CAIRO — In 2011, the International Finance Corp. invested $475 million in Egypt’s Orascom Construction Industries as part of its proclaimed strategy to create jobs and boost foreign investment in critical sectors.
The company is now embroiled in a tax dispute with the Egyptian government over a 2007 transaction. OCI, which is considering selling shares to its Dutch-listed parent company OCI NV and potentially delisting from the Egyptian stock exchange, says it was compliant with the law at the time and that it owed 4.7 billion Egyptian pounds ($700 million) in taxes for selling a subsidiary to Lafarge, not the 14 billion ($2.1 billion) currently in dispute.
