Egypt is considering offering an additional stake in state-run Telecom Egypt to investors, as the North African nation looks to monetize its assets and raise hard currency.
(Bloomberg) —
Egypt is considering offering an additional stake in state-run Telecom Egypt to investors, as the North African nation looks to monetize its assets and raise hard currency.
The telecommunications firm, which is 80% government-owned, has been told by Egyptian officials that an extra stake offering is among options they’re weighing, it said Tuesday in a statement to the local stock exchange. It called the proposal “preliminary.”
The plan comes after Egypt last month unveiled a list of 32 state-held companies they would either newly list on the bourse, offer additional stakes in, or sell to strategic investors.
Telecom Egypt wasn’t among them, but the potential offering suggests the government could tap another of its most valuable assets in a bid to ease a foreign-currency crunch fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Authorities, keen to lure back investors, have agreed a $3 billion International Monetary Fund loan and devalued the pound three times over the past year.
Read also: Egypt Puts State Assets Up for Sale to Hunt Foreign Exchange
Telecom Egypt holds a 45% stake in Vodafone Egypt, which authorities have been in long-running talks over to sell to a Gulf-based sovereign wealth fund. That deal, and others that Egypt hoped might quickly be concluded, have dragged on.
Egypt’s Gulf allies pledged more than $10 billion in investments last year, although only a fraction of that has been delivered amid uncertainty over whether authorities will further devalue the currency or fully enact wide-ranging economic reforms they pledged.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.