PRIVATIZATION-

TE closes share sale to employees: The government raised EGP 196.3 mn from the sale of a 0.5% stake (8.5 mn shares) in Telecom Egypt (TE) that were earmarked for the company’s employees on the EGX yesterday, according to an EGX bulletin. The transaction wraps the government’s secondary offering of a 10% stake in TE, bringing the total value raised to some EGP 3.95 bn. Shares were priced at EGP 23.11 apiece in both portions of the offering, with the9.5% stake sale (162.2 mn shares) to institutional investors earlier this month raising some EGP 3.75 bn. The transaction marks the first significant sale in the state’s privatization program, which aims to raise some USD 2 bn by the end of June.

Market reax: TE’s share price rose 3.6% during yesterday’s session, closing at EGP 24.24.

FINANCE-

EFG Holding’s NBFI platformplans to launch a new company that will offer financing to SMEs, EFG Finance CEO Aladdin El Afifi confirmed to Enterprise yesterday after the news was first reported by Al Mal. The new firm will extend loans of between EGP 250k and EGP 5 mn, with a focus on SMEs in the tech and food sectors, he said. It will draw on the existing customer base at EFG Finance subsidiaries including microfinance provider Tanmeyah, according to El Afifi.

CONSTRUCTION-

Egyptian contractors have USD 15 bn worth of Libyan contracts pending: Egyptian contractors have signed USD 15 bn worth of contracts with Libya over the past 18 months but current political instability has made it difficult for companies to start construction, Hassan Abdelaziz, president of African Federation for Construction Contractor's Associations (AFCCA), told CNBC Arabia (watch, runtime: 1:41).

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