Pursuits

Egyptian Billionaire’s Swiss Resort May Rival Verbier

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An Egyptian billionaire with a penchant for risk is transforming a sleepy Swiss village into a ritzy resort that may one day rival Verbier.

Samih Sawiris’s Orascom Development Holding AG plans to spend about $1.5 billion in Andermatt to build deluxe hotels and a golf course on a former Nazi supply route. His plans will double the number of ski slopes and revitalize an Alpine town at the base of Gemsstock mountain between Milan and Zurich that lost a fifth of its residents in the past decade.