CAIRO: The Egyptian government has indefinitely postponed the privatization of Egypt Aluminum, the investment minister was quoted as saying in remarks published on Tuesday. Mahmoud Mohieddin on Monday told a parliamentary committee of the postponement until an unspecified time, Al-Ahram newspaper reported. It did not explain the postponement, which was part of a government program to sell off state-owned firms. An initial public offering (IPO) of 17 percent of the firm, Egypt s only primary producer of aluminum, in February failed to attract enough investor interest to cover the full allocation of shares. Traders had said investors were discouraged from buying by a drop in the value of the Egyptian stock market. The benchmark Hermes index has fallen 35 percent from a record high hit in January. Mohieddin said in May the government was shifting away from using stock listings for privatization because of stock-market declines in the Middle East. The planned IPO would have been among the largest sales of government holdings since the sale of 20 percent of Telecom Egypt in December. Egypt Aluminum s current majority shareholder is the state s Holding Company for Metallurgical Industries, which owns 92.2 percent of the shares. Reuters
