Some MPs aren’t happy that our new public enterprises minister is holding the line on liquidating loss-making companies: A handful of leftist MPs attacked the newly-appointed Public Enterprises Minister Mahmoud Esmat after the Metallurgical Industries Holding (MIH) general assembly decided earlier this week to push ahead with the liquidation of financially moribund El Nasr Coke and Chemicals.

Leading the pack: Rep. Mostafa Bakry, naturally, who maintained in a series of tweets (here and here) that El Nasr Coke is profitable and that the reason behind its liquidation is still a mystery. El Bakry previously claimed that the company reported EGP 114 mn in net income in the past year, although MIH has said its losses in FY 2021-2022 came in at EGP 339.3 mn. El Nasr has not published its financials on its website since 2011.

Other MPs joining the chorus: People’s Republican Party member Ihab Ramzi and Egyptian Socialist Democratic Party member Ihab Mansour, both of whom echoed Bakry’s claims that El Nasr Coke was not incurring losses and therefore should not have been liquidated. Ramzi also argued that the company’s production output “is of strategic importance to national security” and could be exported to foreign markets as a source of hard currency.

Some MPs had been hoping for a change in policy as Esmat took the reins of the ministry from Hisham Tawfik, who previously came under fire for his stance on privatization and liquidation as he worked to streamline the ministry’s portfolio.