Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) NV is studying the possibility of having an initial public offering (IPO) – a stock market launch – during the first half of 2015 in a country located in the Middle East or North Africa, an official at OCI told the Daily News Egypt on Wednesday. The company official stated that OCI has not yet decided the exact country in which it will issue its stocks in, refusing to confirm reports that the IPO will be in Dubai. The company official added that OCI is studying its presence in the Cairo exchange market, explaining that "there are different options being studied for Egypt but we haven't decided on the method yet". Sourcestold the Daily News Egypt that EFG Hermes and CI Capital will be the investment banks handling the IPO. The OCI official refused to comment. In July, Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb met with the company's CEO Nassef Sawiris, along with the ministers of the cabinet's economic group, in order to seek a settlement of the tax dispute between Sawiris and the Egyptian Tax Authority (ETA) regarding an estimated EGP 7bn. The final tax dispute ruling is expected to take place on 28 October, OCI announced earlier this month. The company added that final documents were presented to the independent appeals committee at the ETA. "This committee was originally reviewing OCI S.A.E.'s [OCI's Egyptian subsidiary] tax returns, but the process was terminated in 2012 by the previous administration. Following a number of meetings with the Egyptian government, the tax dispute liability case was referred back to the committee, which held its first session in July 2014," the company said in its official statement.
