A public offering of shares in Egyptian dairy and juice maker Juhayna Food Industries has been fully covered, the firm's financial adviser EFG-Hermes said on Wednesday. The public subscription, which involved about 41 million shares offered at LE 4.66 ($0.84) each, was the first IPO in Egypt since 2008. The public offering was part of a plan to raise about LE 1 billion and which also included a private placement, which closed earlier and was 1.75 percent oversubscribed. "The public offering has been fully covered, 100 percent," Mina Iskander of investment bank EFG-Hermes told Reuters. He said subscriptions for the public portion exceeded the 41 million shares on offer but did not say by how much. Juhayna was offering 206 million shares, with some 165 million offered privately at LE 4.90, raising about LE 808 million, and about 41 million offered to the public, raising about LE 192 million. The total offering represents 39.6 percent of the capital of the firm, which has said it will use the extra funds to expand food output, including new investments in dairy production. The global financial crisis put a stop to IPOs in Egypt after oil services company Maridive and real estate company Palm Hills Developments sold shares in mid-2008.
