Trading in Sidi Krier Petrochemicals Company (Sidpec)shares began on the Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchanges (CASE) in the third week of June after the successful completion of the secondary offering of a 20 per cent government holding in the company. Lead managers EFG-Hermesand National Bank of Egypt (NBE)closed the share sale early, with the 20 million shares on offer oversubscribed 3.5 times. The sale was split into two tranches. The first, a public offering of 12 million shares priced at £E 70 ($12.10) each, was 2.5 times oversubscribed. The second, which involved the auctioning of the remaining 40 per cent of the shares on offer, was 8.4 times oversubscribed. Offers ranged from £E 86.25 ($14.87) a share to £E 90.75 ($15.65) a share. A maximum allocation of 500,000 shares was allowed under the placement with a minimum allocation of 100,000 (MEED 10.6.05).