Egyptian Exchange trading hall.
The three companies, Engineering for the Petroleum & Process Industries (ENPPI), Marine Petroleum Services (MPS), and Egyptian Linear Alkyl Benzene Company (ELAB), were admitted to the EGX in a move that officials described as the first milestone in the state's wider ownership programme.
Speaking at the listing ceremony, Hashem El-Sayed, assistant to the prime minister and CEO of the State-Owned Companies Unit at the cabinet, said the government had fulfilled its commitment to list 20 state-owned companies before 30 June as part of a programme previously announced by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly.
El-Sayed added that the state IPO programme targets the listing of 30 companies in total, including 20 public business sector firms and 10 petroleum companies, noting that the current listings represent only the initial stage of the process.
He explained that the initial listing will be followed by several steps before public offerings can take place, including conducting a fair value assessment, registering the companies with the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), appointing an investment bank to market the offering, preparing the prospectus, and obtaining regulatory approval before final listing and trading.
According to El-Sayed, the programme is being implemented under a clear roadmap and forms part of Egypt's commitments under agreements with the European Union, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank to strengthen the role of the private sector and support economic reform.
Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Karim Badawi described the listings as a historic step that marks a new phase in developing the petroleum sector and maximizing returns on state-owned assets.
He said the listings are intended to strengthen corporate governance, transparency, and disclosure while enabling petroleum companies to diversify their funding sources through capital market instruments, improve operational efficiency, and support future expansion.
Badawi added that the ministry plans to expand the programme by listing additional petroleum companies in the coming phases to attract more domestic and foreign investment, deepen partnerships with the private sector, and reinforce Egypt's position as a regional energy hub.
The minister noted that public listings would also provide continuous market-based valuation of companies, improve management efficiency, and create new opportunities for strategic partnerships, contributing to sustainable economic growth.
Egypt’s IPO and divestment programme is part of a wider state-ownership reform effort aimed at bringing more private capital into the economy, improving corporate governance, and deepening the stock market.
The government is not simply selling assets for cash; it is using listings and partial stake sales to reshape the state's role in the economy, in line with commitments under its reform agenda with the IMF, the World Bank, and the European Union (EU).
The government's IPO programme originally targeted offering stakes in 35 state-owned companies to strategic investors, aiming to generate $5 billion in proceeds under the State Ownership Policy Document.
Under the current IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme, which ends in December, the country is committed to pushing itself to broaden the private sector’s role and reduce the state’s direct footprint in business activity.
In this context, the IPO programme serves both as a reform benchmark and a credibility test, signalling whether the government is willing and able to move from policy announcements to actual asset sales and market listings.
The success of the plan will depend on execution, investor appetite, and whether the listings are priced and structured in a way that attracts durable demand rather than one-off attention.
Egypt's divestment programme is intended to support fiscal reform, capital market development, and broader economic restructuring. Its significance extends beyond the companies being listed, serving as a measure of the country's progress toward a more private-sector-led growth model.
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