The government has signed contracts with the private sector to sell state-owned firms worth $1.9 billion under the country’s IPO program, which was implemented earlier this year, Egypt’s Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouly said on Tuesday.
PM Madbouly stated during a press conference at the Cabinet headquarters in the New Administrative Capital that the administration received a total of $1.65 billion and the equivalent of the remaining $250 million in Egyptian pounds for the shares sold in some state-owned entities, including Telecom Egypt.
The press conference was aimed at bolstering investors’ confidence in the government’s reform agenda. Furthermore, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly and Planning Minister Hala El Said announced the sale of stakes in five companies to investors — and pledged more to come.
The government had aimed to snag some USD 2 bn in proceeds from asset sales by the end of June as part of a reform agenda agreed last year with the IMF for its USD 3 bn loan.
Most of the receipts are in hard currency: The state has raised USD 1.65 bn through the stake sales and received the remainder in EGP, Madbouly said.
PM Madbouly said the government has finalized completing 25 percent of the first phase of the IPO program.
He added that the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation will advise the government in preparing 50 more companies to join the IPO program.
Madbouly also revealed that Egypt targets $191 billion in US dollar revenues in 2026, up from the current figure of $70 billion.
The target includes $88 billion from commodity exports, $20 billion from tourism, $45 billion from remittances, $13 billion from the FDIs, $17 billion from the Suez Canal and other maritime services, and $9 billion from outsourcing services in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector.
He also added that the government target an annual increase in exports of 20 percent, up from 16 percent currently.
