Nestle eyes Egypt growth despite dollar squeeze

Nestle (NESN.VX) is pushing ahead with plans to invest 1 billion Egyptian pounds ($127.71 million) in Egypt in the next few years, despite a foreign exchange shortage that has made it harder to finance imports and repatriate profit. Yasser Abdul Malak, Nestle's CEO and chairman for North East Africa, said business had grown despite the challenges as the food group makes 70 percent of its products locally and has managed to finance imports because essential foods are prioritized by banks allocating precious dollars. "It is a daily battle for foreign currency, it is day in day out an uphill battle but with all this and the business model that we have and the categories that we operate in we have managed to continue to grow," Abdul Malak said. "We will also in the coming years...invest similar to what we have in the past - 1 billion Egyptian pounds." Despite the political turmoil that has rocked Egypt since a 2011 uprising, Nestle has expanded, opening a chocolate factory in mid-2014 and doubling its employees to 6,500. The conflict in Libya had hit exports from Egypt, Abdul Malak said, though Nestle expected to reach almost double-digit growth in the North East Africa region encompassing Egypt, Libya and Sudan over five to 10 years.