State-owned maritime transport company to list on the EGX on Wednesday: The EGX’s listing committee has signed off on the temporary listing of the state-owned Port Said Container & Cargo Handling Company (PSCCHC) ahead of a planned IPO, the bourse said in a statement (pdf). This gives the company six months to meet listing requirements including minimum quotas for the number of listed shares and shareholders, and obtain regulatory approvals, under recent changes to listing procedures.

The details: The Holding Company for Maritime Transport subsidiary will list over 32.8 mn shares on the bourse, the statement said, without disclosing the exact stake size it plans to offer on the exchange. Local media has reported that the company is looking to sell a 25% stake in 1Q 2023. Trading on its shares will eventually take place under the ticker POCO.CA.

Will Damietta Container & Cargo Handling Company (DCHC) be next? The EGX approval comes the day after reports that the ordinary general assemblies of PSCCHC and sister company DCHC both approved IPO plans. Both subsidiaries of the Holding Company for Maritime Transport are eyeing 25% stake sales, according to the domestic press. The Madbouly government is reportedly planning to IPO the two companies in 1Q 2023, along with a Nilex listing for the Egyptian Company For Maritime Transport (Martrans) and General Egyptian Warehouse Company.

The EGX is gearing up for at least five listings “in the coming period,” Al Mal quotes EGX boss Ramy El Dokany as saying at a conference yesterday. Finance Minister Mohamed Maait also said earlier this week that the government could sell stakes in companies in the banking and oil sectors before March 2023.

In the pipeline: Banque du Caire (BdC) was planning to make its debut this year but decided in July to postpone the sale until market conditions improve; It now has until 31 March 2023 to finish the IPO procedures. The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) had also been planning to IPO the Canal Mooring & Lights Company on the EGX at the end of the year.

Market conditions have staged a recovery from an intense sell-off on the back of the crisis in Ukraine, helped by last month’s currency float and the announcement of a USD 3 bn IMF bailout package. The sell-offs had led to the postponement of at least two IPOs and forced the government to rethink its privatization plans, which at the beginning of the year envisaged as many as 10 state-owned companies selling shares on the bourse.

The bourse is currently in talks with Arab investors to help attract large firms to the EGX, El Dokany is quoted as saying at yesterday’s conference. The EGX recently kickstarted a series of roadshows across the GCC that has taken it to Oman and the UAE to help drum up investments in our bourse.