CAIRO: Egypt has sold a stake in tobacco products maker Eastern Co. in its first foreign sale of a major state asset since it agreed to a privatization program with the International Monetary Fund last December. The buyer was the UAE’s Global Investment Holding Co., Eastern CEO Hani Aman confirmed to Reuters on Thursday. Global Investment bought 30 percent of Eastern, or 669 million shares, for 16.40 billion Egyptian pounds ($531.60 million), or 24.51 pounds per share. The stock was trading at about 27.60 pounds on Thursday. The cabinet announced in early September that Global Investment had agreed to buy the stake for $625 million from state-owned Holding Co. for Chemical Industries, which held 50.95 percent of Eastern’s shares. The sale reduces the government’s stake to 20.95 percent and gives impetus to Egypt’s floundering privatization program. The cabinet said in September that as part of the agreement Global Investment would provide $150 million to buy the tobacco necessary for production. Egypt promised the IMF in December that it would roll back the state’s involvement in the economy and allow private companies a much greater role as part of a $3 billion, 46-month financial support package. Since then, the IMF’s first and second reviews of the Extended Fund Facility, initially scheduled for around March and September, have yet to take place, partly as a result of Egypt’s slow progress in asset sales. A number of sales to foreign investors have been announced in principle, but until now none had been completed.