Egypt expects to restart the delayed IPO programme to list or sell additional stakes in over 20 state-owned companies by the end of the year, Planning Minister Hala al-Saeed told Bloomberg on Wednesday.
The move to resume the state IPO programme appears to signal that Egyptian government is now more confident about market conditions that had soured over the past couple of years, in part due to broader emerging markets challenges, and the impact of the pandemic.
On the sidelines of an international cooperation conference in Cairo known as ICF-Egypt Forum, al-Saeed further revealed that the government had received offers from four international consortia to rehabilitate and develop the Mogamma complex in downtown Cairo. The minister declined to disclose any further details about these offers.
Out of the more than 20 companies that the government had targeted, including Banque du Caire, it has managed to only sell an additional stake in state-run tobacco monopoly Eastern Company.
