Ukraine’s Vazhmash is serious about saving Egyptian Iron and Steel: Ukraine-based industrial player Vazhmash has fielded a “serious” offer to step in and revive defunct state-owned Egyptian Iron and Steel, Khaled El Feky — a board member at Egyptian Iron and Steel parent company the Metallurgical Industries Holding Company (MIHC) — told us, confirming statements attributed to Public Enterprises Minister Hisham Tawfik by Al Mal this morning. The offer is due to be reviewed today, and might be discussed by Egyptian Iron and Steel’s board of directors as early as tomorrow, El Feky said. Egyptian Iron and Steel, which is currently undergoing liquidation, said last week it received a bid from a Ukrainian company looking to revamp its facilities under a revenue sharing partnership instead of pushing ahead with a liquidation plan.

With Vazhmash’s offer on the table, there’s hope the company could make a comeback. The perennial lossmaker officially halted operations in late May and appointed accountant and former liquidation advisor for MIHC Mostafa Hassan to oversee a liquidation process that is expected to take up to two years. It spinned off its mining operations in tandem with selling its steel plant in Helwan, and will need to look into ways to sell off 6 mn sqm of land assets to be able to pay off its EGP 9 bn in outstanding debts if it decides to go ahead with liquidation.

IN OTHER PUBLIC ENTERPRISES NEWS-

OC to build seven new factories for state-run textiles companies in EGP 2.6 bn plan: Orascom Construction (OC) was tapped to build seven new factories for state-owned Misr For Spinning and Weaving and Damietta Spinning and Weaving at a cost of EPG 2.6 bn under a contract signed with the Public Enterprises Ministry’s Cotton and Textile Industries Holding Company, the ministry said in a statement today. The new facilities come as part of the government’s bid to streamline state-owned spinning and weaving companies by merging companies, selling assets, and purchasing new machinery and equipment. The EGP 21 bn plan could see the yearly output of state ginning factories more than doubled to 4 mn qintars and spinning mills and textile plants more than quadrupled to 188k and 199k cubic meters.