The listing of shares in public sector companies will be a three-to-five-year affair, said Investment Minister Dalia Khorshid at a meeting of the cabinet economic group. Public Sector Minister Ashraf El Sharkawy had stated earlier that the restructuring of those companies would take that long, though he refuses to acknowledge publicly that any IPOs were in the works.

The economic group also looked yesterday into proposed amendments to the Mines and Quarries Act, which the government had sought to replace with the Mineral Resources Act until parliament had other ideas. These amendments include reducing royalties and fees on mines and quarries (a sticking point in the Mineral Resources Act) and granting investment incentives such as unifying fees for licensing under the one-stop-shop policy and reducing times to obtain permits for mines in Sinai, Al Mal reports.