Misr Oil Processing and Fertilizers Company (MOPCO) will be listed in the Egyptian stock market early 2015, the company's president, Hassan Abd El-Alim, told Daily News Egypt. "During the last meeting of our general assembly, the decision to have an initial public offering was reached," Abd El-Alim said. "The issuance will happen after the company finished its two expansion projects." Investments required for the completion of expansions for Misr Fertilizers Production Company's (MOPCO) total $1.9bn. The expansions are aimed at adding 1.4m tonnes of urea annually to production rates, and the MOPCO 3 factory currently produces between 630,000-650,000 tonnes of urea annually. In May, Ministry of Finance undersecretary Samir Azer said the Ministry of Petroleum will prepare an initial public offering (IPO) of new petrochemicals companies. This will take place after amending the listing rules of companies in the Egyptian stock exchange. The ministry has started with new petrochemicals companies because the preparation of their IPO issuance is easier than already-established companies, which need economic studies to include several shareholders, Azer said. In February, Minister of Petroleum Sherif Ismail discussed with Mohamed Omran, head of the Stock Exchange, the possibility of issuing an IPO for some petroleum companies. Both parties, in cooperation with financial experts from public banks such as the National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr, are currently studying the needs, financial situation and available liquidity of each of the companies, the minister said. During the past several months, rumours of new IPOs have circulated major companies working in the petroleum, telecommunication and real estate sector. Founded in 1998, MOPCO began production of Urea in 2009, which it produces at a rate of 2,000 tonnes per day via a natural gas feedstock.
