Egypt's Minister of Public Business Sector Hisham Tawfik announced on Thursday that no stakes will be offered for companies that have been listed in the initial public offering (IPO) programme till September. According to the IPO programme, nearly eight enterprises have stakes in five sectors listed to be offered in the EGX. Tawfik said that the new offerings will not take place till September given that the stock market is inactive during the summer holidays and Eid break, asserting that the most advantageous date for the IPO to be resumed is in the fourth quarter of 2019, which will begin in September. Alexandria Containers and Cargo Handling Company (ACCH), Abu Qir Fertilizers, and Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals (Sidpec) enterprises are the companies for which stakes will be offered on the EGX. Head of the securities division at the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce Awni Abdel-Aziz praised this step, affirming that now is not suitable for offering new companies' stakes, especially since the market is still anticipating whether the CBE will either stabilize or decrease the interest rate. “A large number of companies already listed on the EGX have not yet released their business outcomes, which are essential for the decision to buy or sell their stakes or those of other companies,” Awni said. Awni stressed that the listed companies of the IPO are promising, projecting that they will be successfully sold as all of them are high-market value and stable and do not need to be restructured. Egypt announced the implementation of the IPO programme in 2016, offering between 15 percent and 30 percent of each listed company over three to five years as part of the economic reform programme started in late 2016 to maximise the benefits of untapped state-owned assets and to attract more investments to the domestic market. Eastern Company was the first listed company to be offered at 4.5 percent of its stakes on the EGX.
