TE stake sale on ice, says Asharq: The government has postponed plans to sell a stake in national telecoms provider Telecom Egypt (TE) due to market volatility triggered by fears over the global banking sector, Asharq Business reports, citing five unnamed sources.

REFRESHER- The Finance Ministry said earlier this month that it’s looking to sell shares in the company after Reuters reported the government was looking to offload a 10% stake to investors. Subsequent reports have suggested that the government could be looking to sell as such as 20%, and that the investment banks working on the transaction — CI Capital and Al Ahly Pharos — were in talks with Gulf and other regional investors.

Plans now seem to be on hold: “The government did not prefer to conduct an assessment under the current market conditions, and therefore the delay was to allow more time and stability in the markets,” Asharq quotes one of its sources as saying. The report comes a day after Al Borsa claimed the transaction would wrap by the end of the week, citing a Finance Ministry source.

Global market conditions have turbulent over the past two weeks in the wake of the rapid collapse of three mid-sized banks in the US. Fears of contagion in the global banking system triggered a sharp sell-off in banking shares in the US and Europe, climaxing last week with the near-collapse of giant Swiss lender Credit Suisse.

Nothing is set in stone: “It’s very early to talk about the fate of the government’s stake sale plans for TE and it’s currently in the hands of the transaction managers to advise on the best timing,” a source with knowledge of the matter told Enterprise yesterday, on condition of anonymity.

Shareholders: The government currently owns 80% of TE, while the remaining 20% is in freefloat.

Telecom Egypt’s shares reversed a week of losses yesterday, rising almost 2% by market close to settle at EGP 22.00.

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