Egypt lists four state-owned firms in privatisation drive

Four state-backed companies were temporarily listed on the Egyptian stock market on Sunday, as part of the government’s privatisation initiative to strengthen its capital markets.

These included Engineering for Petroleum and Chemical Industries, Egyptian Linear Alkyl Benzene Company, Petroleum Marine Services and Maamoura for Reconstruction and Tourism Development, the cabinet said in a statement.

The temporary listing is a fast-track pre-IPO mechanism that allows state-owned companies to list on the Egyptian Exchange.

Hashem El-Sayed, assistant to the prime minister and CEO of the State-Owned Companies Unit, said that the number of companies temporarily listed on the stock exchange has reached 20 out of the 30 announced within the IPO programme.

Karim Badawi, the petroleum minister, added that the combined capital of petroleum sector companies stands at $687 million.

The ministry is continuing to complete the necessary procedures to list another group of companies in the next phase.

In April the government selected 10 petroleum companies for listing on the local stock exchange in the third quarter of this year.

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Cairo established the State-Owned Enterprises Unit in late 2025, as part of efforts to restructure state ownership. In August, the government ratified legislative amendments to accelerate the sale of state-owned assets.

Egypt’s main stock index, the EGX30, closed 2 percent lower at 50,344 points on Sunday. The index is down nearly 5 percent during the past month, but it has gained 52 percent in the past year.

The EGX30 spans Egypt’s blue-chip stocks and major companies. It surged in early 2026 after Morgan Stanley said it was overweight on the country’s stocks.

“The market has seen a number of positive trends, including rising liquidity,” said Mohamed Abu Basha, head of macroeconomic analysis at EFG Hermes in Cairo. Bourse daily turnover has more than doubled over the past two to three years, he added.