PRIVATIZATION WATCH- El Nasr Mining Company to offer 22% of its shares in IPO: The Holding Company for Metallurgical Industries’ general assembly has approved offering 21.97% of its subsidiary El Nasr Mining Company in an IPO on the EGX as part of the state privatization program, according to Youm7. No details were provided on an anticipated timeline for the offering.

Full steam ahead for the state privatization program? El Nasr Mining is one of eight companies the Public Enterprises Ministry was choosing from to IPO on the EGX before the end of FY2019-2020, Minister Hisham Tawfik told us in December. The list also includes e-Finance and Banque du Caire, the latter of which is probably the first in line to IPO. The bank, which will sell a 45% stake to investors by April, kicked off its inaugural roadshow last month, which saw good demand from investors. It remains unclear when the remaining IPOs will take place.

A quick recap on where we currently stand: The state privatization program has seen one delay after the other, with only one offering going materializing when Eastern Tobacco sold a 4.5% stake in a secondary offering back in March last year. Along with the Banque du Caire and El Nasr Mining, Heliopolis Housing and Development was also on track to make a secondary stake sale before four real estate development companies backed out from buying a 10% stake in the company along with management rights. The company has a contingency plan, but details remain scant and it is unclear what the next steps entail. Alexandria Container and Cargo Handling and Abu Qir Fertilizers — both of which finalized procedures last year to take secondary offerings to market — are also included in the program.

The obvious wildcard: Global market conditions are not exactly in favor of IPOs at the moment given that investors are dumping equities for gold and other safe haven assets amid fears that the novel covid-19 coronavirus could have a substantial impact on the global economy.