Egyptalum IPO to be rescheduled

07 April 2006

The initial public offering (IPO) of shares in Aluminium Company of Egypt (Egyptalum), aborted in March due to a lack of interest by investors after a slump at the Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchanges (CASE), will be relaunched later in the year. 'The IPO didn't succeed, the market wasn't interested,' says a company source. 'We will try again later this year.'

Egyptalum had planned to offer 17 per cent of its shares in a transaction covering 21.25 million shares in two tranches. Under the deal, state-owned Holding Company for Metallurgical Industries (HCMI), which owns 92.2 per cent of Egyptalum, had planned to reduce its share to 75.2 per cent, while the remainder would have continued to be held by local shareholders.

The first tranche, comprising 8.75 million shares or 7 per cent of the company's total, had been planned to be offered at a price of £E 54 ($9.50). On completion, a second tranche would have been offered at a minimum price of £E 54 in the form of a private placement covering 12.5 million shares, or 10 per cent of Egyptalum's total capital of £E 500 million ($88 million).

However, the deal was aborted after falls in share prices in the Gulf in late February spread to Egypt. The CASE dropped by 17 per cent between early February and the beginning of April. No new date has been set for the relaunch of the IPO.

National Bank of Egypt is Egyptalum's financial adviser on the transaction; Commercial International Brokerage Company is the bookrunner.

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