Egypt to Resume IPOs of State-Run Firms by End of March, Minister Says
Egypt to Resume IPOs of State-Run Firms by End of March, Minister Says
Egypt’s government plans to resume its program to offer stakes in state-run firms by the end of March, with Banque du Caire’s IPO expected to be second in a line-up of three companies on offer, Public Enterprise Minister Hisham Tawfik said.
Officials had launched the program about three years ago to either list anew or sell additional stakes in state companies, but moved ahead with only one before the initiative stalled amid a market downturn.
The effort was part of a broader plan to revive the economy and authorities had hoped to raise around 100 billion Egyptian pounds ($6.4 billion) from the sale of stakes in more than 20 companies.
Tawfik, speaking in an interview Tuesday, declined to identify which companies would be offered in the coming period, but said that the committee in charge of the program pushed for the sale of Banque du Caire.
Central bank Governor Tarek Amer has said Egypt could sell a stake of up to 30% in the bank, one of the country’s largest.
Another state-run firm, Heliopolis Housing, has set a deadline later this month for bidders for a company to oversee management of the property firm in exchange for a 10% stake, while another 12% stake is to be offered on the stock market.
The only sale to take place under the program so far has been an additional 4.5% stake in Eastern Tobacco, the country’s monopoly cigarette maker. That deal was completed last March.
To contact the reporter on this story: Abdel Latif Wahba in Cairo at alatifwahba@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tarek El-Tablawy at teltablawy@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn
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