Egypt’s biggest property developer joins Saudi Arabia’s entertainment boom in new tourism push

The agreement brings together one of Egypt’s largest real estate empires and one of Saudi Arabia’s most influential entertainment firms to build a large-scale live events and entertainment platform across Egypt, covering concerts, festivals, sports events, theatre productions and tourism-driven experiences.

The partnership was announced on May 21 in the presence of Turki Alalshikh, one of the key figures behind Saudi Arabia’s aggressive global entertainment expansion under Vision 2030.

For Egypt, the deal comes at a critical economic moment.

The country has been pushing to attract more tourism revenue and foreign investment as it battles inflation, high debt costs and pressure on its currency.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, is rapidly exporting its entertainment model across the Middle East as it seeks to build influence beyond oil.

Under the arrangement, Sela will lead the development and operation of live experiences, including venue management, concerts, festivals, comedy and theatre shows, sports events and large-scale public entertainment.

Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG) will provide the infrastructure backbone through its massive residential communities, hotels and tourism assets spread across Egypt.

A flagship project under the partnership is “The Corridor,” a cross-border entertainment platform designed to connect Saudi Arabia and Egypt through a curated calendar of cultural and live entertainment events.

The project reflects a broader shift among major Middle Eastern property developers, many of which are now moving beyond traditional real estate sales into entertainment, tourism and lifestyle businesses capable of generating stable long-term revenue.

“Our collaboration with Sela will drive a qualitative shift across entertainment, culture, arts, and sports in Egypt,” Moustafa said.

TMG has spent decades building some of Egypt’s best-known integrated cities, including Madinaty, Al Rehab and Noor City, alongside the SouthMED coastal development on Egypt’s North West Coast.

The company also controls a major hospitality portfolio that includes 16 hotels operated under global luxury brands such as Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Marriott International, Kempinski Hotels and Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.

Together, the hotels contain nearly 5,000 rooms and suites and attract around 1.5 million visitors every year.

Saudi Arabia’s Sela has become one of the kingdom’s biggest entertainment operators as Riyadh pours billions of dollars into sports, tourism, music and live events to diversify its economy away from oil.

The company developed and operates major Saudi destinations including Boulevard City, Boulevard World, Via Riyadh and the Jeddah Superdome, while also expanding into global entertainment markets such as London and Las Vegas.

The Egypt expansion marks another step in Saudi Arabia’s growing economic and cultural footprint across the region.

It also represents another major chapter in the comeback of Moustafa himself.

Once among Egypt’s most controversial businessmen, Moustafa was convicted in 2009 in connection with the murder of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim. After a retrial, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison before receiving a presidential pardon in 2017.

Since returning to business, he has rebuilt TMG aggressively, expanding into Saudi Arabia and Oman while strengthening the company’s dominance in Egypt’s real estate market.

TMG’s financial performance has remained strong despite broader economic pressures in Egypt.

The group recorded contractual sales worth $8 billion in 2025, while net profit jumped 43% to $381 million. In the first quarter of 2026, profit rose another 24% year-on-year to EGP 5.5 billion ($110 million), supported by strong demand across its property and hospitality businesses.

Forbes Middle East ranked TMG as Egypt’s top listed real estate developer for 2026 based on market capitalisation.

Moustafa currently holds a 43.16% stake in TMG Holding and has an estimated net worth of about $1.4 billion.

The new entertainment partnership suggests TMG is no longer positioning itself simply as a property developer, but as a broader lifestyle, tourism and consumer experiences company, mirroring a wider transformation taking place across Gulf and Middle Eastern economies.