The Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation held the first meeting of the ministerial committee that will oversee the public IPO programme of state-owned companies.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of Investment and International Cooperation and the committee’s rapporteur, Sahar Nasr; Minister of Petroleum, Tarek Al-Mulla; Minister of Public Business Sector, Ashraf El Sharkawy. In addition, the meeting included Mohamed Farid Saleh, chairperson of the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) and Ashraf Al Ghazali, CEO of NI Capital, which was selected as an adviser to the programme, and representatives of the Engineering for the Petroleum and Process Industries (Enppi).
The committee is responsible for supervising the IPO programme of state contributions in companies through continuous coordination with ministers and other owners. The committee will restructure the targeted companies before the offering to maximise the return of the process.
The committee discussed setting a comprehensive timetable for the programme as to follow up the commitment of ministries and concerned parties to implement it. The meeting also tackled the criteria and controls on which the companies would be chosen to join the programme according to the nature of each activity and its attractiveness to investors. The committee is entitled to determine the method of offering companies, either through the stock market or other ways, based on certain rules and criteria set by the committee.
The meeting discussed the details of the IPO of Enppi and its promotion, as well as other state companies that can join the programme in the next stage. The committee agreed on the need to speed up the offering.
Nasr stressed that the IPO of Enppi can be a model to other companies’ offering during the next stage, pointing out that the government aims for the new IPO programme to contribute to the economic reform programme’s success.
She added that the IPO programme will increase the overall width and liquidity of Egypt’s stock market, which will, consequently, lead to a boom in the Egyptian economy. The minister pointed out that the programme aims at financial structuring of the state companies and attracting investments, as well as enhancing transparency and governance in dealing with state assets.
Nasr concluded that the Enppi IPO is only the beginning of a pipeline of state-run companies to offer minority shares publicly over the next year, while keeping majority stakes owned by the government in these enterprises.
