Egypt has announced the signing of a number of deals to sell state assets worth $1.9bn in a bid to boost its private sector.
The contracts are seen as vital to ease pressure on the Egyptian pound, bolster hard currency reserves, and enable a number of economic reforms under a $3bn IMF loan programme.
The new contracts include the sale of stakes in the state-owned communications company Telecom Egypt; minority stakes in three oil and petrochemical sector companies to Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ for $800m; $700m for stakes in a portfolio of hotels to ICON, the hospitality arm of Egyptian real estate group Talaat Mostafa and a stake in the Ezz Dekheila steel company worth $241m.
