Egypt May Offer Investors 100% of Some Army-Linked Companies

(Bloomberg) -- Egypt may offer stakes of as much as 100% in some military-linked firms as the North African country steps up efforts to attract sorely needed private investment.

Under a plan officially announced Monday, investors will be given the chance to secure a majority stake in some companies held by the National Service Projects Organization, which is affiliated with the Defense Ministry.

Egypt’s sovereign wealth fund will help the NSPO choose the firms, promote them to investors and potentially also invest in some of the stakes, according to the fund’s chief executive officer, Ayman Soliman.

Egypt Wealth Fund Seeks Co-Investors for Some Army-Linked Assets

The measure is the latest by Egypt’s government as it pushes ahead with a sweeping economic program begun in 2016. Now that economic growth has rebounded since stalling after the 2011 uprising against long-time President Hosni Mubarak, the focus is on luring foreign investments and boosting growth in the private sector.

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has previously suggested that military-run firms could be offered to investors, and the tapping of the country’s newly established sovereign fund to steer the program seeks to give new impetus to the effort.

To contact the reporters on this story: Abdel Latif Wahba in Cairo at alatifwahba@bloomberg.net;Mirette Magdy in Cairo at mmagdy1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tarek El-Tablawy at teltablawy@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn, Paul Abelsky

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.