
The companies would be open to local and foreign investment/Bloomberg
by BloombergEgypt may offer stakes of as much as 100 per cent in some military-linked firms as the North African country steps up efforts to attract sorely needed private investment.
Under the plan, investors will be given the chance to secure a majority stake in some companies held by the National Service Projects Organisation (NSPO) which is affiliated with the ministry of defence.
Ayman Soliman, the CEO of the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, said that the sovereign wealth fund will help the NSPO choose the firms, promote them to investors and potentially also invest in some of the stakes.
The military controls dozens of companies, ranging from agriculture and industry to services and mining, through several entities, including the NSPO
Now that economic growth has rebounded since stalling after the 2011 uprising against long-time President Hosni Mubarak, the focus is on luring foreign investments and boosting growth in the private sector.
Hala al-Saeed, Egypt’s Planning Minister, said that the agreement is in line with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi’s instructions to float military companies on the stock exchange. The companies would be open to local and foreign investment.
President El-Sisi previously suggested that military-run firms could be offered to investors as well as the tapping of the country’s newly established sovereign fund to steer the programme seeks to give new impetus to the effort.
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