Cairo - Mubasher: The initial public offering (IPO) of Egypt’s Engineering for the Petroleum and Process Industries Company (Enppi) is expected to be carried out during the first quarter of 2018, according to the Egyptian investment minister.

The minister of investment, Sahar Nasr told Reuters on Monday that the IPO will probably be in Q1-18, which is later than initially anticipated.

The minority share offering in oil company ENPPI will be the first in an Egyptian state-owned company in about 12 years, Reuters noted.

Last month, it was revealed that Nasr agreed with the new board of the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) on establishing new programmes to innovate new mechanisms for the bourse to speed up the implementation process of the governmental IPOs.

Vice chairman of the EGX Mohsen Adel expected seeing between three and five medium-sized and large initial public offerings (IPOs) before the end of the year.

The targeted IPOs of public sector firms includes Alexandria Mineral Oils Co (AMOC) and Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals.

Egypt targets investments of EGP 10 billion in the next three years as part of the governmental IPOs programme.