Clean-Energy IPOs: Egypt’s Next Economic Shift
Updated 11/30/2025 9:00:00 AM
Egypt’s 2025 Initial Public Offering (IPO) program represents a pivotal moment in the country’s economic reform agenda. Driven by the government’s broader push for privatization, the program targets strategic sectors including petroleum, food industries, pharmaceuticals, plastics, banking, and—most notably—renewable energy.
Closely tied to Egypt’s commitments under International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreements, this initiative aims to reduce the state’s footprint in the economy, enhance private sector participation, and secure much-needed funding for fiscal stability.
By aligning IPO targets with IMF requirements, Egypt seeks to unlock foreign investments and reinforce its credibility in global markets.
Clean Energy as a Part of Egypt’s Privatization Drive
In 2025, the government committed to privatizing 10 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) across strategic sectors. Ahmed Fawzy Hussein, a PhD holder and an assistant professor of economics, tells Arab finance: “In a world of higher interest rates and tighter external financing, IPOs are a strategic way for Egypt to shift part of the financing burden from sovereign and bank debt towards long-term equity capital. This is especially important in renewables, where investment needs are huge.”
Under the IMF’s $3 billion loan program, launched in 2022, Egypt pledged to curb the state’s dominance in the economy and expand private sector involvement. However, the IMF’s fourth review in July 2025 flagged concerns about the military’s expanding role in commercial activities and excessive state-backed lending. The fund urged Egypt to accelerate privatization and correct structural imbalances.
Wafaa Ali, a PhD holder and an economic and energy expert, explains, “The Egyptian state has placed itself in a pivotal test with the evolving economic landscape and the implementation of predictable, fundamental reforms. This has prompted policymakers to swiftly shift economic focus towards empowering the private sector, with renewable energy at the forefront.”
IPOs are therefore a critical mechanism for meeting these commitments, ensuring compliance with IMF benchmarks, and unlocking further funding. “The government's IPO program, tailored to Egyptian contexts, has deconstructed the existing framework, re-evaluated thinking, and adjusted the relative weights between the flexibility of the private sector and its role a key driver of stimulus and liquidity within the Egyptian Exchange (EGX), utilizing governance-driven offering mechanisms,” Ali points out.
Egypt’s privatization push began in earnest in March 2023, when the government listed 40 companies across 18 sectors for potential public offerings. Since then, the program has evolved into a phased rollout, with the 2025 offerings representing a more targeted approach focused on high-value assets.
Egypt’s renewable energy IPOs, led by the planned listing of the Gabal El Zeit wind farm, highlight the government’s intention to combine privatization with sustainability and attract global investors into its clean energy transition.
Hussein says, “Egypt’s renewable-energy IPOs are a natural extension of the broader privatization and reform agenda launched under the State Ownership Policy Document in 2022, which explicitly aims to ‘crowd in’ the private sector and gradually reduce the state’s direct footprint in competitive activities.”
When it comes to energy-sector offerings, Hussein explains: “The government has already raised about $5 billion from selling stakes in 13 companies between March 2022 and July 2023, and it plans at least 10 additional offerings in 2025 across sectors including renewable energy. In power and renewables specifically, listings such as TAQA Arabia on the EGX in 2023—Egypt’s first new listing that year and an integrated energy and renewables platform—signal a shift from state-financed infrastructure towards market-based ownership and governance.”
Renewable IPOs Diversifying Egypt’s Funding Sources
Egypt’s IPO program is not only about privatization—it is a strategic lever to deepen capital markets and attract sustainable investment flows. The inclusion of renewable energy assets, such as the planned flotation of the Gabal El Zeit wind farm, provides a new class of securities that appeal directly to international investors focused on climate matters and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) mandates.
“The state has established a comprehensive economic framework with a new lexicon for addressing the issue of economic neutrality, appropriate to the scale of economic and investment activity,” according to Ali.
“This framework carefully considers the role of the private sector in maintaining financial stability and assessing the local economic situation, especially given the global competition for investments and the private sector's ability to adopt fiscal discipline, move towards sustainable paths, expand fiscal space, and increase its capacity for investment and innovation,” Ali adds.
Egypt’s renewable energy sector is expanding, with the rate of renewable-generated electricity reaching 13% of the country’s energy mix in 2024, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) September 2025 report. Under the Integrated Sustainable Energy Strategy (ISES 2035), Egypt targets boosting the renewables share in the energy mix to 42% by 2035.
This growth trajectory underscores the scale of opportunity for investors entering through IPOs. By listing renewable projects on the EGX, the government is creating liquid, tradable instruments that connect domestic capital markets with global sustainability trends.
Hussein notes, “Recent deals – from the 650-megawatt Red Sea Wind Energy project led by Engie, to Scatec’s 1-gigawatt solar plant and 900-megawatt wind project, together worth around $1.6 billion – show the scale of capital flowing into Egyptian renewables even before large-scale IPOs of specific wind and solar assets such as Gabal El-Zeit.”
“Listing these platforms on the EGX gives international climate and ESG investors a liquid entry point into Egypt’s green transition, denominated partly in local currency, which reduces pressure on foreign-currency borrowing and on the sovereign balance sheet,” he adds.
“Thus, renewable-energy IPOs diversify Egypt’s funding mix away from short-term, FX-denominated debt and towards patient, risk-sharing equity from global and regional investors, including development finance institutions and Gulf sovereign funds,” as per Hussein.
Yet, for renewables IPOs to ensure inclusivity and transparency, Hussein points out, "Governance and disclosure must match international best practice. That means IFRS-based financial reporting, clear separation between ownership and regulation, strong independent boards, and forward-looking disclosure on climate and transition risks in line with emerging sustainability-reporting standards."
Moreover, IPOs should include a significant free float of around 20–25% or more, with transparent book-building and pricing that offers growth potential for long-term investors. Prioritizing domestic institutions in allocations, along with simplified minimum lot sizes and digital trading access for retail investors, can increase inclusivity.
Egypt’s renewable energy goals, targeting at least 10 gigawatt of new capacity and over 42% clean energy by 2030, provide the scale and certainty that attract institutional investors.
Maintaining macroeconomic stability through credible monetary policy and consistent tax and tariff frameworks reduces investment risks. Combined with a steady stream of asset-backed IPOs, such as wind projects like Gabal El-Zeit, Egypt can position itself as a leading renewable energy equity market in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean, according to Hussein.
Egypt’s 2025 IPO program stands at the intersection of fiscal necessity, structural reform, and long?term strategic vision. The government’s decision to prioritize high?value assets, particularly in clean energy, reflects a recognition that sustainable growth requires both financial innovation and institutional modernization.
Renewable?energy IPOs, led by the anticipated listing of the Gabal El-Zeit wind farm, illustrate how privatization can serve multiple objectives at once: attracting global ESG?aligned capital, diversifying funding sources away from short?term foreign?currency debt, and embedding market?based governance into strategic sectors.
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