Feeling the squeeze - Business in Egypt

The decision by Egypt’s general prosecutor to place the country’s wealthiest man and his business-tycoon father on a no-fly list sent the main stock index tumbling by 2.3%—the worst drop in a month. The travel ban on Nassef and Onsi Sawiris imposed on March 3rd led secular opposition groups to accuse Egypt's Islamist government of pursuing a vendetta against the liberal opposition. It seemed to signal President Mohamed Morsi's intention to prosecute businesses he believes benefitted from widespread corruption during the rule of Hosni Mubarak.

It was not the first travel ban for Onsi Sawiris, the octogenarian founder of the Orascom Group, Egypt’s largest private employer. Mr Sawiris’ first small construction company was nationalised under Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1960s, and he was prevented from leaving the country for six years. He moved to Libya in 1971 but returned five years later, founding Orascom, which grew into a multinational conglomerate that he passed on to his three sons, turning all four men into billionaires.

The Sawiris family, who are Coptic Christians, have been at odds with Mr Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood-led government since Egypt's revolution. Naguib Sawiris, Onsi’s outspoken eldest son, said in an interview on Egyptian television on March 5th that his family was being "deliberately targeted" by the government. He said his father and brother believe that the tax case against them arose when ONTV, a satellite channel that he used to own, came out against the Islamists.

Naguib Sawiris' family left Egypt last summer, after he received "personal, bodily, family, [and] business" threats, said Naguib Abadir, a co-founder of the the Free Egyptians, Mr Sawiris' political party. Mr Sawiris has received threats in the past; in 2011 after he tweeted a picture of Mickey and Minnie Mouse dressed as conservative Muslims. But the danger is more serious this time, explained Mr Abadir who believes this marks the start of the government's persecution of opposition figures: "They will go after them, one after the other."

Mr Sawiris had been divesting from his Egypt-based enterprises before the revolution but accelerated the pace as the Brothers and more conservative Salafist parties gained power. In May 2012, a month before Mr Morsi became president, Mr Sawiris sold most of his remaining shares in Mobinil, one of the country’s three mobile operators. Last December, he sold ONTV to a Tunisian businessman.