Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt’s sovereign wealth fund (Tharaa) is looking to acquire some of the government’s “cherry-picked” assets in power and real estate sectors based on investor appetite, Ayman Soliman, CEO of the sovereign fund, told Reuters.

“We will be a catalyst to try to do things differently, unshackled from all those bureaucracies, and improve the way of doing business itself and work with the checks and balances within the government management that investors cannot navigate,” Soliman remarked.

The fund aims to unlock value and create wealth, he said, noting that “Snowballing that can cater to a 6 or 7 percent yield.”

It will start by the sale of a 70% stake in a 25-year concession to operate three power plants co-established by Siemens, Orascom Construction, and Elsewedy Electric under a EUR 6 billion ($6.6 billion) agreement signed in 2015.

The fund, which has a paid-in capital of EGP 1 billion ($62 million), will retain the remaining 30% stake for itself.

“We’ve received six or seven expressions of interest now,” Soliman noted.

As for the real estate sector, the fund will acquire government-owned premises after the government moves to the New Administrative Capital, 50 kilometres east of Cairo.  

The fund might also take over buildings in downtown owned by state insurance company, which owns around 75 historic buildings, and other state-run bodies to be leased to the private sector.  

Other sectors that attract the fund include petrochemicals, especially the industrial zones along the Suez Canal, wind and solar energy, mining and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

“Our three-to-four year plan is to create multiple asset classes that are offloaded to the market. We will enrich the (stock) exchange. We can tag along with a stake but we will have to list those entities,” Soliman said.