Lazard to promote Tahrir Petrochemicals $3bn project offer

The promotion will be in the first quarter of 2016, parallel to contacting foreign export financing agencies, says Karim Helal

French asset management firm Lazard, which was assigned as the financial adviser for the Tahrir Petrochemicals project, will start promoting the $3bn project in overseas markets in the first quarter of 2016, financial adviser to Carbon Holding Karim Helal told Daily News Egypt.
He explained that the Arabian Gulf region and East Asia are the most prominent markets that will witness the promotion operations, as its investors have financial surpluses and can enter into mega-projects.
Helal had revealed two months ago that Carbon Holding contracted with Lazard as a financial adviser to attract capital contribution to the project, as there were discussions with Lazard about the restructuring of the targeted capital investment.
Helal emphasised that communication with US, Italian, and Korean export banks will be completed in the first quarter, to sign contracts for the provision of $4bn to finance the purchase of project equipment.
He explained that his comes after the US Congress approved extending the work of US imports and exports agencies.
Helal added that the initial public offering (IPO) of the company in the stock market requires time after completing private placement, saying there is an initial view that the IPO would be dually placed between the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) and a foreign stock market.
Chairman of Carbon Holding, Basil El-Baz, previously announced that 35% of the company is intended for offering in the stock market.
The Tahrir Petrochemicals project is one of the largest petrochemicals projects in Egypt, where it will include a group of factories to use the major product, Naphtha, in producing about 14 intermediate raw materials, each one of them feeding a group of industries.
These industries are like the Propylene used in producing Polypropylene, which is the main raw material in manufacturing carpets, in addition to other material used in the tyres industry.
On the other hand, Karim Helal, who is also a financial consultant for the Egyptian Tourism Federation, said the government paid EGP 50m as seed money to the Tourism Fund. Consequently, the alliance that won the management of the fund, Cairo Financial Holding with Al Ahly for Development and Investment, would proceed in the procedures of establishment at the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA).
The alliance decided to contribute to the fund with an equal value, and to work on promoting the first segment of the fund with $205m among investors in the Gulf markets.
The fund targets achieving internal return on investment by 20%, and using the money in increasing the capitals of the tourism facilities and hotels with accumulated debts, or those that suspended their construction operations due to the negative circumstances in the tourism sector.