Egypt’s Asset-Sale Plan May Get a $2 Billion Boost as Suitors Eye Power Plant

Actis LLP and Edra Power Holdings Sdn Bhd revived their interests in buying a major Egyptian power plant, in a deal that may be worth about $2 billion and would boost the North African nation’s troubled economy.

Both companies intend to enter offers to purchase as much as full ownership and operate the facility that’s located in Beni Suef, south of Cairo, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as the deliberations are private. The firms expressed interest in 2019 for a mooted sale that didn’t materialize.

The plant is one of three co-built by Siemens AG with a total capacity of 14.4 gigawatts that were inaugurated by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi in mid-2018 as the latest in a series of ambitious megaprojects. Now it’s on the auction block, as the Middle East’s most populous nation races to shrink the state’s economic footprint and secure badly needed foreign currency.