Egyptian hotel entrepreneur Kamel Abou Aly has secured $250 million in financing from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and Morocco’s Attijariwafa Bank to accelerate the expansion and modernisation of his Pickalbatros Hotels & Resorts portfolio, billionaires.africa reported. Signed in Marrakech on 15 October 2026, the sustainability-linked financing is reportedly the largest hotel financing transaction backed by the IFC in Morocco to date. According to Zilla Capital, the investment bank that advised Pickalbatros, the facility will support hotel acquisitions, property upgrades and the refinancing of existing debt, strengthening the group’s position in Morocco’s growing hospitality market.
The financing will initially support the development of two recently acquired Casablanca properties, Sofitel Casablanca Tour Blanche and Mövenpick Hotel Casablanca, alongside renovations and environmental improvements at hotels in Marrakech and Agadir. The planned upgrades include measures to improve energy and water efficiency, with some properties pursuing EDGE green-building certification. According to Moroccan outlet Le360, Pickalbatros has expanded its local portfolio to nine hotels with more than 2,700 rooms after adding over 1,400 rooms in two years. The group’s wider investment programme for Morocco between 2026 and 2029 is valued at $350 million, combining the new financing with additional capital from the company.
The expansion forms part of a broader strategy to capitalise on Morocco’s tourism growth ahead of the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which the country will co-host with Spain and Portugal. Morocco welcomed a record 19.8 million tourists in 2025 and is targeting 26 million annual visitors by 2030, according to figures cited by Le360. Pickalbatros aims to increase its Moroccan accommodation capacity to approximately 7,000 rooms by the end of the decade, extending a business built around leisure resorts in Egypt into the country’s urban hotel market. The IFC estimates that the financing could support around 7,500 direct and indirect jobs, although the ultimate economic impact will depend on the pace of investment, hotel performance and the delivery of the planned upgrades.
