The Head of the Coptic General Authority (CGA) Sherif Doss announced on his Facebook page the death of business tycoon Onsi Sawiris, age 91.
Onsi was the head of Sawiris and the father to the billionaires Nassef Sawiris, Samih Sawiris, and Naguib Sawiris.
Elder Sawiris was born on August 14, 1930. He held a BA in Agriculture from Cairo University in 1950, and was the founder and president of Orascom Group.
He began his business life through a contracting company called “Onsi and Lamie”, whose activity consisted of paving roads and digging irrigation canals. The company was partially nationalized in 1961 and later completely, and Sawiris remained as its head for five years.
Sawiris later immigrated to Libya in 1966 and worked there in constructions, before returning to Egypt in the mid-seventies.
By 1976, he established the Orascom General Contracting and Trade company, which later became Orascom Construction Industries.
His company’s activity expanded in the eighties and nineties, to include tourism, hotels, computer and mobile phone services, and the group became one of the largest Egyptian companies.
