Egypt’s privatization program passes IMF review, unlocking a c. USD 1.6 bn tranche

Egypt’s anemic privatization drive has gotten a passing grade from the IMF, putting Cairo on track to get c. USD 1.6 bn in Extended Fund Facility money once the IMF’s executive board meets this summer. It seems the IMF was happy with Taqa Arabia taking a 10% stake in 172 military-affiliated Wataniya fuel stations (the first partial sale of a military-linked asset) and Alcazar Energy’s USD 420 mn deal to run the Gabal El Zeit wind farm. That leaves one more IMF review to go before year’s end before the IMF program winds down.

The temporary-listing theatre continues alongside it. Enppi, Petroleum Marine Services and Elab shares were listed on the EGX yesterday, taking the roster of temporary listings to 20 and setting up a 4Q deadline for the companies to start trading or get an extension on the listing.

We don’t like this much at all: The listings are needless staging, not substance. What’s real is whether the state actually puts shares in front of investors — and whether those investors buy.

DataVolt is three months from financial close on its USD 500 mn Riyadh East data center, with banks set to fund roughly 75% of the cost after Humain signed up to take more than 80% of capacity — a 36 MW commitment of the site’s 44 MW, CEO Rajit Nanda tells us. DataVolt, founded by Vision Invest and chaired by ex-Acwa Power chief Paddy Padmanathan, is bolting decades-old power-and-water project finance onto AI infrastructure with international and Saudi banks now in a competitive process for the debt.

The Riyadh build is just the first of DataVolt’s ambitions: Nanda tells us it is in advanced talks with major Western data-center operators to anchor the first phase of a 1.5 GW AI campus at Neom’s Oxagon — roughly 240 MW expected next year, around USD 2.5 bn of its own investment and some USD 10 bn in total value once customer-owned compute is counted. Last week, the company reached financial close on a USD 250 mn, 12 MW facility in Tashkent it’s treating as the funding template.

Nigeria has drawn the first USD 1.5 bn from its USD 5 bn total return swap with First Abu Dhabi Bank, Bloomberg reports. The pricing undercut Abuja’s own eurobonds, which is the appeal: refinance pricier USD debt as oil softens and the FX squeeze bites. The IMF and Fitch are already flagging fiscal and currency risk, saying Nigeria hasn’t disclosed enough as a Gulf bank becomes a frontier sovereign’s lender of choice.

Saudi’s Fakeeh Care Group lined up SAR 2.2 bn across two shariah-compliant facilities to fund expansion — SAR 1.25 bn from Saudi National Bank and SAR 950 mn from Saudi Awwal Bank. Fakeeh has just cleared antitrust signoff on its full buyout of Al Fagih, suggesting that Fakeeh’s hospital roll-up play still has legs.

European debt for Egypt fertilizer complex: Singapore-based Indorama is closing in on a combined USD 348 mn debt package from the IFC and EBRD to fund a USD 525 mn greenfield phosphate fertilizer complex in Ain Sokhna. The plant, a JV with state-owned Phosphate Misr (15% equity, 20% of output in exchange for feedstock), will turn out 600k tons of phosphate fertilizer a year.

EFG Hermes’ K-12 arm Mindspire is looking to acquire as many as 15 Saudi schools within three years as the Saudi Education Fund behind it has raised north of USD 200 mn against a USD 300 mn target and already deployed over half across six schools in roughly a year, a company official tells us.

Gems Education is pushing the other way — deeper into India. The Dubai-based operator is committing up to USD 30 mn over three to five years to 30-plus owned schools and a 1k-plus branded partner network, Economic Times reports.

Mindspire isn’t the only Egyptian name chasing the Kingdom: Beltone Venture Capital is pushing two of its portfolio companies — furnishings brand Ariika and F&B chain Lychee — into Riyadh with a combined five stores, it said in a statement.

Saudi small-cap listings keep coming, even if they’re a sideshow. Masqa Investment’s Nomu float landed 144.6% oversubscribed, it said in a Tadawul disclosure, even as bigger names were shelving main-market IPO plans. The pipeline for Saudi’s baby bourse also includes radiation-therapy operator BaraSeen Medical (which just won CMA approval to float 17.1%), with Qemah and Mayar Holding’s Ziorak lining up behind.

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Emirates NBD raised USD 1.5 bn through a five-year senior unsecured private placement priced at 5.125%, with JPMorgan serving as bookrunner, Zawya reports. It’s the latest Gulf bank to pick up capital in one form or another, joining FAB and Dubai Islamic Bank, who were in the market last week.

France’s AFD, the European Investment Bank and the EU are mobilizing around EUR 459 mn into Egypt, the AFD said — the finance-relevant pieces being a EUR 210 mn blended facility lent through Egyptian banks to decarbonize 30-plus industrial firms and a EUR 50 mn National Bank of Egypt credit line for agri-SMEs.

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