NI Capital looking for bankers to lead ACCH stake sale: State-owned investment bank NI Capital issued a tender yesterday that will see it hire a manager for the sale of additional stake from the Alexandria Containers & Cargo Handling (ACCH) on the EGX this year, the bank’s CEO Ashraf Ghazaly said, Youm7 reports. He did not reveal the names of the banks who were invited to join the tender. The government had hired HSBC to manage the sale of shares from the Alexandria Mineral Oils Company (AMOC) and EFG Hermes to take on the Eastern Company transaction.

On a related note, Eastern Company announced yesterday that it will be executing a 5:1 stock split on 27 September, bringing its par value down to EGP 1 from EGP 5, according to an EGX filing (pdf). Eastern’s issued capital will remain the same at EGP 2.25 bn. The EGX’s board of directors had approved a decision in July that allows listed companies to split their stocks as many times a year as they want, as opposed to once previously. The decision — which means to facilitate the restructuring of government companies ahead of the start of the state’s privatization program — also exempts those with a lower turnover rate than the market average from seeking regulatory approval ahead of a share split transaction.

So, what’s the schedule for fall stake sales by state-owned companies? As it looks now:

• October: Eastern and AMOC
• November: ACCH
• December: Heliopolis Housing and Abu Qir

A second wave of companies is due to market in 2019.