Ancient Sands Resort will be developed in a joint-venture between Orascom Hotels & Development and IFB Resort Developers.

The company behind El Gouna, Orascom Hotels & Development “OHD”, is at the forefront of Egyptian Real Estate. The company began with a simple idea - to create a little piece of paradise on Egypt’s Red Sea coast.

At El Gouna, their flagship project, OHD have preserved the natural beauty of this coastline. They have built an intimate community, popular with tourists and home to a wide variety of nationalities.

“Ancient Sands Resort is an exciting prospect for us here at OHD. We are looking forward to offering a unique community within El Gouna and enhancing the existing town with the new 18-hole golf course, spa facilities and new neighbours.”

Samih Sawiris, Chairman, OHD.

OHD is a leading regional and international town developer. The company was established in the early 1990s to develop El Gouna. Today, OHD’s operations cover seven countries with more than 55 companies under management, covering the full spectrum of real estate offering. The company’s land bank stands at 127 million square meters with over 12.5 million square meters developed to date. The developed area represents two fully fledged towns in Egypt and a small scale tourist and residential project in the U.A.E.

OHD is 99% owned by Orascom Development Holding AG, which was incorporated in Altdorf, Switzerland. ODH is listed on the Swiss Exchange (SWX) with a ticker symbol of ODHN.S with a market capitalisation of exceeding CHF 1,2 billion.

In 2009, the Group achieved a turnover of CHF 586 million, a gross profit of CHF 195 million and a net profit of CHF 139 million. The founder of the Group, Egyptian businessman Samih Sawiris, still holds a majority stake controlling approximately 60% of the outstanding capital together with his family.

IFB Resort Developers has joined forces with OHD to develop Ancient Sands Resort. IFB is owned by entrepreneur Jeremy Sturgess and a group of international investors. With substantial golf and real estate experience, this is the first of several planned worldwide joint-venture developments between IFB and OHD.

“Creating Ancient Sands Resort offers benefits that are threefold. Firstly it provides us with the opportunity to work with Egypt's market leaders in property development, Orascom Hotels & Development, to create a resort that is the best that the Egyptian Red Sea Coast has to offer. Secondly, we are able to offer an off-plan development that has the benefit of being part of an existing resort town. And finally, we are especially excited to be offering a development in a market that is emerging and has such strong growth potential.”

IFB Executive Chairman, Jeremy Sturgess.