9 companies ready to be privatized in Egypt

Preparations are underway to privatize 9 public-sector companies during the first half of the current year. The shares of another 15 companies will be up for sale out of 40 companies that will be privatized during the current year.

The Egyptian privatization plan through the past two years has included privatizing 76 companies, 32 of which were fully privatized. The government channeled $617 million of the privatization proceeds into the payment of the optional early retirement plan, from which 22,000 workers in 40 companies benefited.

Some of the proceeds from privatization were allocated to pay those companies' debts to the banks.