Egypt will step up efforts to cut red tape to spur on local businesses and it expects to list as many as four state-owned firms on the stock exchange over the next 12 months, its Investment and Foreign Trade Minister Mohamed Farid Saleh told Reuters.

The Arab world's most populous nation is making a cautious economic comeback after a recent currency crunch. It has been supported by an $8-billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme tied to reforms including exchange-rate liberalisation, fiscal tightening and a push to curb the state’s role in the economy.

Planned reforms aim to streamline company formation but also ease capital raising and make M&A processes easier, especially for non-listed firms, Saleh said.

"Within the coming 12 months, the priority would be in the area of the ease of doing business for already existing companies to facilitate their life... This is quite a hefty job," Saleh told Reuters on the sidelines of a visit to London.

He also predicted more than half a dozen companies would be floated on the country's stock exchange over the next 12 months, including a number of state-run ones.

State-owned enterprises still play an outsized role across Egypt's economy, with the IMF saying progress in reducing their footprint has been slower than expected.

Saleh said the government had got the ball rolling, having announced in March plans to sell up to a 20% share of Misr Life Insurance - something it has promised to do for more than 15 years - and could raise roughly 14-billion Egyptian pounds ($270-million).

"We're expecting three to four IPOs from our side, from the government side, and around four to five from the private sector," he said.

He declined to name other state-owned companies that could be sold or how much such transactions could raise.

The minister said he expected flows of foreign direct investment in the fiscal year to end-June to rise 10% to 15% from $12.2-billion in fiscal 2024/2025.

POUND UNDER PRESSURE

Saleh said the government would not veer from its commitment to a floating exchange rate.

Egypt's pound has been one of the world's hardest-hit currencies by the Iran war, falling nearly 8% since the conflict began. That has driven up inflation and threatened to reignite worries about the overall trajectory for the pound.

"Investors can deal with volatility, they don't deal with uncertainty," he said. "We were very clear and adamant about our policy direction... We are solely targeting inflation."

He also said the government would maintain fiscal discipline, regardless of the situation in the region.

Asked about the seventh review of the country's IMF programme, which is expected to be finalised in the coming weeks, Saleh said the government had achieved or even surpassed targets set on metrics such as its fiscal deficit and primary surplus.

A follow-on programme with the Fund once the current one expires by year-end was currently not on the cards, he said.

"When you go and enter into a programme, it is because of financial needs and because of other aspects. Those things are not present as we speak."