** #4 EXCLUSIVE- IPO WATCH- Zulficar & Partners tapped as legal counsel on Eastern sale: Zulficar & Partners has been chosen to act as legal counsel to Eastern Company on the sale of a 4.5% stake in the state-owned tobacco maker, a source close to the transaction told Enterprise on Wednesday. The letter of engagement is signed and a kickoff meeting for the share sale took place yesterday, we’re told. ​​EFG Hermes signed on last week to quarterback the transaction, which is expected to take the form of an accelerated bookbuild. Public Enterprises Minister Hisham Tawfik had said on Monday that the stake sale is scheduled to take place sometime between 21-25 October. The win caps a good fall for our friends at Zulficar, who recently served as underwriter’s counsel on the IPO of leading private sector education player CIRA and as sell-side advisor to Suez Cement on the sale of subsidiary Helwan Cement’s white cement plant to Emaar Industries. A government source had told us last month that Matouk Bassiouny was the frontrunner to win the mandate. The source is no longer on our year-end card list.

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