Edita Food Industries, the Egyptian snacks maker part-owned by buyout firm Actis LLP, is close to hiring Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) to help manage its initial public offering, three people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg. The company, whose products include the Twinkies cake in Egypt, may appoint a second bank to assist on the expected share sale in Cairo, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. The IPO may be valued at about $300 million, according to the people. Egyptian companies are reviving share sales as they seek to benefit from a more than 20 percent gain in Egypt's benchmark EGX 30 index this year. A $110 million IPO of Arabian Cement last month, the country's first since the 2011 uprisings, received $1.5 billion in bids from institutional and individual investors, according to EFG-Hermes Holding SAE. Edita is the largest independent snack food business in North Africa, Actis said in June 2013 when it bought a $102 million stake in the company. Representatives at London-based Actis and Goldman Sachs declined to comment. Edita officials did not immediately comment.
