The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) is planning to arrange syndicated loans totaled EGP 10 billion within the current fiscal year 2013-2014, designated for various economic sectors, notably for communications, electricity and building materials. A senior source from NBE told Amwal Al Ghad that his bank intends to inject EGP 250 million for EgyptKuwait Holding's affiliate working in field of building materials. EK Holding's affiliate had formerly obtained in 2009 a syndicated loan worth EGP 1.2 billion, dedicated for EGP 350 million plan to make its factories using the natural gas and coal instead of diesel. The source further added that NBE had signed last week a funding agreement with other 4 lenders to provide the railway equipment factory Semaf, an affiliate of Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI), a loan worth € 96 million. In addition to NBE, the 4 other contributors to Semaf's loan were Banque Misr, Commercial Internatioanl Bank – Egypt (CIB), Société Arabe Internationale de Banque (SAIB), and the Egyptian Gulf Bank (EGB). The loan was designated to purchase 212 air-conditioned railcars within the framework of the joint cooperation between Semaf and the Egyptian Railway Authority (ERA). Elsewhere, the source said the banking consortium; NBE, Banque Misr, Banque Du Caire and National Societe Generale Bank (NSGB) will be signing very soon the final agreement to provide El Nasr Company for Coke and Chemicals, a subsidiary of the Metallurgical Industries Company, a loan worth EGP 725 million. The loan will be used to finance the rebuilding of the third battery of the company to comply with the new standards as El Nasr Company for Coke has four batteries with 230 ovens which have annual production capacity of 1.6 million tonnes. Moreover, the source revealed that NBE is targeting contribution with EGP 630 million in the first public-private partnership project (PPP project) worth EGP 900 million for Semouha Hospital with the participation of the Commercial International Bank - Egypt and the Ahli United Bank (AUB).
