Cairo – Mubasher: Eastern Co will offer a further stake of 4.5% on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) in October, a government source said.

The initial public offering (IPO) will take place in the second half of this month, the source told Enterprise.

The emerging markets crisis will not affect the government IPOs programme as foreign investors have already shown interest in it, the sources stressed.

The leading investment bank EFG Hermes will manage Eastern Co’s offering and the IPO’s legal advisor will be appointed later through a tender conducted by the National Investment Bank’s (NIB) investment arm, NI Capital, which manages the state-run IPO programme.

The ordinary general meeting (OGM) of Eastern Co approved the financial statement for the fiscal year ended 30 June, with a net profit of EGP 4.2 billion, versus EGP 3 billion a year earlier.

On Monday, the OGM endorsed a cash dividend distribution of EGP 1 per share for fiscal year 2017/2018 in accordance with the number of shares after the stock split.

The OGM also agreed to postpone the distribution of EGP 0.40 of the dividend for three months to 2 January 2019.