Egypt's government has sold a 9.5 percent stake in state-owned telco Telecom Egypt.

The country's finance ministry confirmed the sale in a statement this week, with the stake in the company sold for $121.6 million.

The sale follows reports earlier in the year that the government was looking to offload a 10 percent stake in the operator.

Reuters reports that CI Capital and Ahly Pharos, two local investment banks, were managing the sale, per market sources.

Details around the buyers of the shares were not disclosed, though it's thought the majority of the shares sold were to local investors.

Before the sale, Egypt's government-owned 80 percent of Telecom Egypt, with the remainder being floated on the stock market.

The further sale of a 0.5 percent stake also got underway yesterday, with these shares being offered to employees at the company until May 25.

The sale of the stake represents a change in strategy from the Egyptian government in recent times to sell state assets and open up the economy to private companies, with Reuters noting that the government wants to sell $2 billion worth of state assets by June.