The Egyptian Billionaire Called Mohamed Mansour & His Net Worth

As an undergraduate in the 1960s, Mohamed Mansour struggled academically and financially. With the help of family, friends and supportive faculty, the young man went on to build one of Egypt’s most successful businesses. Mansour shares his story at NC State’s spring commencement ceremony.

Mohamed Mansour Family

Mohamed Mansour and his older brother Youssef were living the American dream. Together, the brothers from Alexandria, Egypt, heirs to a successful cotton business, were members of NC State’s FarmHouse fraternity, reflecting a mutual agricultural heritage.

Mohamed cruised up and down Raleigh’s Hillsboro Street in the 1964 silver Corvette he co-owned with Youssef and their cousin Ahmed El Maghraby, who was also studying chemical engineering at NC State. Mohamed lived comfortably on the $200 a month his parents sent him. Youssef was a member of the NC State varsity soccer team.

It was an exciting life for young Mohamed, who had enrolled at State College in January 1964 as a 16-year-old aerospace engineering student, following an unlikely recovery from an accident he suffered at the age of 10, when he was hit by a car outside his home in Alexandria.

The near-fatal accident almost cost him his legs, but the stubborn boy convinced his doctors to let him heal without amputation. It took more than three years of being bedbound, watching from the balcony of the family home as his brothers played soccer outside.

He vowed to learn the family business and repay the time his father spent with him during his recovery.

“Son, learn how to communicate and learn how to understand the Western mentality,” Loutfy Mansour told Mohamed the night before the boy left for America, arriving just after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963.

The second chance

Maybe he learned a little too much of American culture. Self-admittedly, he went to too many fraternity parties. His grades suffered and he was close to flunking out of school. He would have if a caring physics professor hadn’t given him a second chance.

“One of my professors, a lovely man originally from Poland, took pity on me when I pleaded for a second chance,” Mansour says. “He told me plainly — but with a smile and a spirit of generosity — that I could avoid a failing grade but only if I worked harder. He said I had potential, but I needed to raise my game. Fewer parties and late nights. More studying and early mornings. Of course he was right. And I did what he asked.”

Mohamed changed his major from aerospace engineering to textile technology, the perfect place for an heir to one of the world’s largest cotton trading families. He began to excel again in the classroom.

Then one day, the mail arrived and Mohamed, Youssef and their brother Ismail at UNC–Chapel Hill received this devastating news from their parents: “We can’t send you anything anymore. You guys have to take care of yourselves from now on.”

How he and his brothers managed to do that — and return the family’s Mansour Group to one of the largest companies in the Arab world — will highlight Mohamed Mansour’s NC State commencement address on Saturday at PNC Arena, when he returns to Raleigh for a few days of celebration.

Losing the family fortune

Back in Egypt in 1952, military ruler Gamal Abdel Nasser had overthrown the country’s monarchy. He became a popular leader in Africa and the Middle East in the mid-1960s, but he also began to nationalize most of the country’s biggest privately owned businesses, including Loutfy Mansour’s cotton trading company. The Mansours lost all their wealth. Loutfy was left with a $75 a month stipend from the socialist government.

Mohamed Mansour sold the Corvette and bought a beat-up Volkswagen Beetle. He moved from the fraternity house to a damp and overcrowded property on Chamberlain Avenue.

The teenager needed a job. He found one at a newly opened Italian Cafe on Western Boulevard, earning $1.25 per hour busing tables at Amedeo’s Italian Restaurant. It paid his way through college.

“Slowly I paid off my debts and got into the black,” Mansour says. “I learned to manage my own finances and also to know that spending money is a very different concept as to how you spend your life. They were tough times, but good times. I had no money, and the place where I stayed was a fleapit. But I was happy.

“I was surrounded by friends, supported by my tutors, and embraced by hospitable North Carolina.”

Both Mansour brothers graduated from NC State in 1968, Youssef with a degree in chemical engineering in January and Mohamed with a degree in textiles in May. They both went to graduate school at Auburn, earning Master of Business Administration degrees that eventually helped them re-establish their father’s company. Mohamed stuck around for another two years as a teaching member of the faculty at the Alabama land-grant institution.

Losing their business again

Meanwhile, their father joined another cotton trading company in Sudan and again found international success — until the Sudanese `government nationalized that company and left the family without income or equity again.

Eventually, Loutfy judged that the commodity markets were too volatile and diversified the family’s new company, starting with a partnership with General Motors. The family went on to partner with Caterpillar and McDonald’s, among other brands, and thrived, even after the father’s untimely death of a heart attack in 1976.

A rebuilt and diversified empire

For nearly 50 years, the Mansour Group has gathered and grown. Mansour Automotive became the largest GM dealership in the world. Mantrac became one of the world’s largest distributors of Caterpillar equipment. The company owns all 90 McDonald’s franchises in Egypt, not to mention the country’s largest chain of grocery stores. ManCapital LLP, the Mansours’ family office based in London, is supporting organizations in diverse sectors from education to clean energy and recently bought an international soccer training academy. A tech enthusiast, Mansour was an early investor in Facebook, Uber and Spotify.

The group as a whole now has more than 60,000 employees in some 120 countries around the world. By revenue, it is the second largest enterprise in Egypt. Mansour and each of his siblings are among their native country’s wealthiest citizens.

Mansour’s charitable enterprise, the Lead Foundation, reveals a bit about his heart. It has provided 4.5 million small and micro loans to impoverished women in Egypt.

His accomplishments have been honored throughout the business world. Last fall, he was presented with the Distinguished Alumni Award by the NC State Alumni Association.

“I turned round what threatened to be my failure at Raleigh,” he says. “I learned that the only way to succeed is hard work. NC State gave me one of the most important things in life: a second chance.

“And I will forever be grateful.”

Mohamed Mansour Net Worth

As of the time of writing, his net worth, primarily derived from his stake in the Mansour Group. A renowned family-run conglomerate established by his father in 1952 had skyrocketed from $2.5 billion to a staggering $3.6 billion.

The remarkable increase of $1.1 billion solidified Mansour’s position among Egypt’s wealthiest billionaires. And further enhanced his status as one of the most affluent magnates both in Africa and the Arab world.

His brothers Yasseen and Youssef, who share ownership in the family group, are also billionaires; his son Loutfy heads private equity arm Man Capital.

Mohamed Mansour Made a Historic $6.2-million Donation to UK Conservative Party

Mohamed Mansour made a historic $6.2-million donation to the UK Conservative Party. The chairman of Mansour Group, who was also an entrepreneur and a philanthropist, had made a stunning move at the last general election in the United Kingdom. The Egyptian billionaire made a record-breaking donation of £5 million ($6.2 million) to the UK Conservative Party, marking the largest individual donation received by the party in the past two decades.

The $6.2-million donation by Mansour then stood as one of the most important political contributions in UK history. Rivalling the £8-million ($9.9 million) donation made by David John Sainsbury to the Liberal Democrats in 2019. Mansour, who served as the party’s treasurer, expressed his intention to support Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in his bid to defeat the Labour Party and secure a full five-year term.

The remarkable contribution represented approximately 16 percent of the Conservative Party’s total income for the previous year, surpassing the £4.8-million ($5.94 million) the party reported in donations during the final quarter of 2022.

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Such a considerable donation was expected to significantly bolster the Conservative Party’s campaign efforts in the run-up to the general election.

Mansour’s unprecedented donation to the UK Conservative Party reflected his commitment to influencing political landscapes. And left no doubt about his determination to make a lasting impact on both the business and political realms.

Mohamed Mansour is One of US Football’s Biggest Investors With £400m Deal

A senior treasurer of the Conservative Party looks set to become one of the biggest investors in football in the US on the brink of buying a Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise in a record $500m (£400m) deal.

Mohamed Mansour, who has donated £600,000 to the Tories since 2016 was appointed treasurer by Rishi Sunak last December, He’s expected to be officially awarded the new franchise, based in San Diego, California, on Thursday.

The £400m price tag would be the sixth biggest football deal in the world, behind Chelsea, AC Milan and Manchester United. But more than the £305m Saudi takeover of Newcastle in 2022.

He is expected to create the club from scratch by recruiting a full set of players, staff and an academy, which sources suggest could add an extra $200m to the bill.

Mansour, a 75-year-old British-Egyptian billionaire Manchester United fan who was an early backer of Facebook and Twitter, has already invested in football with Right to Dream, a group of football academies based in Ghana, Egypt and Denmark.

His company Man Capital – the London-based investment group of which he is the founder and chair – became the majority shareholder at Danish Superliga club Nordsjaelland in January 2021.

Mansour has previously admitted in an interview with The Daily Telegraph that he was looking to add an English club to his portfolio following the success at Nordsjaelland. “Is England on our radar screen? Definitely,” he explained.

The new MLS team in San Diego will be jointly owned by Mansour and the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, an indigenous American tribe which is believed to have lived in the San Diego area for more than 12,000 years.

Mohamed Mansour Cuts Twitter and Meta Investments to Focus on Electric Cars

Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Mansour announced that he had reduced his investments in social media. Including stakes in Twitter and Meta, while increasing his focus on green projects such as the production of electric cars for Egypt. Mansour, whose family’s wealth is valued at $6.8 billion. Plans to manufacture 15,000 electric vehicles in Egypt over the next three to five years through his company Al-Mansour Automotive. The company, in partnership with General Motors Co., also aimed to import and market five models of Cadillac EVs by 2025.

Speaking at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Mansour, 74, expressed confidence in the success of his electric vehicle venture. Drawing on his nearly 50 years of experience in the automotive sector. He aspires for his company to become a leader in the growing global market of electric vehicles. With projections indicating a significant increase in the number of passenger EVs on the road by the end of the decade.

Investing in electric cars

Despite the limited use of electric cars in Egypt, Mansour remains optimistic. Citing government-backed plans to develop affordable vehicles and establish a network of charging stations. The billionaire, who is overseeing the family conglomerate since his father’s death 46 years ago. Diversified their investments into real estate, food services, manufacturing, and technology.

Mansour revealed that he had reduced his stake in Meta and sold all his shares in Twitter the previous year. It’s part of a broader effort to cut the family’s exposure to equities, especially in the tech sector. The sales were aimed at building liquidity. And Mansour in hinted the possibility of returning to stock markets if conditions improved.

Looking ahead, Mansour set a goal for 10% of his investments to be green-focused this 2024, up from the current 2%. His family already owns a stake in one of Africa’s largest renewables producers. And they are involved in wind turbines in the UK. In Egypt, the family’s firm, Palm Hills, is developing a green housing project west of Cairo. This is intended to be the first city in the Middle East and North Africa built in accordance with the UN’s SDGs. Mansour emphasizes the importance of taking action for the benefit of future generations.

References:

• https://news.ncsu.edu/2022/05/the-hard-times-and-good-life-of-mohamed-mansour/
• https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/mohamed-mansour-mls-san-diego-conservative-party-b2339718.html
• https://www.arabianbusiness.com/lifestyle/cars-boats/egyptian-billionaire-mohamed-mansour-cuts-twitter-and-meta-investments-to-focus-on-electric-cars