IPO WATCH- Eastern Company won’t go ahead with its planned 4.5% stake sale until its share price reaches EGP 18.70, Public Enterprise Minister Hisham Tawfik told the local press in an interview. “There needs to be some kind of stability,” Tawfik said. Eastern Co’s shares stood at EGP 15.61 per share on Tuesday. Given heavy foreign appetite for Eastern, Tawfik says, a sale during the Christmas holidays doesn’t make much sense.

Timing of privatization program still TBD, which frankly makes sense: The sale of a 4.5% stake in already-listed Eastern was to have piloted the state’s reborn privatization program. A revised timeline for the first phase of the program has yet to be determined, Tawfik said, adding that it will depend on performance of both the EGX and of emerging markets generally in the coming period.

Eastern would be an easy sell: Eastern is presently trading at about a 25% discount to its global peers, according to a research from Shuaa out yesterday. Even at its target price, Eastern shares would go for 10% less than those of its global peers.