Five investment banks are preparing their bids to manage the IPO of Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals (Sidpec), including EFG Hermes, CI Capital, Beltone Financial, HC Securities & Investment, and Pharos Holding, an official source told Daily News Egypt. NI Capital, the financial adviser responsible for choosing the IPO manager, set a deadline for receiving the bids at 5 August, so as to evaluate them and select the winning company before the end of August. Sidpec said in a statement to the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) on Monday that its board of directors has agreed with the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) to act as the financial adviser of its loan funding for the propylene and polypropylene project. The company said it has received the technical offers for implementing the propylene project under turnkey contract. The project's planned capacity is 500,000 tonnes per year. Sidpec launched capital raise to finance the shareholders' equity in the propylene and polypropylene project by 30% of its investment cost, according to a filing to EGX. In March, Sidpec revealed that the propylene and polypropylene project will have a 70:30 debt-to-equity ratio. The project's estimated investment cost is $1.2bn. In February, the company said that basic engineering and technical designs had been received from UOP, the license holder of the propylene plant project.
