(Bloomberg) -- Egypt plans to sell a stake in Banque du Caire, one of the country’s biggest state-owned lenders, toward the end of this year, central bank Governor Tarek Amer said.
“The size is around 20 percent; might go up to 30 percent,” Amer said in an interview in Washington, where he attended the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings. The sale would be through the Egyptian Exchange, he said.
“It’s not about money,” Amer said. “We have a plan to support the stock exchange with new issues. There is a lot of demand.” He didn’t give a of the expected sale.
Banque du Caire is fully owned by Banque Misr, Egypt’s second largest state-run lender.
The push reflects efforts to revive private investments battered by the instability that followed the ousting of two presidents in 2011 and 2013. In February, the government offered a 4.5 percent stake in tobacco monopoly Eastern Co.
The government plans to raise 80 billion pounds ($4.6 billion) by selling stakes in 23 public companies within three years in sectors such as petrochemicals, oil, finance and real estate.
The market of those companies is estimated at 430 billion Egyptian pounds, according to the 2019-2020 budget.
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