Egypt is expecting the initial public offering (IPO) of the Engineering for the Petroleum and Process Industries (Enppi) to take place during the first half of 2018, Stock Exchange Chairman, Mohamed Farid, stated at a conference on January 9^th, according to Amwal Al Ghad.

The North African country is seeking to sell shares in Enppi in 12 years in order to raise up to $150 million from the state-owned company’s listing in the first of a series of public offerings.

The move is part of a government plan to offer state-owned companies for public offering as a way of raising funds. Egypt expects to raise total of $276 million to $387 million out of IPOs of state-owned firms in fiscal year (FY) 2017/2018, Deputy Finance Minister, Ahmed Kouchouk, previously told Reuters.

In January, Former Minister of Investments, Dalia Khorshed, had announced the commencement of Enppi’s IPO, among other state-owned companies, marking the first phase of privatizing public firms in the EGX.