Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly during a meeting on Monday
In February, the government announced that it would offer stakes to investors at 32 state-owned companies as part of its initial public offerings (IPO) and privatization programs. The stakes will be either listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) or assigned to strategic investors.
Strategic investors have so far acquired only one company out of 32, after the UAE's National Paints company acquired a majority stake (81 percent) in state-owned Paint and Chemicals Industries (PACHIN).
In May, the government announced that it was still waiting for investors to make bids to purchase stakes in the military-affiliated National Company for Producing and Bottling Water (Safi) and Wataniya Petroleum Company, both of which the government included in the list of 32 state-owned companies.
Egypt's commitments under its 46-month $3 billion loan deal with the International Monetary Fund include generating $2-$2.5 billion from selling state-owned assets during the second half of FY2022/2023.
According to the 46-month loan deal with Egypt, the IMF will carry out eight reviews of Egypt's economic reform programme before disbursing any further tranches.
Egypt received the first tranch of the loan ($347 million) last December following the approval of the IMF's executive board.
It would have recived the second tranch of the loan, equivalent to the first loan, following the first review on 15 March 2023. However, the review was postponed till the end of June because Egypt has not yet fulfilled its obligations under the deal.
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