Egyptian investment bank HC Securities is working on acquisition deals in Egypt potentially worth more than 5 billion Egyptian pounds ($639 million), Chairman Hussein Choucri told Reuters.

Egypt's economy has been struggling since a 2011 uprising drove tourists and foreign investors away - major sources of foreign currency.

But the economy is expected to grow around 5 per cent this financial year, following 4.2 per cent growth in 2014-15, and a handful of recent deals have raised hopes more could be on the way.

"We are working on five to six deals in 2016 worth, in total, more than five billion pounds ... The sellers in the deals taking place in 2016 are Egyptians and the buyers are foreigners and Arabs," Choucri said.

Choucri also said HC Securities was advising on an acquisition of a Turkish medical firm by a company in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and hoped the deal would be completed this year.

"We are the financial advisers to a UAE company in its bid to acquire a Turkish firm in the medical sector. The size of the deal is not clear yet but we hope to complete it this year," he said, declining to name the two companies.

HC Securities is an investment bank and asset management firm with operations in Egypt and the UAE. It manages 14 investment funds and several investment portfolios.

Choucri said his firm was keen to create a $100 million direct investment fund, but could not give a time frame of when that would happen.

"We are done with the strategy of the fund and the documents relating to it but we are still trying to attract the relevant leadership," he said.

Choucri stressed the importance of reassuring foreign investors of the economic situation in Egypt in order to attract them again.

"There must be attempts made to attract foreign investment in dollars, especially from institutional financial (investors) who used to invest in treasury bills before 2011 and left after the revolution," he said. – Reuters