New offerings on the Egyptian Stock Exchange

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced in a press conference last Wednesday that the Egyptian government will reveal the details of the plan to float 3 to 4 companies affiliated with the army on the local stock exchange next week.

In the first quarter of last year, the Egyptian government launched a program to offer stakes in up to 40 companies and banks distributed over 18 sectors until March 2024, and it was extended to December 2024. According to previous statements by the Egyptian Minister of Finance, the country is targeting revenues amounting to $6.5 billion from The program by the end of this year.

The government expected to conduct 15 future offerings to entities in various sectors, in addition to entities whose private offering process is being completed during the coming period, until the end of the current fiscal year.

This comes in conjunction with calls from the International Monetary Fund to limit the role of state institutions in the economy, which has witnessed a crisis over the past two years. Egypt has concluded an expanded agreement with the Fund, which is considered a key part of a $57 billion global rescue package that began last year for a country considered a major player in the Middle East.

Egypt received 7 international and local offers to acquire shares of the Egyptian National Company for the Sale and Distribution of Petroleum Products (Watania), according to former Minister of Planning Hala Al-Saeed in an interview with Al-Sharq, last May.

Wataniya Company, which was established in 1993, owns about 255 service and car fuel stations, and has 20 stations under construction, and 25 stations in the planning stage. The company is wholly owned by the National Service Projects Agency of the Armed Forces, which at the same time owns 20% of the shares. TAQA Arabia, which is considered among the contenders to buy the company.

Among the companies affiliated with the Egyptian army, scheduled to be offered for sale, is the National Company for the Production and Bottling of Natural Water (Safi).

While the initial public offering of 30% of the shares of the state-owned United Bank was completed today, with the sale raising about 4.57 billion Egyptian pounds ($91.9 million), the government postponed offering the “Zaafarana” wind and “Bani Suef” electricity plants to foreign investors, according to Mahmoud Esmat, Egyptian Minister of Electricity, told Al-Sharq last October.

Sources told Al Arabiya Business that investment banks are reevaluating the Egyptian National Petroleum Services Company and the National Company for Natural Water Production and Bottling (Safi) for preparation and listing on the stock exchange in the first quarter of next year.