Ahli United Bank pumps EGP 350 million (US$45.8 million) in a loan arranged for one of Egyptian Steel Group's companies, a banking source near from the talks told Amwal Al Ghad on Monday. The loan is being arranged in favour of the Egyptian Steel's National Port Said Steel (NPSS). Owned by steel tycoon Ahmed Abou Hashima, the Egyptian Steel Group has three well-established companies, Industrial Investment Company (IIC) for Steel Plants Management, National Port Said Steel (NPSS) and Egyptian Steel for Building Materials Trading. NPSS's EGP 1.7 billion loan is designed to fund part of the investment cost to establish the company's new steel plant in Ain Al Sokhna, with investments exceeding EGP 1.2 billion. A consortium of 5 banks encompassing Commercial International Bank (CIB), AlexBank, Bank Audi-Egypt, Emirates NBD, and Ahli United signed a preliminary agreement on the terms and conditions of the NPSS' loan. Meanwhile, a senior source from the Egyptian Gulf Bank (EGB) told Amwal Al Ghad that his bank would contribute EGP 120 million to the NPSS' loan and would send its final approval to CIB. The loan has a term of 8 years, including a package of working capital facilities worth more than EGP 400 million. NPSS has also been granted the license to build its second plant in Ain Al Sokhna Plant. At a total surface area of 300.000 m2, the plant uses the top-notch Italian Danieli technology by rolling the billets to rebars through endless rolling. This technology is distinguished for saving time and energy in reheating billets, making it among the first plants in the world to apply this technology. The plant is set to create direct labour of 700 engineers, technicians, workers, and employees. It will be with production capacity of 500.000 tonnes annually (250.000 tonnes/yr steel rebars and 250.000 tonnes/yr steel billets).
