Egypt’s central bank is considering listing shares in two major banks on Cairo bourse, chief Tarek Amer announced Tuesday.
Amer did not specify which banks would be offered, yet he said the Egyptian government is a main shareholder in the two banks.
The two banks aim to increase their capitals by 20 percent, he added.
The Egyptian presidency announced late Monday plans to list shares in state-owned banks and companies on the stock market, in a move aimed at jump-starting investment and boosting economic growth. The statement did not specify which banks or sectors would be offered.
“The coming period will witness offerings of parts of the capital of successful Egyptian companies and banks on the bourse,” said presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef. The statement followed a meeting between President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and ministers to discuss the stock market’s decline.
Egypt owns vast swathes of the economy, including three of its largest banks, National Bank of Egypt, Banque Du Caire, the United Bank of Egypt — along with much of its oil industry and huge parts of its real estate.
National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr are not included in the presidency’s plan to list shares in state-run banks on bourse, the top banking official asserted.
“There will not be any listing of shares in those two banks (NBE and Banque Misr) on bourse at all.” Amer said
The last time state-owned companies were listed on the exchange was in 2005 when shares of Telecom Egypt, the state’s landline monopoly, and oil companies Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals and AMOC were floated.
Last year three major companies floated on the exchange — cake and biscuit maker EDITA, real estate firm Emaar Misr and Orascom Construction.
There are around 270 companies listed on the bourse and about 500,000 investors, of which between 80,000 and 100,000 are active. Documents seen by Reuters earlier showed there were 15 companies waiting to sell shares.
