The Egyptian government is reportedly mulling selling a 10% stake in its state-owned operator Telecom Egypt, Reuters reported.
The sale would be the first to buyers that are not from Gulf sovereign wealth funds and is part of a wider strategy launched in April by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to attract US$10 billion in private investment over the next four years into state-owned assets.
Currently, the government owns 80% of Telecom Egypt shares and the sale will be handled by local banks CI Capital and Ahly Pharos, according to the sources, who also added foreign appetite “seems low”.
At the current price, shares, a 10% stake in Telecom Egypt is worth around EGP4.5 billion ($147 million). The share sale comes at a time of difficulty for the Egyptian government as it suffers from a shortage of foreign reserves since the Ukrainian invasion, pushing investors to pull US$20 billion out of Egyptian treasuries.
Egypt seems to be a hotbed for investment as the Qatari Investment Authority was reportedly considering acquiring shares in Vodafone Egypt.
Telecom Egypt recently acquired spectrum for US$125 million to support increasing traffic.
