The Sovereign Fund of Egypt (SFE) is studying 10 military-owned companies to offer them for co-investment, CEO Ayman Soliman tells the Financial Times' Heba Saleh. The evaluations come under an agreement the SFE signed last month with the military-affiliated National Service Products Organization (NSPO) to open up its subsidiaries for investors and address private sector complaints that the military is crowding them out. Soliman noted that the NSPO would be “happy” to exit selected assets 100%. He declined to name the companies currently under assessment.

Background: The agreement signed last month is part of the government’s steps towards privatizing some military-owned companies. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi said twice that we could see army-owned companies and assets selling stakes on the EGX as part of the state privatization program. According to NSPO’s website, the organization holds 32 companies operating in heavy and specialized industry, commodities and food manufacturing, agriculture, fisheries and livestock, quarrying and mining, contracting, and services including conference management.