Egypt’s push to revive its long-promised state privatisation programme has entered a faster, more demanding phase, with authorities giving a group of government-linked firms until the end of May to line up key advisers for potential stock market offerings.
According to officials overseeing the programme, 12 state-owned companies that recently received temporary listings are now expected to appoint external auditors, independent financial advisers and investment banks before 31 May. The directive signals a sharper urgency from Cairo as it attempts to turn years of announcements into completed market deals.
Under Egypt’s framework, companies granted temporary listings are allowed a period of up to six months to satisfy regulatory obligations and prepare transactions. But the latest deadline effectively squeezes the opening stages of IPO preparation into just a few weeks.
That means companies are now racing to complete adviser appointments, launch due diligence exercises and begin drafting offering documents almost simultaneously — a process that usually unfolds at a slower pace.
The government had earlier targeted the temporary listing of 20 firms before April closed. So far, only 12 companies have entered the pipeline, arriving in two separate batches.
Despite repeated pledges to accelerate privatisation and attract foreign investment, Egypt has yet to complete a major state-backed IPO in 2026. The absence of finished deals has increasingly drawn attention to the widening gap between policy ambitions and actual execution.
Officials now view the late-May target as more than an administrative milestone. It is being treated as an early indicator of whether the country can finally convert a growing IPO pipeline into real transactions.
If preparations continue to drift, several planned offerings could slip into the next fiscal cycle, further delaying one of the government’s most closely watched economic reform efforts.
