The Ministry of Supply plans to offer the state-owned Food Industries Holding Company (FIHC) on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) in 2016. The financial studies the ministry is conducting to prepare FIHC for an initial public offering (IPO) are expected to be finalised by the end of 2016, Minister of Supply Khaled Hanafy told Daily News Egypt. To assess the value of IPO, the ministry has been in talks with an investment bank. "With ongoing discussion, the ministry will be able to define the capital value of the IPO," he said. An FIHC IPO will not be an attempt to privatise the state-owned company. "The IPO will be for capital increase." Hanafy and Minister of Investment Ashraf Salman have collaborated to prepare an amendment to Law no. 203. The law currently bans the offering of state-owned companies on the EGX. "We have prepared an amendment for the law that will allow for capital increase," Hanafy said. Chairman of Egyptian Exchange (EGX) met with Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, who was then minister of petroleum, and with Hanafy to discuss the introduction of state-owned companies into the capital market. Following the meetings, Ismail announced that four state-owned companies would be listed on the stock market. Since this announcement was made, Misr Oil Processing and Fertilisers Company (MOPCO) was the only state-owned corporation that was listed on EGX with a total capital of EGP 2.3bn. The Ministry of Petroleum decided to suspend the IPOs of the other three petroleum companies –Middle East Oil Refinery MIDOR, the Egyptian Company for Refrigeration (Gas Cool), and El-Neel Oil Marketing Company— included in Ismail's original announcement. The companies were expected to be listed with a total capital of EGP 8.5bn. Hanafy said the study on the introduction of exchange commodities to the capital market should be finalised before this end of 2016.
