Ethiopia’s Privatization and Public Enterprises Supervising Agency (PPESA – www.ppesa.gov.et) has privatised 287 enterprises since 1995, according to a news report in the local Fortune newspaper. The agency plans to sell 18 companies in direct sales and 5 companies in joint ventures, estimating to collect Birr 1bn ($59 million) during the fiscal year to 7 July 2012.
During the 2009/10 fiscal year, PPESA sold 18 enterprises, an improvement of nearly 50% on the previous year.
Companies to be auctioned in the current year include Agriculture Mechanisation Service Enterprise, Coffee Technology Development & Engineering Enterprise, Kality Metal Products Factory, Bole Printing Enterprise and Coffee Processing & Warehouse Enterprise and it will offer joint ventures on Caustic Soda SC, Ghion Hotel in Addis Abeba, Ethiopian Mineral Development SC, Adola Gold Development, and Limu Coffee Plantation .
The privatization programme is likely to increase in the year to July 2013 and then tail off, according to the report.
The agency is also stepping up its own activities, according to its plan for the 2011/12 fiscal year. It will launch new projects for rubber trees, a coal-phosphate fertiliser complex, hydrogen peroxide and cement. It is communicating with 6 consultants tendering to supply 10,000 tonnes of clinker. The new plans are planned eventually to produce 5,000tn of hydrogen peroxide, 12tn of acrylic, 4,500tn of polyester, 300,000tn of urea fertiliser and 20,000tn of methanol. The rubber tyre plant could process up to 6,000tn of tyre sheets annually.
Last year it made Birr 3.9 bn ($229.5 m) from selling 24 companies (it received Birr 1.4 bn from down-payments and delayed payments) including: Adama Ras Hotel, Harar Ras Hotel, Errer Gota Farm, Ethiopian Hard and Soft Board Factory, Ethiopian Iron and Steel Factory, Bricks Products Processing SC, Abebo Agriculture Development Co, Anbessa Shoe Factory, Tabor Ceramic Production Services, Residential Houses Construction Co, and a number of textile factories.
The agency aims to support Government’s plan to boost industry’s contribution to GDP from the current 13% to 20% and plans to boost its own pretax profits from Birr 2 bn to Birr 5.2 bn in 2015, and increasing export earnings from its companies from Birr 645 million to Birr 1.8 bn (it made Birr 72 m in the fiscal year to July 2011).