Egypt Enterprise Fund will Invest $60m

The US embassy has revealed more details of the Egypt Enterprise Fund, a new $60 million initiative to invest in the shares of promising small and medium-sized Egyptian firms. The fund was announced in Cairo on Saturday by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a news conference following her meeting with Egypt's new president Mohamed Morsi.

Clinton also pledged Egypt $250 million in trade credit guarantees and the fulfilment of debt swap deals announced by President Obama in late spring 2011. A Sunday statement from the US Embassy in Cairo said the Egyptian Enterprise Fund will be formally created "in the next month" with $60 million ready for investment by September.

Managed by a board of directors made up of Egyptians and Americans familiar with international finance and Egypt's private sector, the fund will inject equity into "promising new firms that lack financing", the embassy said. Such financing will act as a catalyst to attract others to invest, it added.

James Harmon, current chairman of Caravel Management, an investment advisory firm in New York, was named as the fund's chairman. "Egypt needs sustained economic growth of incomes and employment during its transition to democracy," said the embassy's statement. "The best potential to respond to these needs quickly comes from Egypt’s small and medium sized businesses."