The commissioners to the State Council Administrative Court have rejected a government appeal against an earlier administrative court ruling to return the Nasr Steam Boilers Company, which had been privatized in the 1990s, to the state.
The government had filed an appeal against the verdict that obliged it to renationalize the company. When it was privatized, the company was initially bought by businessmen Abdel Mohsen Sheta, who later resold it to another businessman, Nassef Sawiris.
The commissioners’ report will be submitted to the administrative court, which will make a final ruling. The report highlighted violations in the sale of the company by Sheta and the assessment of company assets. It also adds that the privatization process ignored a report by the Central Auditing Organization, which had objected to the sale.
The report states that the company was sold for nearly LE43 million, despite independent assessment which set its value at approximately LE400 million.
Since 2011, there have been seen several protests by company employees calling for Nasr Steam Boilers to be returned to the state.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
