Egypt’s New Capital Plans to Sell 10% of its Shares

The Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD) is listing 10 percent of its shares on the Egyptian Exchange in the first half of 2024, said ACUD chairman Khaled Abbas on Monday, 18 September.

The sale of ACUD shares is in line with the Egyptian government’s plans to sell interests in 35 state-owned businesses to strategic investors until the beginning of 2024. These businesses include the water provider Safy and gas station operator Wataniya, both of which are held by the military. The United Bank, The Arab African Bank, and Banque Du Caire are three more banks on the list.

The State Ownership Policy Document lays out a plan to decide how much of an economic role the state will play and how to increase private sector involvement in public investments.

“We may not be able to sell all of the shares before the year is over,” Abbas stated in an interview with Asharq News. “We are talking about five percent to 10 percent of the company. The timing of the offering, however, may be postponed until the first or second quarter of the next year, in my opinion.”

The year 2015 saw the start of construction on the 170,000 feddan New Administrative Capital, which is 35 km southeast of Cairo. When finished, the new city is designed to have 6.5 million residents. The Iconic Tower and a large portion of the city’s new central business area were built with Chinese funding and labor.

In a meeting with President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi last year on the sidelines of a China-Arab conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Chinese President Xi Jinping reaffirmed China’s commitment to the project.