Gov’t approves establishing sovereign fund to manage state assets

CAIRO – 11 April 2018: The government approved on Wednesday a draft law to establish a sovereign wealth fund to manage state assets, Planning Minister Hala al-Saeed said.

She said that the fund aims to manage and make use of the state’s assets with a capital of LE 200 billion.

The bill was referred to the parliament for review and discussion. The law gives the fund the authority to establish sub-funds and contribute in similar funds.

Saeed said that the fund targets making use of the state’s unused assets, which amount to 3,000.

She added that a unit has been established within the Planning Ministry to follow up and coordinate with other ministries to identify the unused assets. The fund will be managed mainly be the Planning Ministry.

Minister of Public Enterprise Khaled Badawi said last month that Egypt is discussing the setting up of a sovereign wealth fund to manage state companies as it plans to list them on the stock exchange.

Egypt selected 23 state companies for the first phase of the state IPO program. A Finance Ministry statement said last month that market value of the soon-to-be-listed companies stands at LE 430 billion, adding that the government intends to float about 15-30 percent of the companies on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX).

This comes as part of the state program to float some state-owned companies on the EGX under a five-year program announced in 2016 to attract investment and invigorate the stock market.