[Intl-tobacco] Egypt Eastern Tobacco up ahead of stake sale (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

Egypt Eastern Tobacco up ahead of stake sale
Source: Reuters, Monday, 4/30/01

CAIRO, April 30 (Reuters) - Shares in Egypt's Eastern Tobacco Company
jumped on Monday on hopes for further privatisation of the firm, traders
said.

The stock was up 2.31 pounds, or 4.9 percent, at 49.38 pounds by 1125 GMT.
``It's a reaction to the mention of the government stake sale on a
television programme last night,'' one analyst at a Cairo-based brokerage
firm said.

Egypt wants to sell a tranche of up to 15 percent in tobacco group Eastern
this year but has received no offers from potential buyers so far, Public
Enterprise Minister Mokhtar Khattab told Reuters on Saturday.

He said that an independent study had valued Eastern at about 115-140
pounds ($30-36) per share, but said the price would depend on the size of
the stake, issues such as management rights and the market situation.

An official close to the privatisation process said in December that
tobacco giants Philip Morris (NYSE:MO - news) and British American Tobacco
(quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BATS.L) had voiced interest in becoming
strategic investors at Eastern, but had not made a formal bid.

($1 equals 3.88 Egyptian pounds)