The chief executive of Sainsbury’s, Mike Coupe, has been acquitted by an Egyptian court after contesting a two-year jail sentence for embezzlement.
Coupe had been sentenced in his absence by a court in September, following a dispute with businessman Amr el-Nasharty, who had established a short-lived joint venture with the supermarket group in 1999.
“We are pleased that justice has prevailed today, with the court ruling in favour of Mike, and ultimately Sainsbury’s,” the retailer said on Thursday.
The case relates to the supermarket’s attempt to open in Egypt in 1999 by buying 80% of Nasharty’s Egyptian Distribution Group, known as Edge. After a chaotic 18 months, Sainsbury’s withdrew, having written down the value of its share in the business by £111m. The stake was then bought back by Nasharty, who paid in cash and cheques. Sainsbury’s said the cheques bounced and now remain in a court file.
After agreeing to end the relationship, Nasharty claimed to have discovered Edge was insolvent. He then alleged that Coupe had travelled to Egypt in July 2014 and attempted to seize the cheques from the court file.
Coupe says he was in London at the time of the alleged incident. Joel Hills, ITV’s business editor, said in a tweet in April: “I can confirm that on July 15th 2014 Mike Coupe was not in Cairo ‘seizing cheques’, he was in London having breakfast with me. And he paid.”
Nasharty has brought several claims against Sainsbury’s and its employees over the years, the supermarket said Thursday, adding: “We have always strongly refuted the legal case in Egypt brought against our chief executive, Mike Coupe, which relates to a historic commercial dispute which has absolutely nothing to do with Mr Coupe. Mike was not employed by Sainsbury’s at the time of the original dispute in 2001 and has never met the complainant, Mr el-Nasharty.”
Coupe was not in court to hear the verdict – it was relayed to him by legal representatives. Sainsbury’s has said Coupe did not find out about his conviction until December 2014, but the supermarket waited until April to tell shareholders, saying it had hoped to first overturn the conviction.
The Egyptian venture, the first by Sainsbury’s in an emerging market, was a bruising experience. The chain was boycotted in 2000 after rumours began circulating that it was Jewish owned. President Hosni Mubarak was drawn into the row, speaking out against the boycott but saying he understood why some Egyptians were against Jewish-owned businesses following a Palestinian uprising.
Egyptian students took to the streets, vandalising Sainsbury’s stores and injuring employees. The firm began the process of selling its Egyptian business in late 2000 after incurring losses.
Coupe took over from Sainsbury’s long serving chief executive Justin King in July 2014, just days before he was supposed to have made the alleged trip to Egypt. He joined the group in 2004, the same year as King, and several years after the Egyptian debacle, having previously worked at Iceland, ASDA and Tesco.
