Egypt’s government is preparing to offer 60 state-owned companies to the private sector before the end of April. Ownership of 40 will be transferred to the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, while 20 will be listed on the Egyptian Exchange ahead of their sale. The government says the plan aims to restructure the public sector and state assets.
The move follows the International Monetary Fund’s completion of Egypt’s combined fifth and sixth program reviews in February, allowing a $2.3 billion disbursement. The Fund welcomed growth recovering to 4.4%, a primary surplus of 3.5% and a narrower current-account deficit, before indicators deteriorated amid the regional war from March 1.
The IMF nevertheless called for urgent structural reforms: faster divestment from non-strategic public-business companies, better public-debt management, uniform governance in state-owned banks and companies, increased non-oil tax revenue, and support for the private sector through reduced state intervention. The program targets growth of 4.8% and inflation of 11.9% this year.
As part of its asset-sale plan, the government abolished the Public Business Sector Ministry in February’s cabinet reshuffle, 40 years after its establishment. It said the aim was to “save public companies from collapse and preserve their role in employing millions of Egyptians.”
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said the decision reflected a vision proposed years earlier: the ministry’s role was transitional by nature, rather than permanent. He said he had told the former public-business minister on appointment that the ministry might be in its final stages, since the objective was to reorganize the sector for a new phase.
The ministry oversaw 146 state-owned companies across multiple sectors, about 26% of Egypt’s 561 state-owned companies as of July 2025, according to a government document. Its portfolio included six holding companies in tourism and hotels, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, metals, textiles and construction. The document indicates that around 75% of the ministry’s companies were profitable, while 25% recorded losses.
In its place, the government established a State-Owned Companies Unit, a central body reporting to the cabinet. It inventories and evaluates government companies and identifies candidates for divestment, stock-market listing or transfer to the sovereign fund. It imposes uniform board-governance rules and requires quarterly reports. The unit is headed by an assistant to the prime minister.
What does the government’s offering plan involve?
An informed government source tells Zawia3 that the first phase will include 20 public-business companies, including about five managed by the Chemical Industries Holding Company and five belonging to the Metallurgical Industries Holding Company. The government will proceed with the remaining companies according to the agreed timetable before the end of April.
The Egyptian state owns around 561 companies active in 18 economic fields. They belong to 45 government entities, including 19 ministries and ten authorities, and operate across 16 governorates. Manufacturing accounts for the largest number, with 175 companies, followed by administrative and support services with 77, transport and storage with 50, finance and insurance with 49, and real estate with 48.
This distribution reflects structural changes associated with implementing the State Ownership Policy Document. During 2025, the number of state-owned companies fell from 709 to 561—a reduction of 148, or 20.9%. The number of owning entities, however, rose from 33 to 45, reflecting a reorganization of ownership and the distribution of public assets.
The government is acting amid overlapping economic crises and a growing debt-payment burden this year. International institutions estimate that debt obligations, particularly external ones, total roughly $60–70 billion, with installments heavily concentrated in the first quarter. This increases short-term financing needs and makes public finances more sensitive to external shocks or disrupted capital flows.
Despite the government’s announcement that the debt-to-GDP ratio fell by around 12% over the previous two years, followed by Standard & Poor’s first credit-rating upgrade in seven years last October, debt service remained the most acute challenge. Official figures indicate that it absorbed around 50% of total public expenditure and approximately 72% of total revenue in 2024/25, among the highest shares in comparable countries.
Can Egypt escape the bottleneck?
Member of parliament and economist Mohamed Fouad says the government’s offering program “is not the complete solution to the economic crisis, but part of the solution.” Its value, he stresses, depends on genuinely empowering the private sector rather than using it to generate temporary liquidity. The approach is not new: it began with the offering program under former minister Hisham Tawfik, continued through successive ministerial changes aimed at improving operational efficiency, and culminated in restructuring the public-business portfolio and assigning the offerings to other bodies.
Fouad tells Zawia3 that the deeper problem is the multiplicity of state-ownership arrangements, whether through public-business companies, the Egyptian sovereign fund or other financial institutions. This overlap reflects “a crisis in the structure of state ownership” that goes beyond putting companies up for sale. Selling assets solely to obtain short-term liquidity is an inadequate solution, he argues. He calls for a broader vision that redefines the state’s economic role and clearly organizes its ownership.
Divestment from certain activities must also be prudent and orderly, rather than what Fouad calls “piecemeal selling.” He warns against repeating earlier experiences that failed to deliver the intended results. Repeated announcements about offering dozens of companies inspire little enthusiasm without tangible implementation, he says. Maximizing asset value must be balanced against avoiding sales merely to dispose of assets or secure immediate cash.
For Fouad, genuine reform requires a structural transformation in economic management based on an effective partnership with the private sector and a clear definition of the state’s role as an economic actor, rather than partial measures that leave the underlying crisis unresolved.
Ahmed Aboud, professor of economics and business at the University of Portsmouth, describes the move as expected within the government’s strategy to expand the private sector’s role and reduce the state’s presence in investment activity. It also aligns with earlier IMF recommendations to Egypt, he says.
Aboud tells Zawia3 that the government hopes the offerings will attract additional foreign investment, generating hard currency, strengthening foreign reserves and supplying the dollar liquidity needed to meet external debt-service obligations in the coming period.
He identifies two main potential benefits. Wider private-sector participation could strengthen confidence in the Egyptian market and support fair competition. Private-sector partners could also improve public-business companies’ operating efficiency and performance, thanks to greater flexibility, profitability and effectiveness compared with the government sector.
A law to accelerate asset sales
On August 20 last year, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi ratified legislative amendments intended to speed up government asset sales under the State Ownership Policy Document program. The amendments give the Sovereign Fund of Egypt broader powers to sell state-owned assets directly, shortening procedures that previously took months or even years before a deal could be completed.
The law governs companies wholly or partly owned by the state, including those connected to ministries, public authorities and other state bodies, with exceptions for certain strategic companies or those established under international agreements. It provides several ways to dispose of state assets, including sales, market offerings, mergers and demergers, with the stated aim of strengthening transparency and economic governance.
The IMF places privatization at the center of its Egypt program, viewing it as the fastest route to reducing the state’s economic presence and attracting hard currency through foreign investment. In its latest review, the Fund stressed faster divestment from public-sector companies, particularly those holding large market shares, such as cement, steel and marble producers. This pressure encounters a complicated reality: sales require lengthy valuation, pricing and negotiation, while the Fund demands rapid results.
Mohamed Ramadan, an economic researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, sees the decisions as part of the government’s commitment to implement its IMF program. In previous reviews, the Fund emphasized accelerating reductions in the state’s role across economic sectors and withdrawing from them.
Ramadan tells Zawia3 that these steps extend an approach begun in 2022, but now come under direct IMF pressure. The leading targets are the sectors identified in the State Ownership Policy Document, particularly construction, as well as cement, iron and steel, and marble. The state holds substantial stakes in these fields, sometimes accounting for a third of the market or more.
The problem extends beyond which sectors are offered to the mechanisms of divestment, he says. Asset sales are inherently complex and take longer than the IMF anticipates, requiring accurate valuations, offering procedures and suitable market timing. Insistence on accelerating the process may therefore be unrealistic. Even if some deals are completed in the coming months, their macroeconomic effect will remain limited because expected proceeds are insufficient to produce a fundamental transformation.
How did the privatization drive begin?
In 2022, Cairo entered a new phase of government asset sales through major deals with Gulf investors. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign Public Investment Fund acquired minority stakes in four state-owned companies listed on the Egyptian Exchange for approximately $1.3 billion through its Saudi Egyptian Investment Company subsidiary.
During the same period, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign fund purchased stakes in five state-owned companies for around $1.85 billion, concentrated in fertilizers, petrochemicals and logistics. Significant interests in companies such as Abu Qir Fertilizers, MOPCO, Alexandria Container and Cargo Handling, and e-Finance thus passed to Saudi and Emirati investors.
The Egyptian government linked these transactions to the need to increase liquidity and meet debt obligations. It said they formed part of a policy to maximize the value of assets and organize the state’s economic role while protecting future generations’ rights.
The program continued beyond the 2022 deals into additional sectors over the following two years. In May 2023, the state sold 9.5% of Telecom Egypt through a secondary stock-market offering for EGP 3.75 billion ($121.6 million). In September, the UAE’s Global Investment Holding acquired 30% of Eastern Company for $625 million, alongside a commitment to provide $150 million to finance tobacco purchases. This reduced the state’s share to about 20.95%.
Egypt’s government offering program reflects a deeper shift in economic management, extending beyond asset sales to redefining the state’s role and the limits of its intervention. As the government seeks investment and dollar liquidity under the pressure of external obligations, challenges remain: carrying out divestment efficiently and balancing the maximization of asset value with preserving the state’s developmental role.
