Nassef Sawiris, who is Egypt’s richest man and co-owner of Aston Villa, has told the Financial Times that he recently moved his residency from London to Italy and Abu Dhabi. In an interview at his long-standing office overlooking Mayfair’s Berkeley Square that he has since vacated, he said the decision to move abroad after 15 years of living in the UK was due to a government crackdown on non-domiciled residents announced by the previous Tory administration.
Sawiris, whose net worth was estimated at $9bn by Forbes, is
the youngest son of the late Onsi Sawiris, who founded a construction company
in the 1950s and built it over decades into a large multinational corporation
now called Orascom Construction. As the business grew, the family diversified,
entering the cement industry and expanding operations from Egypt into other
emerging markets.
The UK “gave me a home when the Muslim Brotherhood came to
Egypt and I will always be in debt”, he said. “I’m keeping my house, I’m
growing my investment in Aston Villa, looking at expanding the stadium. And it
hasn’t changed my love for this country.”
Exiting UK taxpayers face limits on how much time they can
return to spend in the country each year, in many cases 90 days annually, with
just 30 days permitted for work. Sawiris will use some of those days to visit
and attend matches of at Aston Villa, which exited the Champions League last
week despite a spirited attempted comeback in the second leg of the
quarter-final against Qatar-owned Paris Saint-Germain. The club is supported by the Prince of
Wales.
He and US billionaire Wes Edens, co-founder of Fortress
Investment Group, acquired a 55 per cent stake in the club for £30mn in 2018,
rescuing it from financial crisis and returning it to the Premier League, where the team currently sits in seventh place.
Sawiris and his partners have invested heavily into the
football club to improve performance. However, the club is not yet profitable
and previously sold young players to comply with Premier League financial
regulations that limit how much teams are allowed to lose.
Sawiris has complained that the rules are anti-competitive
and prevent challenger clubs from closing the gap with the likes of Manchester
City and Liverpool. He told the Pink 'Un, “The Premier League is under the impression that what makes
it great is Manchester United and Liverpool and Chelsea and Arsenal, so they
have to cater for these guys. But what makes the Premier League great is that
Manchester United get their butts kicked by Brighton.”
Aston Villa will see the capacity of its stadium boosted to
more than 50,000 seats from current levels of 42,000, as part of a plan by
Sawiris to invest around £100mn more into the team. However, development is
pending local officials moving ahead with expanding rail links.
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