Summary

In the face of harsh macro headwinds, avital corridor races to catch up to the cloud era

Xalam’s reference report on the Egyptian data center colocation opportunity. Including demand analysis, supply dynamics, cloud infrastructure build, market structure, competitive context and much more. Also including a detailed view of market size and projections.

Report Synopsis

Egypt is the most populous country in the Arab world, the third largest economy in the MENA region and a highly strategic corridor for global trade routes between Africa, Europe and Asia. While the country is facing considerable macro-economic headwinds, the colo market is highly undersupplied. At the onset of the cloud era, only KSA and UAE will add more commercial colo capacity in the MENA region over the forecast period

Sample key points

Egypt is the most populous country in the Arab world and the third largest economy in the MENA region. The country is a highly strategic corridor for global trade routes between Africa, Europe and Asia.

Egypt is facing considerable macro headwinds. GDP growth has slowed, core inflation is high, and FX has been in a tailspin. The country’s economy is one of the most exposed to the ripple effects of the Gaza conflict. Despite these challenges, the long-term colocation market picture is solid.

This is a highly undersupplied market. By most measures, Egypt is well behind its MENA peers in terms of available commercial supply capacity – relative to its population, the size of its economy or its broadband customer base.

New capacity is coming in to fill the gap. Only KSA and UAE will add more potential capacity among regional peers over the forecast period, with market structure transitioning towards a more colo-centric carrier-neutral model. But there is also strong overbuild risk with a long term pipeline around 1.5x to 2x potential demand.