Daily News Egypt learned that the pre-IPO fund of the Sovereign Fund of Egypt has started to include the assets that it plans to offer to strategic investors to sell shares of them before listing them on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX). The government aims to add assets to the IPO fund with a value between 5 and $6bn, according to Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said's statements. The sources added that Safi, Watania, and three other companies affiliated with the National Service Agency — including the National Food Industries Company — in addition to a number of state-owned companies and Banque du Caire were included. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly held a meeting last Monday to follow up on the procedures for restructuring a number of companies affiliated with the National Service Authority in preparation for offering their shares on the stock exchange. Consequently, El-Said — who is also the Chairperson of Egypt's Sovereign Fund — reviewed the steps taken to restructure Watania and Safi in preparation for offering their shares on the stock exchange before the end of this year. Sources closely related to the matter expected that work is underway to restructure the two companies with the aim of offering shares of them to strategic investors, especially since Gulf sovereign funds have shown interest in both companies, while the government chose EFG Hermes as a financial adviser to list companies affiliated with the National Service. Ayman Soliman — CEO of Egypt's Sovereign Fund — told Daily News Egypt at the end of last June that the pre-IPO fund will provide investment opportunities worth hundreds of millions of dollars for international sovereign funds, which will benefit Egypt by bringing in foreign investments. Soliman added that the fund aims mainly to accelerate some investments to enter into targeted partnerships through the government offerings programme to expand the ownership base, and the fund will allow these investments to enter even in the absence of favourable market conditions for the completion of public offerings. He pointed out that the Sovereign Fund of Egypt carefully selects strategic investors by setting several conditions to be invited to subscribe to the pre-proposal fund, the first of which is for the strategic investor to create an added value for the company under investment, maximise its value, and enhance the value of completing the public offering. He stressed that the fund will work to seize the appropriate opportunities in the market to complete the offerings in the best possible valuation for the companies that will be offered.
