Beltone Holding currently structured?

Khalil El Bawab: Beltone is a fully fledged institution offering a wide range of services, including investment banking, brokerage, asset management, and custody services. Additionally, Beltone provides various non-banking financial services such as leasing, factoring, consumer and mortgage finance, SME finance, and microfinance. The organization also has a venture capital company that invests in startups through equity and venture debt. Beyond finance, Beltone has expanded into non-financial sectors, with businesses like Robin, which offers Data Science and AI solutions; Beltone Academy, focused on training and development; and Magnet, a human resources consultancy.

GF: What is your approach to the client’s needs?

Bawab: Traditionally, financial services were about selling products. However, amid the market’s emerging financial literacy levels, we shifted our focus on redefining the need. At Beltone, we pinpoint other needs for the clients and then we engineer tailored products around them. Here again, the approach is fully data-driven. For example, clients might not be aware of how to maximize their returns by moving their investments around between equities, fixed income products, precious metal funds, and other channels. Once the investor becomes aware of these diverse offerings and is aware of the ease of investing with Beltone, their need is redefined and met with a tailored portfolio of investing options. Credibility comes not from pushing the highest-commission product, but from ensuring that 5, 10, or 15 years later, clients can say they fulfilled their needs.

GF: How is the regulatory landscape supporting Beltone’s growth?

Bawab: The asset management industry in Egypt changed significantly in 2018. Before then, only banks and insurance companies could issue or sponsor funds. The new regulations allowed asset managers and investment banks to launch their own funds and brokerage firms to act as placement agents. This is a true milestone for the industry, allowing financial service providers to bridge the gap in terms of physical barriers, paperwork, and user experience for clients looking to invest.

Then, issuing a fund could take up to a year; now it takes just a very few days. Since then, more than 50 new funds have started, and that has completely changed the market. Also, the financial regulatory authority issued the FinTech License, which allows digital onboarding, including e-signatures and e-contracts, to help attract more investors to the market, effectively taking the market to new levels.

GF: You manage a large number of funds–why so many?

Bawab: We currently manage 24 funds, including 15 for banks, and plan to launch 5–6 more. All our funds have zero subscription or redemption fees — no entry or exit barriers. The market sees us as simply launching fund after fund, but it’s a conscious strategy and preparation for our upcoming wealth management application.

Today, we already offer the Beltone Trade App — the only investment bank-owned app not tied to a bank, giving qualified investors direct access to equities, fixed income products, and mutual funds. In early 2026, we’ll launch a second app that goes beyond robo-advisory. Clients will be digitally onboarded, complete a risk profiling exercise, and receive personalized advice on the optimal allocation for their investments. It could be single investments or incremental, with standard settlement instructions every month… I’m not concerned which channel the clients go to, but I want to equip them with the right tools to choose the products that best fit their needs.

GF: Who are the clients that you’re targeting?

Bawab: Generation Alpha. The ones who live on smartphones — they research everything and don’t want to interact with any human being. In fact, studies show people would rather visit the dentist than go to a bank! Egyptian law now allows 15-year-olds to open bank accounts and invest in the stock market. Our goal is to incentivize this generation early, with incremental investment plans matched by their guardians up to a limit. By starting at 15, we’re preparing the next driving force of our client base for the coming 10–15 years.

GF: Sounds like you are facing a huge financial literacy challenge.

Bawab: Sure, but you have it at all ages, and overall financial literacy in Egypt is improving rapidly. We are seeing tremendous growth in the number of new entrants opening brokerage accounts or participating in the stock market & mutual funds. We are still behind international standards, but our market growth is outpacing global benchmarks in terms of market participation. This is a collective effort that everybody is working on. The focus now is on making investing simpler and more accessible — and our upcoming wealth management app is designed to be exactly that: super simple and straightforward.

Nov. 1 (UPI) — The Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, Egypt, is one of the world’s largest and opened on Saturday after decades of delays and a cost of more than $1 billion.

The 5 million-square-foot museum features exhibits and artifacts ranging across 7,000 years, from prehistory to about 400 A.D., according to CBS News.

It also is the world’s only museum that is dedicated to one culture, which is ancient Egypt.

“It’s a great day for Egypt and for humanity,” Nevine El-Aref told CBS News. “This is Egypt’s gift to the world.”

El-Aref is the media advisor to Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy.

“It’s a dream come true,” El-Aref added. “After all these years, the GEM is finally and officially open,” he said.

The triangular structure is located about a mile from the pyramids of Giza, which makes it a can’t miss for those who want to experience Egyptian antiquities up close with tours of the pyramids and a visit to the museum.

The GEM’s construction initially was budgeted for $500 million, but that price more than doubled over the past three decades amid delays and cost overruns.

Egyptian sources and international contributions covered the building cost.

The museum first was proposed in 1992, but significant events occurred between then and now, including the 2011 “Arab Spring” revolution in Egypt, a military coup d’etat in 2013 and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, delaying its completion, CNN reported.

The GEM’s main entrance features a 53-foot-tall obelisk suspended overhead and is viewable from below via a glass floor.

A grand staircase containing 108 steps enables visitors to access the museum’s main galleries and view large statues from top to bottom.

The GEM has 12 main halls for exhibits and encompasses a combined 194,000 square feet that can hold up to 100,000 items, according to the museum.

The museum also two galleries that are dedicated to the pharaoh Tutankhamun and contain 5,300 pieces from his tomb, NBC News reported.

Those galleries and others will exhibit items that never have been made available for public viewing.

It’s also the first time that all of the young pharaoh’s items have been exhibited under the same roof since British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered King Tut‘s tomb in the Valley of the Kings in 1922.

The museum’s walls and slanted ceilings mimic the lines of the nearby pyramids, but the structure does not exceed them in height.

The museum’s opening prompted the Egyptian government to declare a national holiday on Saturday.

How it ranks with the world’s other iconic museums remains to be seen, but it likely will rank favorably with its unique collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts and other attractions.

Two halls are dedicated to the 5,000 artefacts from the collection of King Tutankhamun.

Cairo is set to open the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum that Egypt hopes will celebrate the nation’s heritage and also revitalise its struggling economy and tourism sector.

According to a statement from the Egyptian presidency, world leaders – including monarchs, and heads of state and government – were expected to attend the grand opening ceremony in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on Saturday.

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It described the museum opening as “an exceptional event in the history of human culture and civilisation”.

Massive statues and historical artefacts from the country’s ancient civilisation will be on display across the 24,000 square metres (258,000 square feet) of permanent exhibition space. Two decades in the making, the museum is located near the Giza Pyramids on the edge of Cairo.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi wrote on social media that the museum will bring “together the genius of ancient Egyptians and the creativity of modern Egyptians, enhancing the world culture and art with a new landmark that will attract all those who cherish civilisation and knowledge”.

The museum is one of several megaprojects championed by el-Sisi since he took office in 2014, embarking on massive investments in infrastructure with the aim of reviving an economy weakened by decades of stagnation and battered by the unrest that followed the 2011 Arab Spring uprising.

Preparations for the grand reveal have been shrouded in secrecy. Security around Cairo has been tightened ahead of the opening ceremony, with the government announcing that Saturday would be a public holiday. The museum, which has been open for limited visits over the past few years, was closed for the final two-week preparations.

The government has revamped the area around the museum and the nearby Giza Plateau that holds the pyramids and the Sphinx. Roads were paved and a metro station is being constructed outside the museum gates to improve access. An airport, Sphinx International Airport, has also opened west of Cairo, 40 minutes from the museum.

The $1bn facility had faced multiple delays, with construction beginning in 2005 but interrupted due to political instability.

From the atrium, a grand six-storey staircase lined with ancient statues leads up to the main galleries and a view of the nearby pyramids. A bridge links the museum to the pyramids, allowing tourists to move between them either on foot or via electric vehicles, according to museum officials.

The museum’s 12 main galleries, which opened last year, exhibit antiquities spanning from prehistoric times to the Roman era, organised by era and themes.

Two halls are dedicated to the 5,000 artefacts from the collection of King Tutankhamun, which will be displayed in its entirety for the first time since British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered King Tut’s tomb in 1922 in the southern city of Luxor.

The government hopes the museum will draw more tourists who will stay for a while and provide the foreign currency needed to shore up Egypt’s battered economy.

A record number of about 15.7 million tourists visited Egypt in 2024, contributing about 8 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, according to official figures. Egypt, which has needed repeated bailouts to stabilise its economy, uses the foreign currency it collects from tourism to pay for crucial imports such as fuel and wheat.

The government aims to attract 30 million visitors annually by 2032. The museum will be open to the public starting from Tuesday, authorities said.

Few recent films have had quite the reversal of reputation as Karyn Kusama’s 2009 supernatural high-school thriller, which can now clearly be seen for the wise, witty gem it has always been. Overwhelmed at the time by the cultural backlash that swarmed both its star Megan Fox (fresh from the media firestorm of the “Transformers” franchise) and screenwriter Diablo Cody, after her meteoric ascent with the Oscar-winning “Juno,” initial audiences were unprepared for a savage horror-comedy about the traumas of navigating the world as a teenage girl. The bond of two best friends (Fox, Amanda Seyfried) is put to the test when, after a ritual sacrifice goes awry, one of them becomes a possessed succubus who must feed on human flesh. Kusama’s finely modulated direction keeps all the plates of the story spinning as the film moves between being funny, scary and surprisingly tender toward its characters. A conversation with Kusama, Fox and professor Tananarive Due, who specializes in horror, should make this a special evening.

“Jennifer’s Body” is playing Oct. 25 at the Academy Museum. Tickets here.

Kaylum now faces a medical bill of £35,000 after needing emergency surgery

A man is facing a huge medical bill after severing an artery in his leg when a shower door shattered while he was on holiday. Kaylum Jones had to have surgery after cutting his leg while on holiday in Egypt, and now has a bill of £35,000.

Kaylum, 28, had travelled to Egypt with his partner and on the second day of his trip, a shower door shattered, severing an artery in his leg. Sister Chantele said: “It was so bad he thought he was going to die.”

When Kaylum got to hospital for major surgery, he was told that the travel insurance he had taken out would not cover the costs of the healthcare he needed. Kaylum had forgotten to take out insurance while in the UK, and did so upon arriving at the airport in Egypt.

“He had lost a lot of blood. His partner was in the other room sorting out all the insurance details while he was rushed into emergency surgery,” Chantele said. “He was actually awake while the surgery was happening. We were relying on his partner to communicate back to us with what was happening. It was a very long day waiting for the news.”

Chantele and her family have now set up a GoFundMe page in the hopes of raising funds towards the bill they have been left to pay in order for her brother to come home. “We have taken out a few loans, but they obviously have their repercussions,” Chantele said.

A total of £4,000 has been raised online so far. Now recovering from the major surgery to repair the artery, Kaylum is preparing to travel back to his home in Milton Keynes. Chantele is warning others to make sure they take out travel insurance before leaving the UK to go abroad.

“It does say in the small print that it needs to be taken out in the UK, but nobody ever reads that bit,” she said. Chantele said it is expected that her brother will need additional skin graft surgery once he is back in the UK.

She added that despite the language barriers, Kaylum has been treated “really well” while recovering from his accident in Egypt.

Previous indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, facilitated by mediators, ended without any results to end the Israel-Palestine war.

Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has held talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to discuss a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, as Israel intensifies its offensive to seize Gaza City.

“El-Sisi and the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Qatar stressed the importance of efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza,” according to a statement by the Egyptian presidency on Monday.

The two leaders “affirmed their rejection of the reoccupation of the Gaza Strip and the displacement of Palestinians”, as Israel plans to seize Gaza City and force Palestinians from the enclave’s main urban centre. They also insisted that establishing a Palestinian state is “the path to peace”.

A source told Al Jazeera that “intensive discussions” are currently taking place in Egypt between a Hamas delegation and mediators. Hamas, which governs Gaza, has been calling for a ceasefire, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rebuffed the offer.

Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been mediating between Israel and Hamas since the beginning of the war in Gaza that has killed 62,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children.

Efforts by mediators have so far failed to secure a lasting ceasefire in the ongoing war, which over more than 22 months has created a dire humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

A truce brokered by Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators that came into force in January was broken by Israel in March. Since then, it has imposed a total blockade, causing famine and starvation. More than 260 Palestinians have died due to the Israeli-induced starvation crisis.

The latest round of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, facilitated in Doha by mediators, lasted for several weeks before ending on July 25 without any results.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, visiting the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Monday, said that Qatar’s prime minister was visiting “to consolidate our existing common efforts in order to apply maximum pressure on the two sides to reach a deal as soon as possible”.

Alluding to the dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people living in the Gaza Strip, where United Nations agencies and aid groups have warned of a humanitarian crisis, Abdelatty stressed the urgency of reaching an agreement.

“The current situation on the ground is beyond imagination,” he said.

Thousands of Palestinians have been forced to flee again from Gaza City ahead of an impending Israeli offensive.

‘Genocides don’t end through negotiated solutions’

Commenting on the Qatari prime minister’s trip to Egypt, Abdullah Al-Arian, an associate professor of history at Georgetown University in Qatar, said it was important to remember that similar negotiations have occurred before, but it is “a lack of Israeli political will” that has ultimately stalled them.

Israel “has continued to pursue this genocide and taking it to new, horrific, unprecedented levels”, he told Al Jazeera, adding that there has been a lack of international pressure to secure a ceasefire agreement.

“Historically, genocides don’t end through negotiated solutions … They end usually because the party that committed the genocide is forced to end it, usually through external pressure, external intervention of some kind, and that has not happened yet,” the academic stressed.

On Monday, human rights group Amnesty International accused Israel of enacting a “deliberate policy” of starvation in Gaza as the UN and aid groups continued to warn of famine in the Palestinian enclave.

In a report quoting displaced Palestinians and medical staff who have treated malnourished children, Amnesty said: “Israel is carrying out a deliberate campaign of starvation in the occupied Gaza Strip.”

The UN and the international community have been slamming Israel for blocking necessary aid from entering the war-torn enclave.