CAIRO: Mohamed Taymour has been in the game for a long time. It shows in his even-keeled outlook on the economy and his willingness to endure the highs and lows of banking that has delivered him to the top rung of the financial ladder.
Today, he is the chairman of Pharos Holding for Financial Investments, which provides a range of financial services such as securities brokerage, research, private equity solutions, asset management and investment banking.
Taymour earned his doctorate from Dartmouth College in the US, worked for a glass manufacturing firm in the Midwest, and then decided to return to Egypt in 1972 to teach.
Soon, though, he decided to turn his attention to the financial world.
After bouncing around for a couple of years, Taymour settled in for a five-year stretch at the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, a pan-Arab fund that financed projects regionally.
In August, 1980, Taymour and several other investors launched a consulting firm that would eventually morph into leading investment bank EFG-Hermes.
The firm would evolve over the coming years, but the early 1990s represented a time of particularly dynamic change.
“In 1992, something called the capital market law was approved, and it opened a new door for financial service companies in Egypt, Taymour said.
“I was there at the right moment . So actually very quickly, I had a brokerage firm, I had an asset management firm, and an advisory investment banking firm, which moved quite rapidly to become what it is now.
He held the chairman position at the firm for 25 years before deciding to retire.
But as Taymour’s career illustrates, when you’re at the top of your game, it’s hard to get out.
Soon after he announced his retirement in 2006, two of his sons asked him to join them in starting a new investment bank.
Unwilling to turn down his sons, they opened Pharos Holding in an effort to build one of Egypt’s premier investment banks.
“I am the chairman, Taymour said of his role at the bank. “But I am the non-executive chairman in the sense that I don’t come here eight hours a day. I supervise, generally, the work.
The company, still in its infancy notes Taymour, has performed well.
“Sure enough, within a year, he said, “the company has grown up – we have about 120 employees now – and it’s profitable despite all of the problems that are in the market now.
When asked what lessons he learned from EFG that he had brought to the creation of Pharos, Taymour did not hesitate.
“Number one is persistence, he asserted. “You have to be persistent and don’t get discouraged by the ups and downs of the market because that’s what happened with my partners at EFG when I started.
He also noted that essential to running a successful business is to earn a high level of commitment from the employees. To do this, Taymour argued, companies should strive to bring in young blood and also consider giving employees a share in the company.
Conversation soon turned to the economic slowdown, its effect on Egypt, and its impact on Pharos.
Taymour discussed the hit that the capital markets have been taking. He noted, though, that Pharos had recently opened its asset management division and looked forward to entering the fray at what he suspected was a low ebb in the capital markets.
“History is full of cycles, and we are now at, or near the bottom of a cycle, he said. “And psychologically this is the most difficult time to invest. But practically, it is the best time . If you use pure logic and separate it from emotions, it is the best time to invest.
Pharos recently made news for facilitating the purchase of the state-owned Alexandria Sodium Carbonate Company by the European firm Solvay.
Taymour described the deal as marking the end of an era.
“This will probably be the last privatization done in the old way, he said.
The government this week announced plans to overhaul its privatization strategy by giving shares in many state-owned companies to the Egyptian citizenry. Egyptians have been offered a number of ways to handle the assets, including the opportunity to sell them in the capital markets.
This decision from the government was the result of privatization becoming an increasingly controversial political issue.
“We started [working on the deal] around a year and a half ago, he said.
“The government was going into a phase where it has become apprehensive of the attacks and the bad publicity that privatization was getting. I think it is very unfair.
In broader terms, though, Taymour stressed his belief that mergers and acquisitions (M&A) would be a growing industry in the coming years.
“I think it [M&As] will accelerate, he said, “simply because now prices are very low. And it’s the right time for somebody with the vision and with cash to acquire companies. Although it’s not going to be easy because private equity firms usually do this through leveraging, and now I don’t think it’s easy to get leveraging for anything.
Taymour went on to offer some remedies for the current financial crisis in Egypt. He noted that the country should adapt to weather a dampened international appetite for Egyptian goods.
In order to do this, he argued, the government needs to boost domestic demand for products. The best way to do this is to stimulate short-term growth projects.
The government needs to push “projects that consume cash fast, he said, “so that the cash can be distributed to the others. In other words, you don’t go and build a new refinery that will take six years to build . You have to look for projects that will use the money quickly. In other words, infrastructure.
Despite the economic challenges, Taymour is looking ahead towards growing his company, and he discussed his aspirations for its future.
“I would like [Pharos] to become one of the premier players in the fields of non-bank financial services, he said. “And I think this is happening.
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