By Mahmoud Salah El-Din
Cairo – Mubasher: Chemical Industries Holding Company (CIHC) is waiting for the right time to adjust the conditions of National Cement to EGX regulations for a possible IPO soon, said CIHC board member, Azza Abu Al-Farag.
On the margin of shareholders’ meeting of a subsidiary, the Eastern Company, she told Mubasher that “the IPO timing and other details are not determined yet.”
For a valid listing on EGX, a minimum free float should be 15%, out of which share capital and free float must be represented at least by 10% and 5% respectively.
Yet at the present time, National Cement’s free float amounts to 4.980 million shares, which stand for 4.8% of capital.
The Holding Company owns a stake of 95.02% in the cement producer, or 98 million shares according to the latest updated company's profile.
National Cement targets a net profit of EGP150 million in the fiscal year 2016/17. It also turned into profits in the nine-month period ended in 31 March 2016 after registering a net profit of EGP2.6 million against a net loss of EGP275 million for the year-ago period.
Earlier, Egypt's prime minister assured that the government has no intention to sell public-sector companies, but it plans to reform and effectively run them for bringing revenues through floating some of them.
In response, the board member said CIHC has not either mulled the process or determined the possibly to-be-listed companies in Cairo bourse yet, adding that Ministry of Public Sector has requested a list of companies that can see capital top-up through EGX channel.
Translated by Ahmed El-Sayed Ali
