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A new incentive scheme will offer tiered corporate income tax reductions over three years to companies that list on the EGX, a senior government official tells EnterpriseAM. Under the recently agreed-on plan, newly listed companies will receive a 30% reduction on payable corporate income tax in their first year, followed by 20% in the second and 10% in the third.
Eligibility will be conditional on maintaining the listing over the three years and hitting annual revenue growth prior to each year’s tax reduction. The companies must also adhere to the Financial Regulatory Authority’s listing and disclosure requirements, including the submission of quarterly reports and the payment of listing-related costs.
Why this matters: Listing a company and building up the transparency needed to stay listed can be expensive, especially for companies that have just gone public. For companies on the fence about listing, a 30% top-line corporate tax reduction goes a long way in assuaging concerns that meeting the FRA’s disclosure requirements may be too costly.
The scheme will apply to both private and public companies, which should improve the runway for the some 20 state-owned enterprises that the state is looking to list or exit as part of its plan to generate USD 3-4 bn in divestment revenues by the end of the calendar year.
The bigger picture: After a very calm few years on EGX in terms of listings, policymakers and some in the sector had been talking up 2026 as the year activity may ramp up. We entered the year with falling interest rates globally and the expectation that capital flows would move from developed to emerging nations and from fixed income investments to equities — but then Trump happened. The war in the region has, at best, pushed back companies’ plans to list as market uncertainty weighs on investor appetite.
And maybe more significant for market liquidity is the decision to waive capital gains tax liabilities on stock transactions dating back to June 2023, which should help bolster investor appetite in the market. Missed revenues from the waiver should be cushioned by their replacement with the stamp tax, which is expected to raise EGP 15 bn a year, double the initial estimates due to an increase in market activity.
