Privatization pipeline thaws as Safi draws bids and Elab files for EGX listing

Some of the government’s longest-running privatization plays may finally be seeing daylight. Offers are in for military-owned bottled water maker Safi and an IPO timeline has been set for the military’s new retail field vehicle Quick Fuel. Also, state petrochems company Elab just filed for a temporary listing on the EGX.

Safi has started drawing bids, with the government now reviewing “actual offers” for the asset, a senior government official tells EnterpriseAM. The expected transaction follows the recent Wataneya-Taqa Arabia agreement and is one of five National Service Projects Organization (NSPO) companies the government plans to divest by 1H 2027, the official says.

Keeping its options open: While the government will continue temporarily listing state-owned companies on the EGX through the summer, it remains fully prepared to pivot from public offerings to strategic stake sales if private offers match fair-value studies, State-Owned Companies Unit CEO Hashem El Sayed tells us.

AND- We now have a date for the Quick Fuel IPO. Wataneya’s new vehicle is expected to begin the temporary EGX listing process before end-2026, after Taqa Arabia takes over management and operation, the official says. NSPO handed Taqa a 10% stake in Quick Fuel — which holds 172 Wataneya stations — under the transaction, with the option to acquire another 15% once Quick Fuel lists.

MEANWHILE- Qalaa Holdings wants more of Taqa Arabia: The EGX-listed investment firm, which currently holds approximately 6.2% of Taqa Arabia, intends to purchase an additional 11.45% of Taqa’s shares, according to a bourse filing (pdf). That comes on top of its existing option to buy NSPO’s 20% stake in June 2027. Qalaa could also acquire a further 17.68% block in September 2029 — currently owned by Banque Misr, Banque du Caire, Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait, and Arab African International Bank under a previous debt settlement. If Qalaa exercises all three tranches, its stake in Taqa Arabia would climb north of 55%.

REMEMBER- Safi and Wataneya have been in the privatization pipeline for years. The Sovereign Fund of Egypt began restructuring five NSPO companies — Wataneya, Safi, Silo Foods, Chill Out, and the National Roads Company — last year ahead of planned offerings, after earlier attempts to sell stakes in Safi and Wataneya repeatedly stalled.

Elab nears the front of the IPO queue

State-owned and ADQ-backed petrochems player Egyptian Linear Alkyl Benzene Company (Elab) filed for a temporary listing on the main market, according to an EGX disclosure. The firm is looking to float some 2.1 bn shares at a nominal value of USD 0.1 apiece, bringing its issued capital on the board to USD 210 mn at par value. We still don’t know which of Elab’s shareholders is providing the paper.

ICYMI- Elab has been lined up for the state IPO program since at least 2018, before Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ stepped in to acquire 35% of it back in 2023. The latest move is part of the government’s plan to temporarily list 10 petroleum sector companies by the end of June, clearing the runway for Enppi, Petrojet, and Midor to follow in July, to keep the IMF on-side.

Elab is in the middle of a USD 20 mn+ expansion that will add 50k tons to its existing 150k-ton capacity, lifting its annual linear alkyl benzene production by roughly a third, Al Mal reports, citing unnamed sources. The project was originally due for completion before the end of this month, before regional geopolitical tensions pushed the timeline into 2H this year.