Corporate Governance Best Practices in Egypt: Lessons Learnt from Raya Holding

This case discusses how Raya Holding (Raya) has complied with the Egyptian code of corporate governance published in 2011 and the consequential improvement in organisational performance that has taken place over the last decade. The case uses the 2014 annual report and the company’s website to address Raya’s compliance with the code. The central theme of the case is that improvements in corporate governance could be correlated to organisational performance even though this relationship is a very complex one. Enhanced organisational performance might have taken place due to factors other than improvements in corporate governance. Considering the 2011 revolution where Egypt witnessed political unrest, Raya is a good example that is worthy of study since it was able to overcome the political unrest and the challenging environment that Egypt had in 2011 where it scored the fifth rank in the ESG index compared to the tenth rank in 2010. Moreover, Raya’s board attributed their success and good standing after the revolution to their continuous work on corporate governance throughout the previous years.