Egypt-based Housing and Development Bank (HDB) intends to expand its current network of 62 branches to 100 within the upcoming three years, chairman Fathy El-Sebai said Monday. HDB is currently studying the location in which it targets to grow its network of branches, bearing in mind the launch of mini branches and agencies to make use of the Egyptian Central Bank's initiative. The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has recently set new requirements for opening new mini branches by banks operating in the Egyptian market. According to the new requirements, the banks are required to hold EGP 5 million in capital for every new mini branch opened in Cairo, EGP 2 million for the rest of governorates, except for Upper Egypt governorates which require only EGP 1 million for each mini branch. The new requirements aim to facilitate and support banks' objective to spread across all governorates, with higher reach to new customers. The chairman stated that HDB is targeting a 10% growth in its loan portfolio within 2015 through expanding into financing multiple sectors in Egypt, notably the communications and petrochemicals sectors in addition to the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). HDB is planning to register 17% profit growth rates in 2015, compared to last year's EGP 306 million. Moreover, the bank aims to increase its deposits volume by 7%, which jumped to EGP 15.145 billion in 2014 compared to EGP 8.8 billion at the end of 2013.
