IPO WATCH- Three investment banks are reportedly pitching to advise Eastern Tobacco on its sale of an additional 4% stake on the EGX, sources tell Al Mal. Among the three, sources named our friends at Pharos Holding and AAIB’s Arab African Investment Holding. The rival firms have reportedly met with Eastern Company’s parent corporation, the state-owned Chemical Industries Holding Company (CIHC). Public Enterprises Minister Khaled Badawy had told us earlier this week that the CIHC was seeking advisers on the sale, which would take place later this month, after the Eid El Fitr break, making it the first state company to sell shares as part of the state privatization program.

House told hold hearing on privatization program? Meanwhile, the House of Representatives’ Economy Committee is planning to invite members of the Council of Ministers to hearings on the privatization program, parliamentary sources said. Parliament appears to be urging that the program get underway, having insisted in a report on the FY2018-19 budget that the program get started as soon as possible.