Gov’t accelerates efforts to offload stakes in four state companies by end of 2025

Egypt is upping its privatization efforts following the IMF’s decision to merge — and delay — its fifth and sixth loan reviews, with the government now aiming to sell stakes in four companies by year-end, two government sources told EnterpriseAM. The offerings will help Egypt meet some of its obligations under the now-delayed fifth review, they added.

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REMEMBER- IMF Communications Director Julie Kozack confirmed late last week that the Fund would delay its fifth review until fall and combine it with the upcoming sixth review of the USD 8 bn Extended Fund Facility Arrangement. “More time is needed” to make progress on the state withdrawing itself from the economy and the broader reform agenda, Kozack said.

Now is also not the worst time to try to put the privatization program up a gear given the relative stability we find ourselves in, the sources said. The state had been set to complete planned offerings in the second half of the fiscal year 2024-2025, but conflict in the region had put the plans on ice.

The offerings are part of a wider plan to offer stakes in 11 state-owned companies in FY 2025-2026, the Finance Ministry said in its monthly financial report for May. The lineup includes the military-affiliated firms Wataneya, Safi, Silo Foods, Chill Out, and the National Roads Company, which are all being restructured by the Sovereign Fund of Egypt. The announcement aligns with statements by government sources who told EnterpriseAM a month prior that the state aims to raise USD 4-5 bn through stake sales in 11 companies by the end of the upcoming fiscal year.

We could see movement in the offerings by the end of July or August, we were told.

The government has also started receiving offers for public-private partnerships worthUSD 800 mn that it hopes to finalize in the next four months. The eight projects include desalination plants, wastewater and industrial sewage treatment facilities, electricity substations, and waste recycling projects as part of the government’s broader efforts to expand private sector involvement in development initiatives, Ater Hanoura, head of the Finance Ministry’s PPP unit, previously told EnterpriseAM.