Dubai: Construction firm Arabtec Holding aims to float half of its Egyptian unit on the Cairo stock exchange in 2016 or 2017 in an initial public offer that would value the unit at around $10 billion (Dh36.7 billion), the firm said on Monday.
In response to questions from Reuters, Arabtec also said it planned to invest about $60 billion in Egypt over the next three years in sectors such as real estate development, infrastructure, trains, airports, and oil and gas.
The company did not give details of its plans, which will depend heavily on factors outside its control, such as Egypt’s political and economic stability in the wake of its 2011 revolution.
Nor did it specify how it would finance such huge investments, which could strain its finances at the company’s current size. Arabtec’s revenues rose 30 per cent to Dh7.4 billion ($2 billion) last year.
But the announcement underlined how Egypt, which is trying to rebuild its economy after three years of political turmoil, can hope for substantial support from state-backed companies in the wealthy Gulf countries.
The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait applauded the ouster of Egypt’s Islamist president Mohammad Mursi last year and have given Egypt billions of dollars of aid since then to help prevent any resurgence of the Muslim Brotherhood.
