Egypt has signed contracts to sell stakes in state assets worth a total of $1.9 billion as part of a programme to boost the private sector and raise scarce hard currency, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Tuesday.
The stake sales are seen as crucial to Egypt’s chances of easing prolonged pressure on the Egyptian pound, attracting badly needed dollars, and launching economic reforms under a $3 billion IMF loan programme.
The stake in the hotels, which include historic properties in Cairo, Alexandria and Luxor, was awarded to ICON, the hospitality arm of Egyptian real estate group Talaat Mostafa, she said.
The government is about one-quarter through a list of 32 state companies that it announced it would sell stakes in, and is preparing stake sales in other companies for later, said Madbouly.
Egypt expects to increase its annual inflow of hard currency by $70 billion per year to reach $191 billion by 2026, he added.
Transactions the government expects to complete in the next few months include a more than $300 million deal for the Gabal El Zeit wind farm, and sales in military-owned Wataniya Petroleum and a power plant built by Siemens, Said told reporters.
