Egypt’s sovereign fund Tharaa cherry-picks multi-billion-pound state-run assets: CEO

Egypt’s sovereign wealth fund, Tharaa intends to take control of some of the government’s most-promising assets worth around 80 billion Egyptian pounds ($5.1 billion), its chief executive said.

Speaking at a conference in Cairo on Sunday, Ayman Soliman said the assets cover all the economic sectors in Egypt.

The fund wants to boost an added value to the national projects and create more opportunities to deep partnerships between the public and private sectors, he added.

Tharaa is not looking to compete with the private sector on the available investment opportunities in the country, but rather play the role of a mediator and promote the opportunities available in various sectors, especially the infrastructure and food industries, Soliman said.

It hopes to attract and steer investment toward sectors that the state sees as vital to the economy, he concluded.

The fund’s capital, which President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in October could increase to as much as several trillion pounds, currently has a paid-in capital of 1 billion pounds.