Dubai’s Emaar says not part of Egypt’s capital city project

Planned new capital to the east of Cairo will take up to seven years to build at a cost of $45 billion.

Dubai's Emaar Properties is not involved in a project to build a new administrative capital city in Egypt, it said on Monday after reports that the company would participate in the ambitious scheme.

Emaar, 29 per cent owned by state fund Investment Corporation of Dubai, last month filed a request to list its Egyptian unit on Cairo’s bourse, and the UAE is a close ally of Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah ElSisi.

But the company said in a Dubai bourse statement on Monday that it was not involved in developing the planned new capital to the east of Cairo, which housing minister Mostafa Madbouli said on Friday would take up to seven years to build at a cost of $45 billion.

“We would like to clarify that Emaar is not involved in the development of the new capital city project in Egypt,” it said, without saying whether it might become involved in future.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, tweeted on Friday that UAE aid to Egypt over the past two years had reached $14 billion.

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