Egypt’s military companies seek private investments
The Egyptian military seeks to expand investments in partnership with the private sector, thus crowding out civilian-run companies, amid the economic recession due to the coronavirus crisis.
Military-owned companies in Egypt are a few steps away from rolling out a plan to attract private sector investments and expand their property base. Sovereign Wealth Fund CEO Ayman Soliman said that various private local and international investors made bids to invest in Egyptian companies owned by the military.
During a virtual press conference June 8, Soliman told the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper that the fund is currently assessing a number of these companies before opening them up to investors. Soliman did not give any details on the companies nor the sectors in which they operate, and did not reveal which investors made bids.
Soliman’s remarks came after the fund had signed with the armed forces’ National Service Projects Organization (NSPO) in February an agreement to rehabilitate and develop a number of the armed forces-affiliated companies in order for them to attract investors.
Egypt’s Sovereign Wealth Fund was established in 2018 in order to attract private investments to Egypt and encourage joint investments in state-owned resources and assets, so as to make them more valuable and efficient to the Egyptian economy.
