Sources: Despite EGX listings, govt unlikely launch offerings in current economic conditions

The Cabinet announced on Tuesday evening that 10 state-owned companies had been temporarily listed on the Egyptian Exchange, one of several measures to develop the state’s privatization program it said has prompted “great interest and praise” from international institutions. Observers of the Egyptian economy have long called for the government to move toward privatization to grant private capital broader access to the domestic market. But it comes at a moment of deep market instability, as investors reacting to the war on Iran rush to withdraw money from Egypt’s economy. A government official close to Cabinet’s State-Owned Enterprises Restructuring Unit told Mada Masr that the decision does not entail any timeframe for an initial public offering of the companies. Agreeing with the assessment, a member of parliament described the step instead as a way of demonstrating commitment to the privatization program Egypt has agreed to as part of its loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund. In its statement on Tuesday night, the Cabinet said that steps were taken over the past two weeks to list the companies temporarily, and that procedures to list another 10 companies would be completed by the end of April, citing the head of the Cabinet-affiliated unit to monitor, regulate and restructure state-owned enterprises, Hesham Sayed. “These important procedures will contribute to increasing market capital on the Egyptian Exchange and expand the base of offerings,” said Sayed. The government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that “any company being listed temporarily will need some time, on average around six months, before it can be opened to trading.” “These companies are still pending fair valuation, and the government still hasn’t selected the offering consultant who will determine the valuation,” they continued. The IMF criticized the stalled progress of state divestment in its latest review, published Thursday, of Egypt’s Extended Fund Facility loan program with the international financing body. The program was launched in 2022, as Egypt weathered the economic repercussions of Russia’s war with Ukraine. Its duration and financing value was later augmented. Egypt is awaiting a payout worth US$1.65 billion, which it will receive after successful conclusion of its seventh program review with the fund scheduled for July. The same government official, however, said that Egypt’s talks with the fund were going well at present, noting that “temporary listing is a necessary step toward a share offering at a later point.” No party “has the prerogative to say that trading of the company shares should start on government companies any time soon, with the war ongoing,” they said. The parliamentary source, who is close to the Cabinet, described the step to Mada Masr as a way of “clearing obligations” as part of the government’s commitment to the IMF program. They said that “temporary listing does not represent any obligation that the government actually allow trading on shares in the companies afterward. The step aims to demonstrate that the government has begun to take steps toward privatization.” The general director of Wathiqa for Financial Trading, Mohamed Abdel Hady, confirmed that there is no specific time period determined for opening trading on a company’s shares after completing its temporary listing. The company can renew its temporary listing each year by agreement with the Financial Regulatory Authority, he told Mada Masr, adding that there are no fees imposed for listing without sale during that time for state-owned companies. He pointed to the example of Banque du Caire, which he said was temporarily listed years ago “although the government is yet to open trading on shares in the bank.” Fees are only imposed on private companies who have listed without trading, he noted. Although Banque due Caire was temporarily listed on the Egyptian Exchange in 2016, the listing committee postponed the deadline for completing the company’s offering on Tuesday this week, pushing it to June 30 and requesting the completion of offering procedures, according to financial outlet Mubasher . An actual offering is not on the table in the foreseeable future, said a financial markets analyst, who preferred to remain anonymous. “Since an offering on the stock exchange won’t bring in foreign currency inflows, the government will wait for a strategic foreign investor” before completing any sale, the analyst said, “especially given the declining foreign capital on the stock exchange at present.” The analyst explained that temporary listing does not prohibit a foreign investor entering the deal as long as a public offering is not carried out. The parliamentary source also anticipated that the government would be more likely to wait for a foreign investor. The government has been reluctant to close share sales with foreign investors, particularly Gulf investors, over recent years, largely due to disputes over the valuation of Egypt’s assets, which has been eroded by successive rounds of currency devaluation in recent years. Security concerns over parting with strategically important assets have also put the brakes on sales, particularly for assets located in the country’s east. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbuly acknowledged last year that the value of assets due for privatization had declined as a result of geopolitical conditions, and that this was a key factor delaying the completion of the privatization program and the delay of the fifth IMF program review, which was instead conducted at the same time as the sixth, in Cairo earlier this year. In the IMF’s report on the combined reviews, which was prepared and presented to the fund’s executive board before the start of the current war and its economic repercussions, the IMF quoted the Egyptian government’s commitment to completing four privatization deals by the end of the loan program’s term. The government expects “revenues to reach approximately $1.5 billion, with about half of this amount allocated to the budget to reduce debt and lower overall financing needs,” said the report. “As of December 2025, our pipeline involves 11 additional divestment transactions in priority sectors, plus 5 military-owned companies, and 7 companies under the IPO program. We are also in preparation of management concessions for 11 Egyptian airports, starting with one airport as a pilot. This would provide opportunities for private sector management of state assets but without an upfront flow of resources for debt reduction.” The government official told Mada Masr that “the public sector companies are the priority at present.” The state ownership law, issued last year and establishing the unit, stipulated that companies engaged in national or strategic activities would be exempt from its oversight. The government source confirmed that the prime minister is yet to determine which companies this exception will apply to, clarifying that the law itself does not exempt companies owned by the armed forces from oversight. In addition to the twenty companies mentioned in yesterday’s Cabinet statement as being slated for listing on the stock exchange, the Cabinet also said that it had reviewed the state of 40 companies whose ownership is to be transferred to the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, as part of the government’s efforts to optimize the use of state assets. The government announced that these companies would be transferred to the fund at the time of the Cabinet reshuffle, when the Public Enterprise Ministry was abolished. The post Sources: Despite EGX listings, govt unlikely launch offerings in current economic conditions first appeared on Mada Masr .