Egypt is reportedly planning to launch initial public offerings for 20 state-owned companies on its local bourse in the next two weeks.
The move is part of the government’s initiative to restructure state-owned entities and support its privatisation programme, Hashem El-Sayed, assistant to the prime minister and CEO of the State-Owned Enterprises Unit, told Asharq Business.
The companies proposed for listing include five subsidiaries of the Holding Company for Chemical Industries and five subsidiaries of the Metallurgical Industries Holding Company, while the remaining are units of other holding companies, El-Sayed said.
Last month, the government abolished the Ministry of Public Business Sector, which managed the largest portfolio of state-owned companies.
The abolished ministry oversaw 146 state-owned companies, representing 26 percent of the total 561 state-owned companies as of July 2025, the report said.
El-Sayed said Cairo plans to transfer up to 40 state-owned companies listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange to the Sovereign Fund of Egypt’s portfolio before the end of April.
The country’s expenditure swelled by EGP597 billion ($12 billion), or 29 percent, during the July 2025 to January 2026 period, reaching EGP2.65 trillion, the finance ministry said last month.
Finance minister Ahmed Kouchouk told US investors in October that Egypt intends to use funds from the sale of public enterprises to reduce the ratio of national debt to GDP to 75 percent in the next three years.


