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Tuesday, 25 October 2022

Day 2 of the economic conference + Wataniya / Safi to do stake sales (not IPOs) by year’s end

The economic conference took over the talk shows for the second night running. Day two of the conference was all about the state ownership policy and bringing the private sector into the fold. We have the full rundown in today’s Economy section, above.

A clarification on the Wataniya / Safi timeline: Military-owned filling station Wataniya and bottled water company Safi won’t make their EGX debuts this year but will see a private stake sale before year end, Sovereign Fund of Egypt CEO Ayman Soliman told Kelma Akhira (watch, runtime: 9:25). The market is motivated and awaiting the IPOs, but after such a long wait people have high expectations, he added.

“We are working to push the private sector into investing,” Soliman said. “We are an emerging market, we don't have an abundance of capital, and the private sector has many success stories and a lot of capability,” he added.

Economic reforms are all-inclusive: “One of the biggest components to any economic reform program locally or internationally is to have all market players involved in the reform process,” FRA chief Mohamed Farid told Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 11:00).

More coverage: The state ownership policy will set out a clear vision for developing the private sector, Vice Minister of Finance Ahmed Kouchouk told Masaa DMC (watch, runtime: 13:13). Ala Mas’ouleety briefed us on Sunday’s session by CBE officials promising a new currency index comparing the EGP to a basket of currencies (watch, runtime: 21:39). Meanwhile, CIB head Sherif Samy joined Hadret Al Mowaten to weigh in on the privatization policy (watch, runtime: 18:26).

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