Egypt plans to exit some companies, offer others on EGX: Min.

CAIRO – 10 December 2020: The Egyptian state had already planned to exit from some companies after it had succeeded in maximizing the value of its assets and achieving the highest returns from them, in order to preserve the wealth of future generations, Minister of Planning Hala el-Saeed stated Wednesday.

El-Saeed clarified that there are a number of companies owned by the armed forces out of  these companies.

She pointed out that the state and its institutions owning companies and economic entities does not mean giving up the free market policies, competition and encouraging the private sector, but rather it comes as an intervention to control markets in some cases or support investment sectors, and at other times to maximize the value of state-owned assets, then exit from these companies and restore Offering these assets to private investors to complete the process of developing and maximizing the value of these assets or allowing citizens to own and invest in them through the stock exchange.

This came during El-Saeed and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Egypt Sovereign Fund's meeting, with a number of senior writers and journalists, regarding the objectives of the fund and the main features of the law establishing the fund; in the presence of Executive Director of the Fund Ayman Soliman.

“In Egypt, we create an economic model that takes what suits us from economic theories and what achieves our interests and fits with our conditions, the nature and size of our people and our goals in the coming years,” she noted.

El-Saeed stressed that the government must realize that the world is now based on adopting flexible economic policies, and it is no longer acceptable to be entrenched behind traditional theories, whether they support or criticize capitalist ideology, but rather that every country that seeks to achieve economic progress has to choose what suits it from these theories a model by itself that fits with its nature and fulfills its interests.

The minister said that, in February, the Egyptian Sovereign Fund signed a cooperation agreement with the National Service Projects Organization to invest in its companies, and two companies were selected (the National Natural Water Bottling Company (Safi) and the National Petroleum Company), and studies were conducted by a number of experts, specialists and expert houses.

She noted that the investment document for these companies has been completed and it will be offered to the private sector to invest in it as a first stage, then they will be floated on the Egyptian Stock Exchange and available to all Egyptians to own their shares and invest in them through the stock exchange.

“Cooperation will be made with the National Service Projects Agency in other companies that we will announce in turn. Offering it to the private sector in accordance with conditions and controls that ensure that it achieves the highest returns for the Egyptian state and creates real investment opportunities for the private sector in the first stage, as well as an opportunity for citizens to own shares in it and invest in its shares,” she added.