Egypt expects Misr Insurance IPO before year-end: minister

Egyptian state-owned Misr Insurance Holding is expected to hold before the end of this year an initial public offering (IPO) for its unit Misr Insurance, minister for public enterprise Khaled Badawi said on Monday.

Listing Misr Insurance comes as part of the government programme to IPO list of state enterprises in coming years to boost public finances and draw more investors to the Cairo stock exchange. The list includes some companies already traded on the exchange and others that will hold an initial public offering.

Misr Insurance Holding’s general assembly voted late May to list its life and non-life insurance units Misr Insurance Company and Misr Life Insurance Company on Cairo stock exchange.

The last time state-owned companies were listed on the exchange was in 2005 when shares of Telecom Egypt, the state’s landline monopoly, and oil companies Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals and AMOC were floated.