The Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) wants to see the EGX’s market cap more than double to EGP 1.6 tn by 2026, according to its newly published four-year strategy
This will require almost EGP 1 tn to enter the market over the next four years: The bourse’s current market cap — across stocks, bonds, funds, OTC trades, and the SME market — is around EGP 660 bn.
This aligns with a recent policy statement from the president: President Abdel Fattah El Sisi said recently that the government is working on a set of measures aimed at doubling the size of the bourse. This is part of a wider economic strategy announced by the president, which also includes bringing in USD 40 bn in fresh investment over the next four years and reducing the public debt and the deficit by 2026.
Where’s the money coming from?
The FRA thinks that the sale of state assets could push the EGX’s market cap as high as EGP 2.6 tn — and name-checks the potential IPO of the state-owned new capital developer, the Administrative Capital for Urban Development. The government wants to list a number of state- and military-owned companies on the bourse before the end of the year as part of its new privatization strategy.
The target isn’t new: The FRA had originally hoped to hit the EGP 1.6 bn mark by this year, according to its previous strategy in 2018.
