State-owned Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) has completed a $900 million syndicated loan, banking sources close to the matter said. The debt facility, guaranteed by the Ministry of Finance, was coordinated by Credit Suisse and HSBC. It was marketed to other banks at around $700 million but given banks' oversubscription the size has been raised to $900 million, bankers said. EEHC, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has offered lenders a margin interest and bank fees of more than 500 basis points over the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), the bankers said. The debt facility, signed on Tuesday, is one of a few debt transactions currently in the market, demonstrating banks' increased interest in Egypt, where business conditions are slowly improving under a three-year IMF loan programme tied to fiscal and economic reforms. Other deals include a $600 million loan for National Bank of Egypt (NBE), arranged by a group of lenders comprising NBE, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Citi, Emirates NBD, Bank ABC, Rakbank and Commercial Bank of Qatar. The loan is now being syndicated to a larger group of banks. Banque Misr, the country's second largest bank, will follow with a $500 million loan coordinated by Citigroup, sources told Reuters. EEHC is not new to the international loan market. In 2015 it raised a $521 million loan provided by a group of Egyptian banks and National Bank of Abu Dhabi – now First Abu Dhabi Bank. The following year, the utility borrowed 3.5 billion euros through a debt facility backed by export credit agencies for the construction of three gas-fired power plants. For those projects, worth 6 billion euros, it also raised a $1.2 billion loan with local banks.
