Egyptian snack maker Edita plans $200 mln stock market listing

Wednesday 26-11-2014 04:11 PM
Egyptian snack maker Edita plans $200 mln stock market listing
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CAIRO, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Egyptian cake and biscuit maker Edita Food Industries plans to list its shares on the Egyptian stock exchange early next year, tapping into a revival of investor interest in the Cairo bourse.

The initial public offering (IPO) could value the food company at around 1.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($209.79 million), industry sources said. The IPO is planned for the first quarter of 2015.

Edita Chief Executive Hani Birzi would not say how much he expected the company to be worth or give any further details of the IPO, which has already received the go-ahead from the regulator.

The Edita IPO is part of a flurry of mergers and rights issues that has boosted activity on the Cairo exchange, which had struggled to revive investor confidence during more than three years of political and economic turmoil since the Arab Spring uprisings.

Egypt's government this year launched a raft of long-delayed reforms aimed at luring back foreign investors and shoring up growth while cutting a ballooning deficit.

"Edita is the tenth company to be listed since the beginning of the year, as promised. I would expect a number of other listings before the end of the year," said the head of Egypt's bourse, Mohamed Omran.

Edita is being advised by Goldman Sachs and EFG Hermes, the sources said.

($1 = 7.1500 Egyptian pounds) (Reporting By Ehab Farouk; Writing By Shadi Bushra, Editing by Lin Noueihed)

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