On Thursday, Asharq Business said that the Sovereign Fund of Egypt is preparing to sell government stakes in five major companies.
The companies are the National Company for Productive Projects (Safi), the National Company for the Sale of Petroleum Products (Wataniya), Misr Life Insurance, Elab Petroleum Company, and Banque du Caire.
The National Service Projects Agency of the Ministry of Defense owns Safi and Wataniya. Asharq Business added that the Sovereign Fund of Egypt would conduct a promotional tour to present investment opportunities in the companies. Established in 2018, the fund seeks investments of $6 billion. A report has revealed an unprecedented wave of Gulf acquisitions of major companies in Egypt in 2022. Enterprise has said that mergers and acquisitions deals in Egypt will double in 2022. According to the report, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were involved in 40 deals in Egypt in 2022.
The influence of Gulf sovereign wealth funds has dramatically expanded in the Egyptian economy. In addition to depositing ten billion dollars in the Central Bank of Egypt, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the Saudi Public Investment Fund pumped about $3.1 billion to acquire stakes in powerful companies listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange. The Qatar Investment Authority is considering spending $2.5 billion to buy Egyptian government-owned stakes in companies, including Vodafone Egypt. It also deposited one billion dollars with the Central Bank of Egypt as a temporary deposit.
